Usha Vance Was Never The Same After Marrying JD

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JD Vance's meteoric rise from humble beginnings in Middletown, Ohio, and a family that emerged from the hills of Appalachia to becoming a political superstar, a bastion of modern conservatism, and the vice president of the United States under the administration of President Donald Trump — all of which occurred before he turned 41 — has been nothing short of cinema come to life. However, the former Ohio senator was hardly alone on the journey. His own merits notwithstanding, much of his success can also be traced back to his wife of more than a decade, Usha Vance (née Chilukuri), who has been his partner in all things dating back to their meeting as students at Yale Law School.

In his memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," JD Vance credited his wife for helping him navigate the elite social world of an Ivy League institution and his own anger, writing, "The sad fact is that I couldn't do it without Usha. Even at my best, I'm a delayed explosion — I can be defused, but only with skill and precision." While Usha played a key role in shaping the person that JD came to be, her 2014 marriage to the future vice president similarly shaped her own story as she transitioned from her individual pursuits as the daughter of Indian immigrants and a legal maven into the role of wife, mother, and second lady. Here are a handful of ways in which her life changed forever.

These days, there are precious few individuals who garner as much mention as Usha Vance among the Republican and MAGA base, given her intimate relationship with President Donald Trump's second in the executive branch. However, her sudden rise to prominence on the right side of the political aisle is a relatively nascent development. Pinning down her precise views prior to her entry into the public consciousness is easier said than done, though. According to Business Insider, Vance's classmates at Yale Law School didn't know much about her political ideology. That said, what we do know about her prior political activity doesn't paint her as someone you'd expect to rise up the conservative ranks.

When Yale's tabloid magazine "Rumpus" featured Vance in its "Most Beautiful People," she was described as being of the "left-ish political persuasion." Meanwhile, her former law firm, Munger, Tolles & Olson is thought to lie on the progressive end of the political spectrum. Per the New York Times, she was even registered as a Democrat up until at least 2014 (the year that she and JD Vance were wed). More recent records from 2022 have shown Usha registered as a Republican, in keeping with her husband's party affiliation. Regardless of whatever steps she has or hasn't taken on her personal political journey, Usha is keeping the truth close to her vest.

JD and Usha Vance both come from families where they grew up alongside a single sibling. JD has one older half-sister, Lindsay Ratliff, who joined him in being raised by their grandparents, affectionately dubbed "Papaw and Mamaw." As for Usha, the San Diego, California native has a younger sister named Shreya Chilukuri. While they both came from two-child households, the Vances opted for a larger family when they began having children of their own, despite the enormous pressures of their early legal and budding political careers, as well as their vastly different cultural and religious backgrounds (Usha grew up Hindu, while JD was raised a Christian).

Usha has given birth to three children; she and JD welcomed their first child, a son named Ewan, in June 2017. Three years later, in February 2020, a second son named Vivek arrived. Finally, Usha gave birth to a baby daughter, Mirabel, in December 2021. Not much is known about the Vances' young children, as the couple has strived to keep their lives as normal and private as possible. As such, sightings of the Vances' children are surprisingly rare. However, it's plain to see that their upbringing will be entirely different from that of their parents, who in recent years have become two of the most famous people in the world.

While her current position as Second Lady of the United States came by virtue of her marriage to JD Vance, Usha Vance made incredible waves in the legal profession as a result of her own hard work and individual merits. Like her husband, she graduated from Yale Law School with her Juris Doctor in 2013. From there, though, their paths diverged as Usha pursued a career in law. Usha initially served as a law clerk before becoming a civil litigator for the California-based law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, from 2015 to 2017, according to a LinkedIn page in her name. She reportedly rejoined the firm from 2019 to 2024; according to People, her bio identified the focus of her practice as "complex civil litigation and appeals in a wide variety of sectors, including higher education, local government, entertainment, and technology, including semiconductors."

She left her job, however, when JD became Donald Trump's running mate in order to "focus on caring for our family," as revealed via SFGate. "I am forever grateful for the opportunities I've had at Munger and for the excellent colleagues and friends I've worked with over the years," she added in a statement. Usha had worked in the firm's San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices.

While JD Vance went from being Ohio's junior senator to manning the second-highest office in the U.S. government's executive branch in just a few years, the vice president isn't the only member of his young family to have worked with other prominent political figures prior to his involvement with the federal government. For her part, Usha Vance worked closely with a pair of powerful conservative icons while she was still actively pursuing her legal career. In fact, Usha has ties to a pair of U.S. Supreme Court justices going back many years.

Between 2014 and 2015, Usha clerked for Brett Kavanaugh, who was serving as a U.S. Circuit Court judge at the time. Just a few years later, in 2018, Kavanaugh was nominated to the SCOTUS by President Trump, who was then in his first term in the Oval Office. Then, between 2017 and 2018, Usha took an even higher-profile position clerking for John Roberts, who has served as chief justice of the Supreme Court since 2005. Both Kavanaugh and Roberts are staunch conservatives, making them seemingly unlikely mentors for Usha, given her earlier political leanings. Nevertheless, her time with them stands out on her impressive legal résumé.

As is also the case with high-profile entertainers, athletes, and other sorts of celebrity figures, people who find themselves at the top of the political world are often judged as much for their public image — including their physical appearance and style — as they are for their deeds. So, when the man she married started to climb the political ladder, Usha Vance's own fashion wherewithal became more and more a part of the public discourse as she shared in his spotlight. As noted by the Daily Mail, she was equal to the challenge, undergoing a full-on style transformation as her public profile grew. Personal stylist and image consultant Cynthia Kennedy praised many of Usha's looks in a feature for the outlet, describing her campaign-trail outfits as "fresh and unexpected," in addition to being "playful, bold, and fashion-forward."

An Instagram account devoted to her fashion and style choices has amassed thousands of followers. Her second lady glow-up notwithstanding, Usha hasn't gone out of her way to look like the other women in the Trump universe or compromise her values. Instead, she has attempted to remain relatable to the masses, explaining to The Free Press in 2025, "[On the campaign trail], people would come up to me, because, maybe, they identified with me in certain respects — they would come and give me hugs."

Years before she and JD Vance became one of the best-known couples in politics (and the world at large), Usha Vance's public visibility already exploded on an exponential scale thanks to her association with her husband. So much so, in fact, that she found herself being portrayed on the big and small screens by a world-famous actress. In 2020, director Ron Howard brought JD's infamous memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," to life with a cinematic adaptation that starred Hollywood A-listers Glenn Close and Amy Adams as JD's grandmother and mother, respectively. Being a prominent figure in his life, Usha was a key character in the film, so Howard enlisted BAFTA-nominated actress Freida Pinto to play the future second lady in the Netflix release.

Pinto gained notoriety with her debut film performance in the 2008 drama "Slumdog Millionaire," which saw her and her costars capture a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Meanwhile, Pinto received her individual BAFTA nomination in the best supporting actress category. Despite her efforts in the Usha role and those of the other big-name actors in "Hillbilly Elegy," though, the film failed to resonate with many critics, holding just a mid-20s rating among reviewers as tracked by Rotten Tomatoes.

Life was entirely different for Usha Vance and her family before JD Vance hitched his wagon to Donald Trump and joined the push for the presidency back in 2024. Sure, JD had been a senator, and she was well known in Ohio, where they lived, and beyond, but everything was amped to the nth degree once they became key figures in the MAGA movement. What had been a relatively low-key life in the Cincinnati area gave way to increased scrutiny in both the mainstream and tabloid press, social media sleuthing, and the wild spread of rumors about her personal and family life.

When Donald Trump issued a series of immigration executive orders at the beginning of his second term in office, speculation about Usha's citizenship status abounded, with false stories claiming her citizenship would soon be revoked spreading on the web. Meanwhile, multiple rumors have suggested that her marriage to the vice president is in trouble. When Usha was spotted sans her wedding band in 2025, a spokesperson was forced to address rumblings that it meant something significant about the state of their relationship. The spokesperson told People that Usha is simply "a mother of three young children, who does a lot of dishes, gives lots of baths, and forgets her ring sometimes." That is but a fraction of the noise Usha must now contend with.

In her role as wife to the vice president of the United States, Usha Vance has been tasked with performing certain duties. Moreover, her position, unique expertise, and relationship to JD Vance — even before he became the VP — also allowed for certain opportunities to present themselves to her. Before making the full-time move from Ohio to the District of Columbia, Usha served as a trustee of the Washington National Opera. "She was a supportive board member when she was a senator's wife, and she has been a supportive board member as second lady, and we are grateful to have her patronage," WNO's artistic director, Francesca Zambello, said of her contributions via The Guardian. She had served similarly as a trustee for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the past.

More recently, she was appointed by President Donald Trump as a trustee at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts amid the administration's effort to revamp the center, which was originally designated as a living memorial to former Democratic President John F. Kennedy following his assassination. The WNO has been affiliated with the Kennedy Center since the early 2010s.

A key difference between her life as a senator's wife and her more recent post as the second lady has been the level of travel that she has taken alongside Vice President JD Vance. Since the Trump administration returned to office, the Vances have traveled the world as part of their official duties. In spring 2025, for example, the Vances traveled as a family to India, the country Usha's parents left in order to immigrate to the United States decades ago. It was the first time her children had set foot in the nation that was so foundational for their family. While there, the Vances met with longtime Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom the children reportedly felt a fondness for.

A trip to Greenland the prior month proved to be far more controversial with observers, including high-ranking residents of the autonomous island nation (which is officially part of the Kingdom of Denmark). Prior to the Vances' visit, President Donald Trump mused about taking over Greenland, citing its importance to national and international security. As a result, Greenland's prime minister condemned the visit as "highly aggressive," as noted by CNN. While the reception to her and her family's visits may vary from country to country, taking them on nonetheless is the new normal for Usha.

In addition to jetting off to locales around the globe, Usha Vance has been engaged in efforts stateside as part of her duties as second lady. In November 2025, those efforts included joining forces with First Lady Melania Trump to visit with military personnel, their families, students of varying ages, and others at a pair of military installations in North Carolina. The pair flew from Washington, D.C., to make stops at Camp Lejeune — where Usha's unfortunate wedding ring drama actually began — and Marine Corps Air Station New River.

In the wake of the experience, Usha offered a rather frank review of the first lady, telling USA Today that Melania is "very, very focused on doing things her way." However, she was mostly complimentary of the first lady, while acknowledging that they have contrasting outlooks on life. "We really get along pretty well. I've enjoyed traveling with her a little bit and talking to her about things like raising kids in this kind of crazy life, about our interests and hobbies, and that sort of thing," Usha said. "We're different people, but different people who can enjoy having conversation together. So that's been a really nice part of this experience."

As the old saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. And as she has been forced to abandon her former life in order to ride shotgun amid husband JD Vance's rocket surge to the upper crust of the worldwide political stage, Usha has made it clear that her heart pines for a return to the life she once knew. During a 2025 episode of "Citizen McCain with Meghan McCain," Usha said she viewed the journey as "a four-year period" where she has a specific set of responsibilities, after which she's got designs on returning to her Ohio life. "I'm not plotting out next steps or really trying for anything after this. In a dream world, eventually, I'll be able to live in my home and kind of continue my career and all those sorts of things," she told McCain.

More recently, she played it coy when USA Today asked her about the possibility that she could one day be first lady, replying, "I like the job that I have right now." Given everything that she already does in her role as second lady, and the further departure from normalcy an extended Washington, D.C. stay would bring, it's not difficult to see why.