Recently, attention has been mainly focused on President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his inauguration.
Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, January 20, surrounded by his family.
However, before Trump was inaugurated, J.D. Vance was sworn in as the country’s new vice president. His wife, Usha Chirkuri Vance, became the country’s new second lady.
Meet the woman J.D. Vance described as “excellent” and “much better than me” as a wife.
Who is JD Vance married to?
Vice President JD Vance is married to Usha Chirkuri Vance.
Who is Usha Chirkuri Vanth?
According to Reuters, Usha Chirkuri Vanth was born to Indian immigrants who immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s. She grew up in the suburbs of San Diego, California.
Her mother is a marine molecular biologist, biochemist and dean of the University of California, San Diego, according to Reuters. Her father is an engineer, Scripps News reported.
According to Reuters, her father and grandfather taught and studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, India’s premier engineering school, and her sister is a mechanical engineer for a semiconductor company in San Diego.
His great-aunt, Shanthamma Chirkuri, lives in southern India and has been hailed in local media as India’s oldest working professor, according to Reuters. Shanthamma Chirkuri travels almost 40 miles to college every weekday to teach physics.
“Most of our families are academically strong and education is our top priority,” Shanthamma Chirkuri told Reuters.
Friends from her childhood and youth described Usha Vance as a “leader” and a “bookworm.” The New York Times reported.
Usha Vance’s educational background includes degrees from Yale University and Cambridge University
Usha Vance holds a BA in history from Yale University and was a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where she earned a master’s degree in philosophy.
Usha Chirkuri and JD Vance met at Yale University. While there, they organized a discussion group on the topic of “social decline among white Americans,” according to the New York Times.
In his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance said the two met through a class assignment, where he quickly “fell intensely in love” with his writing partner.
“Usha’s presence made me feel at home in a place that always seemed a little foreign,” he wrote.
“A Testament to this Great Country”: JD and Usha Vance’s Marriage
“My background is very different from JD’s,” Usha Vance said at the Republican National Convention in July.
“I grew up in a middle-class community in San Diego with loving parents who are immigrants from India and a wonderful sister. This is proof.”
During the 2024 campaign, she defended J.D. Vance, who made derisive comments about childless women as “childless cat ladies,” and criticized other people he supports, including his anti-immigrant rhetoric and mass deportations. She stood by his side despite his controversial policies.
In a speech in July, she mentioned that J.D. Vance learned to cook Indian food for her parents.
Where did Usha Vance work?
After graduating from law school, Usha Vance clerked for Brett Kavanaugh on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals for a year. Kavanaugh is currently a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
She then clerked for an additional year under Chief Justice John Roberts.
In 2015, Usha Vance worked as an associate and then a corporate litigator at Munger, Tolles & Olson. Munger, Tolles & Olson, a law firm with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, describes its culture as “radically progressive.”
She left the law firm shortly after J.D. Vance was chosen as President Trump’s running mate.
“Usha has informed us that she has decided to leave the firm,” Munger Tolles & Olson said in a statement.
“Usha was an excellent lawyer and colleague. We thank her for her many years of work and wish her all the best in her future career.”
When did Usha Chirkuli marry JD Vance?
Usha Chirkuri married JD Vance after graduating from Yale University in 2013.
The couple married in Kentucky in 2014 and received a blessing from a Hindu expert in a separate ceremony, according to the New York Times.
Religion, JD and Usha Vance
In an interview with Fox News, J.D. Vance said Usha Vance helped him “recommit” to his Christian faith.
Usha Vanth, who sat next to him during the interview, said, “I grew up in a religious family. My parents are Hindus and that’s one of the things that made them such good parents and really good people.” And I’ve done the same.” I realized its power,” Reuters said.
‘Stable, normal life’: Do JD and Usha Vance have children?
JD and Usha Vance have three children.
Son Ewan was born in June 2017, son Vivek in February 2020 and daughter Mirabell in December 2021.
Usha Vance told Fox & Friends that she never thought she would go into politics, and that she agreed to keep her children out of the spotlight because she intended to start a family and become a lawyer.
“We had a lot of serious conversations about him running for Senate because we have three children and it’s important to give them a stable, normal, happy life and discipline. “Because it’s the most important thing to us,” she said. said
How does Usha Vance describe her husband JD Vance?
According to the BBC, Usha Vance described JD Vance as a “meat-and-potatoes kind of guy” who adapted to a vegetarian diet and learned how to cook Indian food for his mother. said.
In a Fox News interview over the summer, she said, “I believe in J.D. and I really love him, so I think we’ll see what happens in our lives.”
“JD and I never expected ourselves to be in this position,” she said at the RNC.
How does JD Vance describe his wife Usha Vance?
“Usha definitely brings me back to earth a little bit,” Vance said on the “Megyn Kelly Show” podcast in 2020. I.
“People don’t realize how good she is,” she said, adding that she can read a 1,000-page book in just a few hours, according to the BBC article.
She is described as “a strong female voice on his left shoulder” providing guidance to him.
When Vance took to the stage at the Republican convention, he repeated his earlier praise for his wife, calling her a “great lawyer and an even better mother.”
In his memoirs, Vance credited some of his success and happiness to his wife.
“At my best, I am a delayed explosive. I can be subdued, but only with skill and precision,” Vance wrote. “Not only did I learn how to control myself, but Usha learned how to manage me too.”
Her first name, Usha, is pronounced “oh-shah” and her maiden name, Chilkuri, is usually pronounced as “chee-loo-ku-lee” with emphasis on the third syllable.
Is Usha Vance a Republican or a Democrat?
Voter records show Usha Cirkuli Vance is registered as a Republican in Ohio as of 2022 and voted in that year’s Republican primary, but this is not the case with her husband. It was the same election in which he was running in the Republican Senate primary.
Usha Vance’s voting history shows that she voted as a Democrat at least once while living in Connecticut.
How old is Usha Vance?
Usha Vance will be the first Indian-American second lady to serve in the White House. She is also the first Hindu second lady, according to ABC News.
At 39 years old, she will be the youngest second lady since the Truman administration, when Jane Hadley Berkeley, 38, wife of former Vice President Alben Berkeley, took office in 1949, according to ABC News.
Where do JD and Usha Vance live now?
They live in Cincinnati with their three children.
Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio, about 40 miles north of Cincinnati. Vance’s best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, is about his childhood there.
The couple currently own a home in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood, where he has lived since 2018.
Where does the Vice President live while in office?
According to White House Gob, the first vice president since Walter Mondale has lived on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory with his family.
The 19th-century home on Number One Observatory Circle in northwest Washington, DC, was built in 1893.
“Historically, vice presidents and their families lived in their own homes, but the cost of securing these private residences increased significantly over the years. Finally, in 1974, Congress decided to move the Naval Observatory home. agreed to renovate the building as a residence for the vice president,” according to whitehouse.gov.
Kamala Harris hasn’t invited Vance to where the vice president lives
Vice President Kamala Harris has not invited Mr. and Mrs. J.D. to her home, which is customary for new vice presidents to get used to their new home, CBSNews.com reported.
Usha Vance reached out to staff in November for information, including what she needed to do to make her young children’s home childproof.
“Prior to Christmas, Navy officials discussed the layout, logistics and practicalities of moving in and outlined the home to answer the Vances’ questions,” said a person familiar with the call.
Does Usha Vance have an office and staff?
According to White House History, the second wife’s office is located on the second floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the vice president’s office.
According to White House history, the second spouse previously employed three staffers: a chief of staff, a communications director and a policy aide.
The vice president has an office on the grounds of the White House.
What does the second woman do?
According to White House History, for most of American history, spouses of U.S. vice presidents held relatively few public roles.
That started to change.
According to White House History, the term “Second Lady” is an honorific title referring to the vice president’s wife, first appearing publicly several years after the title “First Lady” began in 1886 with Frances Folsom Cleveland. It is said to have been used.
According to White House History, Jenny Hobart, spouse of Vice President Garrett Hobart (1897-1899), referred to herself as “Second Lady” when she assumed the hostess duties normally performed by first ladies of the United States. He said he called.
The public role of the second lady did not expand throughout the first half of the 20th century. The only institutional role of the vice president’s spouse is to serve as the unofficial convener of the Senate Ladies of the Red Cross, an organization founded in 1917 to support the American effort during World War I. there were.
According to White House History, Patricia Nixon began transforming the role of second lady during the administration of Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961), when her husband Richard Nixon served as vice president.
Muriel Humphrey served as second lady when her husband, Hubert Humphrey, served as vice president during Lyndon Johnson’s entire term. She traveled extensively on official visits as second lady of the United States.
Betty Ford followed in the footsteps of Muriel Humphrey and Pat Nixon, further raising the profile of the role. As second lady, Mrs. Ford gave several media interviews and spoke out on controversial topics such as abortion, premarital sex and marijuana use.
In the 1980s, second spouses became established as important components of vice presidential teams.
SLOTUS vs SGOTUS: Second spouse
The acronym associated with the vice president’s female spouse is SLOTUS, which stands for Second Lady of the United States.
According to White House History, the acronym for the vice president’s male spouse is “SGOTUS,” meaning second gentleman of the United States.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff is the first man to assume the role of second wife.
(This story has been updated to include new information and video.)