- Senator JD Vance said in 2016 that his wife planned to vote for Hillary instead of Trump.
The wife of Donald Trump’s running mate once planned to vote for Hillary Clinton, but now “fully supports” Sen. JD Vance, who is running as a MAGA candidate in 2024.
A longtime family friend shared with DailyMail.com how Usha Vance went from being a registered Democrat to now backing Trump and her husband’s Republican agenda.
Trump’s running mate told a friend before the 2016 election that Usha intended to vote for Clinton in her race against Trump. The Daily Beast first reported.
But just as JD’s mind changed on Trump and his politics, the MAGA agenda grew in Usha as well.
“As has been well documented, JD became a supporter of President Trump over time,” revealed Vance’s Senate campaign strategist and longtime family friend.
‘Usha has had a similar change of heart and fully supports Donald Trump and her husband and will do everything she can to ensure his victory in November.’
Usha Vance (left) has had a “shift” in her political views, from supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 to now backing the MAGA agenda of Donald Trump and her husband JD Vance (right).
The Yale-educated attorney was previously registered as a Democrat, and her parents, like most first-generation Indian-American immigrants, are still registered Democrats. according to the latest voter registration records.
But Usha also clerked for conservative Supreme Court justices appointed by Republicans Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts.
“I didn’t think it was a sign of her ideological leanings,” said a former classmate of Usha’s. “It seemed more like a sign of her ambition.”
Several of Usha’s friends say they were unaware of her political leanings because she never shared them openly, and people close to her family say the Chilukuris were never very open about politics in general.
Usha’s mother, Lakshmi Chilukuri, was one of 2,300 California teachers who signed an open letter to Trump, who was president at the time, in 2017 urging him not to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
With less than 80 days until the 2024 presidential election, the mother of three has publicly embraced the MAGA agenda.
Chabri said of the couple’s views on the former president’s agenda: “There is no clarity on that.”
Vance also had more reservations about Trump in his early years, even calling himself a “never Trumper,” but has since embraced the former president’s agenda and was selected as his running mate last month.
A person who has known the Vances for more than a decade said they consider the two to be “a joint venture.”
“I just don’t think they would do this if she didn’t agree,” they added.
The Ohio senator’s wife is the daughter of Indian immigrants. And five family friends say the Chilukuris have never spoken openly about politics.
Usha spent the first half of her years studying two separate degrees at Yale: an undergraduate degree and a law degree. She also held a fellowship at Cambridge University.
He also litigated for nearly eight years at Munger, Tolles & Olson, known for its left-leaning lawyers and progressive values.
A classmate of Usha’s at Yale Law School said: “I never thought she would be a candidate for public office. I thought she would be more of a partner in a law firm, certainly very successful and with an immense amount of power, but with more hidden power.”
“But in that sense, they are the perfect match because he always liked being the center of attention.”