July 18 -
Introducing her husband at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Usha Vance made her national political debut. J.D. Vance is the newly-selected running mate of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Vance portrayed her spouse, a 39-year-old "working class guy" who had triumphed over traumatic experiences in his youth to earn a law degree from Yale, in her book. "A tough Marine who served in Iraq but whose idea of a good time was playing with puppies and watching the movie 'Babe.'" That's how she characterized him.
She saw parallels between his impoverished Appalachian childhood and her middle-class San Diego upbringing. It is a tribute to our wonderful nation that J.D. and I were ever able to meet, much less fall in love and tie the knot. Vance boasted, his age at 38. "It is also a show of support for J.D.
Yale and Cambridge-educated litigator Usha Vance worked as a private practitioner and served as a judicial clerk before announcing her resignation from Munger, Tolles & Olson on July 15 to be with her family throughout the campaign. There are three kids in the Vances family.
Upon graduating from Yale Law School in 2013, Usha and J.D. Vance crossed paths. Usha Vance was a member of the Yale Law Journal's editorial board, the Yale Journal of Law & Technology's managing editor, and she taught seminars where students may get free legal counsel on topics including media freedom and the Supreme Court.
She assisted Chief Justice John Roberts with case research and draught decision writing while she was his law clerk from 2017 to 2018.
A 5-4 decision that upheld Trump's travel ban that targeted numerous Muslim-majority nations was authored by Roberts during that tenure. A Christian baker's refusal to prepare a cake for a gay marriage was upheld in another case with which Roberts was a part of the 7-2 majority.
Trump once considered Amul Thapar, who is currently the 6th U.S. Circuit Judge, for a position on the Supreme Court; Usha Vance clerked for him in Kentucky. Trump nominated and confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018; she clerked for him on the D.C. Circuit in 2014.
Since the announcement on July 15, Vance, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, has been the victim of racist abuse on the social media platform X. An extreme right-wing internet figure named Stew Peters shared a photo of the couple with the caption: "There is an obvious Indian coup taking place in the U.S. right before our eyes."
In a June TV interview, Vance revealed that her family was deeply religious. She comes from a Hindu family.
She said it came as a shock to her when her husband ran for Ohio Senate in that interview. In an interview with "Fox and Friends," she said, "It was so different from anything we've done before." But it was a thrilling experience. J.D. Vance was elected in 2022. His memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," was a bestseller.
While 37 weeks along in her pregnancy with the couple's first child, Vance gave an interview to NBC in 2017 in which she said she liked how her law school classmate J.D. was "very diligent" when they were assigned to work on a brief together. She said that he would be punctual for the 9 a.m. meetings that she had scheduled so that they could collaborate on the brief.
For me, the most memorable thing about Usha was her self-assurance and boldness, as J.D. Vance put it in that interview. He praised her during the convention on July 17 for being a great mother and an outstanding lawyer.
