Exactly two weeks before Election Day, Usha Vance just gave Americans the most personal moment of her life since her husband, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, was chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate.
And this strange idea has come to light through the books that the aspiring second lady carries with her during the election campaign.
The mother of three and a Yale Law graduate has been a regular presence on the campaign trail since Trump asked her husband, himself the best-selling author of Hillbilly Elegy, to join the roster in July..
In fact, Usha’s photos always seem to capture her walking with one or more books, whether it’s ‘North Woods’ by Daniel Mason, ‘In the Woods’ by Tana French or a copy of ‘The Iliad’.
Usha Vance was seen carrying a book while leaving ‘Trump Force 2’ with her husband JD, the Republican vice presidential candidate in July.
His copy of Homer’s Greek epic is the edition translated by Emily Wilson and published in 2023. Wilson’s translation of ‘The Odyssey’ published in 2017 also received high praise.
But Vance has been reading the book thanks to his young son Ewan.
“That’s because our son, who is now 7, decided in the spring that he was obsessed with mythology,” Vance told NBC News of the eldest of the three Vance, in a rare phone interview.
‘He picked up a children’s version of “The Odyssey” and then “The Iliad” and all this other stuff and became completely obsessed. “So to keep up with him, I decided it was time to pick up ‘The Iliad’ myself,” she said.
Wilson’s translation of ‘The Iliad’ is over eight hundred pages, but it is not the only important book on his list.
Vance with her husband at a rally in her hometown of Middletown, OH, on July 22, just after being named Donald Trump’s running mate at the Republican National Convention.
Vance walking with her husband before giving a speech at a campaign event in Byron Center, Michigan, on August 14.
Usha Vance heads to a plane in front of her husband JD on August 7, 2024
Mason’s critically acclaimed ‘North Woods’ is a 2023 novel about a house in the New England woods and those who inhabited it for more than three centuries, from the earliest colonies to the present day.
The Frenchman’s book ‘In the Woods’, published in 2007, is a mystery novel about a couple of Irish detectives investigating the murder of a 12-year-old girl.
Vance, a Yale-educated litigator who left her job at a D.C. law firm shortly after her husband was chosen as Trump’s running mate, has also been seen carrying a copy of ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land.’
The 600+ page 2021 novel is by Anthony Doerr, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author behind ‘All the Light We Cannot See.’
It tells the story of five characters over eight centuries, from a young seamstress in the 15th century to a young woman on a spaceship in the 22nd century.
His taste in literature, based on the selections he has been carrying around the country, includes a varied range of themes, genres and authors.
Usha Vance standing next to her husband JD holding money in a varsity on the campaign trail in Rome, Georgia
The Vances packing on the PDA with a kiss at a campaign rally in Rome, Georgia, on October 4.
While Usha has been seen at numerous campaign events in battleground states with her husband, Vance has not made public comments about the campaign since introducing her husband at the Republican National Convention in July.
She also hasn’t shared what kind of job she would like to do as second lady if the Trump-Vance ticket wins in November.
Instead, Vance has stood smiling at her husband’s side or been seen on the sidelines of events as he shakes hands, rallies support and visits a number of businesses throughout his travels.
‘“Obviously at the convention they asked me to introduce JD, so that was an active role,” Vance told NBC News. “But what JD asked me, and what I certainly agreed to do, is to keep him company.”
She said having her support along the way makes her husband “more excited to do it.”
Behind the scenes, he said, they discuss their perception of what an event was like or talk about things that have no relation to each other.
Vance said he shares her perspective “as his wife and best friend, unlike the perspective that other people on the plane may give.’