Usha Vance: a political spouse with a 'conspicuous resume'

A little bit of history came out of the presidential election. Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, will be the first Indian American second lady. And she'll be the first Hindu.

Vance, 38, took a "more behind-the-scenes role on the campaign trail," said ABC News. She did introduce her husband at the Republican National Convention in July, but that was the end of her public remarks in the runup to the election. "The thing that J.D. asked, and the thing that I certainly agreed to do, is to keep him company," she said to NBC News. Now the Vances and their three children will be moving to the Naval Observatory, the traditional vice presidential residence. Her intent? "Giving them a stable, normal, happy life and upbringing," she said.

Usha Vance has a "conspicuous resume" for a political spouse, said The New York Times. She was a law clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., then went to work as a litigator for a "prestigious San Francisco law firm." She is the daughter of Indian immigrants who grew up near San Diego, eventually landing at Yale Law School, where she met her husband. But her own views on today's big issues are mostly unknown. Usha Vance is "something of a political cipher," said the Times.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

A couple in 'lockstep,' moving right

Even at Yale, Usha Vance's politics were mostly a mystery, said Business Insider. "She was more tight-lipped, at least in my experience, with her political views," said Marvin Lim, a Yale Law School classmate who went into Democratic politics. Usha Vance was a registered Democrat until 2014 — and the law firm she worked for, Munger, Tolles & Olson, has been described as "woke" — but in 2021 she made a donation to conservative Arizona Republican Blake Masters. (She stepped away from the firm when her husband joined the Trump ticket.) The thread through it all? "Her devotion to her husband" since they met at Yale, said Business Insider.

J.D. Vance has "leaned heavily on his wife over the past decade-and-a-half" as he emerged into the national spotlight, said USA Today. Usha Vance's politics may make her an "enigma" in public, but friends and family of the couple say the pair have been in "lockstep" as her husband moved from the Never Trump camp to one of Donald Trump's most reliable allies in the U.S. Senate and eventually to his running mate. The Vances are "a team in every sense of the word," said Jai Chabria, a family friend.

'Some real good for the country'

Usha Vance has told interviewers that she and her husband "don't always agree politically," said Politico. But she told "Fox & Friends" that she's on board for another Trump presidency. "If I didn't feel that the ticket, the Trump-Vance ticket, was able to do some real good for the country, then I wouldn't be here supporting him and J.D. wouldn't have done this," she said. Even when the couple disagrees, she said, Usha Vance trusts her husband's intentions. "There's a nice give and take, but I think it's a pretty happy one."