Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s wife, Usha, made her primetime debut Wednesday night when she introduced her husband as Donald Trump’s running mate ahead of his speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“It’s safe to say that neither JD nor I expected to find ourselves in this position, but it’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American dream,” Vance said.
“I am grateful to all of you for the trust you have placed in him and in our family,” she added before welcoming him on stage.
The 38-year-old Ivy League-educated litigator was with the senator on the convention floor when he was officially nominated as the Republican vice presidential nominee for the 2024 ticket on Monday.
But on Wednesday night, viewers around the world watched as she gave her first public remarks at the Fiserv Forum since being announced as the former president’s pick.
Usha Vance takes the convention stage to introduce her husband JD Vance before he accepts the Republican nomination for vice president.
“When I was asked to introduce my husband JD Vance, I was speechless. What could I say that hadn’t already been said? After all, that man had already starred in a Ron Howard movie,” she joked at the start, referring to the film version of her memoirs ‘Hillbilly Elegy’.
The stunning woman was all smiles as she took to the stage in a deep blue dress.
She described Vance on Wednesday night as the most interesting person she knew, who had overcome childhood traumas and whose idea of a good time was “playing with puppies.”
She fondly recalled how Vance adapted to her vegetarian diet and learned to cook for her mother.
“Before I knew it, he had become an integral part of my family,” she recalled.
Vance became the focus of international attention this week and could end up becoming Second Lady if Republicans win the election in November.
Senator JD Vance and Usha kiss after she welcomed him on stage at the Republican convention. She said he is the same man she knew, except he had a beard.
Usha Vance takes the stage on the third day of the Republican National Convention
Usha Vance said her husband never imagined he would be in the position he is in, but called him a powerful “example of the American dream.”
Usha Vance sits next to Donald Trump after speaking at the Republican National Convention as they watch her husband JD accept the vice presidential nomination.
She hasn’t said what she would focus on if she finds herself in the role, but Vance is extremely talented in her own right.
Vance met her husband JD when they were both students at Yale Law School in 2013. They married the year after finishing law school, in 2014.
In 2017, the couple welcomed the first of their three children, Ewan Blaine. They also have a second son, Vivek, and welcomed a baby girl. Mirabel in December 2021.
Vance was recently asked if she is prepared for all eyes to be on her if her husband is chosen as Trump’s running mate.
“I don’t know if anyone is prepared for that kind of scrutiny,” Vance told Fox & Friends last month before his nomination was officially announced.
“I think the first campaign we undertook surprised us. It was very different from anything we had done before, but it was an adventure,” he said.
She told Fox at the time that she wasn’t eager to change anything in their lives, but that she truly believes in her husband and loves him, so they’ll see what happens.
Usha and JD Vance arrive on the floor for the first day of the Republican National Convention on Monday
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance kisses his wife Usha on the convention floor in Milwaukee on Monday as he is officially nominated for the Republican nomination.
Usha and JD Vance with their three children. They welcomed their first child in 2017. Their daughter Mirabel was born in December 2021.
JD and Usha Vance with two of their three sons, Ewan and Vivek
Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants and whose real name was Usha Chilukuri, grew up in the suburbs of San Diego. She has said she was raised in a religious Hindu family.
From California she moved across the country to attend college and attended Yale University where she majored in history. After that, she continued her studies at Cambridge University as a Gates Cambridge Scholar.
At Yale Law School, she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal of Law & Technology.
Until recently, Vance was an attorney at the San Francisco and Washington, D.C.-based law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, where she specialized in complex civil litigation and appeals. She left the firm after her husband was chosen as Trump’s running mate.
Usha Chilukuri Vance with her husband JD Vance arrives at his 2022 election night party after being declared the winner of the Ohio Senate race on November 8, 2022.
The couple celebrate on election night 2022 after Vance won the Senate race. She described her first campaign in Ohio as an “adventure”
When her husband joined the Ohio Senate race in 2022, Vance could be seen across the state at campaign events.
She also appeared in his early campaign ads where she talked about raising Vance and having him by her side as a husband and father to her children.
She described him as an amazing father and her best friend.
JD Vance kissed by his wife Usha on the night of the Ohio Senate primary on May 3, 2022
At Munger, Tolles & Olson, Vance’s cases focused on a wide range of topics, including higher education, local government, entertainment and technology.
Previously, she clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts. She also clerked for Judge Brett Kavanaugh when he was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, as well as for Judge Amul Thapar on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
At Yale Law School, she also participated in the Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic, the Freedom of the Press and Access to Information Clinic, and the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project.
Asked last month what issue she would focus on if she became Second Lady, Vance declined to answer.