American politician JD Vance has today been sworn in as vice president of the United States, with his ‘spirit guide’ wife Usha Vance in attendance at the Inauguration.
Vance, who will serve under incoming President Donald Trump, has previously spoken about the important role Usha, 39, has played in his personal and professional development.
Now, the couple will be moving into the vice president’s mansion on the grounds of Washington’s U.S. Naval Observatory – a place they will call home for the next four years.
Until now, Usha has kept a relatively low profile, but as the Second Lady, she’ll now be at the very centre stage of US politics. But who is Usha Vance, and what role has she played in her husband’s rise to power?
Vance, who detailed his rise from working-class boy to lawyer in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, first locked eyes with Usha during their time as students at the prestigious Yale Law School.
Remembering his first impressions of Usha in his autobiography, Vance wrote: “She seemed some sort of genetic anomaly, a combination of every positive quality a human being should have: bright, hardworking, tall, and beautiful.”
Sharing how he “fell hard” for his classmate after an assignment brought them together, Vance added: “In a place that always seemed a little foreign, Usha’s presence made me feel at home.”
Before attending law school, studious Usha had earned her undergraduate degree from Yale University, as well as a master of philosophy at the University of Cambridge.
Top student Usha was also there to help when Vance struggled to get to grips with the etiquette expected at a top school like Yale. Describing Usha as his “spirit guide”, Vance remembered how, while at a posh dinner, his future wife was on hand to tell him which cutlery to use, while reminding him that “every perceived slight is not cause for a blood feud.”
Many years later, in July 2024, middle-class Usha reflected on the differences between her and her husband’s upbringing at the Republican National Convention. Introducing her husband, Usha told attendees: “My background is very different from JD’s. I grew up in San Diego, in a middle-class community with two loving parents, both immigrants from India, and a wonderful sister.
“That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country.”
The college sweethearts went on to marry in 2014, one year after graduation, and have since welcomed three children: Ewan Blaine, seven, Vivek, four, and Mirabel Rose, three.
After law school, Usha, who was a registered Democrat voter up until 2014 as per USA Today, clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, back when the Republican was an appeals court judge in Washington. She then spent a year as a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts, also a Republican.
In the years that followed, Usha built a successful career as a trial lawyer for the law firm Munger, Tolles and Olson, working from its San Francisco and D.C. offices. Shortly after Vance was picked as Trump’s running mate, she handed in her notice.
Munger, Tolles & Olson made the following statement at the time: “Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm. Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career.”
Until recently, the Vance family lived in Cincinnati, where Usha served on the Cincinnati Symphony Board of Directors outside of her hectic work schedule.
The daughter of Indian immigrants, Usha today makes history as the White House’s first Indian American second lady, as well as the first Hindu second lady.
Discussing her faith in a June 2024 interview with Fox News, Usha shared: “My parents are Hindu and that was one of the things that made them such good parents, that make them really, very good people. And so, I think I’ve seen that, the power of that in my own life.”
Usha Vance is also the youngest second lady to enter the White House since Harrry S. Truman was in the Oval Office, back when then-38-year-old Jane Hadley Barkley, wife of Vice President Alben Barkley, was appointed in 1949.
In his bestselling memoir, Vance made it clear how much he credits Usha in shaping his successful life. He penned: “Even at my best, I’m a delayed explosion — I can be defused, but only with skill and precision. It’s not just that I’ve learned to control myself but that Usha has learned how to manage me.”
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