As second lady of the United States, Usha Vance will occupy a position traditionally relegated to the fringes of life in the White House, which may well suit a political spouse who has never sought attention.
Yet, according to her friends, the 39-year-old played anything but a menial role in the rapid rise of her husband, U.S. Vice President-elect JD Vance.
As a hard-working child of immigrants who rose between the rarified cloisters of Cambridge, Yale and the Supreme Court to reach the pinnacle of public life, she is for many admirers a living embodiment of the American dream.
Even JD Vance, 40, seems impressed by his wife’s elite credentials. The former Ohio senator said his accomplishments left him “humbled.”

Usha Vance (née Chilukuri) was born and raised in the working-class suburbs of San Diego, California, to a mechanical engineer father and a molecular biologist mother who had moved from Andhra Pradesh, India to the United States. United.
She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and was also a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where she earned a master’s degree in modern history.
It was while a student at Yale Law School in 2010 that she met Vance, when they joined a discussion group on “social decline in white America.”
This experience influenced her future husband’s best-selling 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, about her childhood in the white working-class belt of America’s Rust Belt. It became a 2020 film directed by Ron Howard.

In his book, Vance writes of how he “fell hard” for Usha at Yale, describing her as a “genetic anomaly” because she possessed so many ideal qualities.
Vance recalls how he “violated every rule of modern dating” by telling her he was in love after a date.
Her classmates remember her as someone who stood out in the hyper-competitive world of Ivy League law through her willingness to lend a helping hand.
Charles Tyler, now a law professor, told the BBC that Usha Vance would take the time to advise other students on how to apply for the highly sought-after judicial internships that she herself wanted.

Another classmate, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, recalls a similar lack of sharp elbows in Usha Vance.
“She was an excellent student, the best in our law school class,” she said. “And sometimes when students are like that, they also want to, you know, keep an edge over other students.
“But he was someone who always shared his outlines (class notes). They were, like, perfectly organized, you know, color-coded, assignments.”
Tyler says Usha Vance has a big influence on her husband, even though they “have a very equal partnership.”
The other friend agrees.
“She’s always like a sounding board for him,” she says. “And, you know, she’s been his spiritual guide since Yale.”

Usha Vance’s own political views have been the subject of much speculation.
While her husband has often complained about the “woke” ideas he says are pushed by Democrats, she was registered as a Democrat just a decade ago. Until last summer, she was a trial lawyer at the San Francisco law firm Munger Tolles & Olson, which prides itself on its reputation as “radically progressive.”
Yet she was an assistant to Brett Kavanaugh, now a Supreme Court Justice, at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, then an assistant to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts – both men are stalwarts of the conservative majority of the highest court.
One thing the power couple seems to completely agree on is the importance of family.
The Vances were married in Kentucky in 2014 and have three children: two sons, Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter, Mirabel.

Usha Vance told Fox News last August that her husband’s emphasis on the cultural importance of a loving home stems in part from his own upbringing, but also from “knowing that the stability and calm that I bring into our family life come all the support. that I had, the faith that everything would be okay, because I had people behind me.”
In India, Usha Vance’s life arouses immense pride, particularly among those close to her.
Her great-great aunt from Andhra Pradesh told the BBC she was not surprised by the success of the new second lady of the United States, given that she comes from a long line of Hindu scholars.
Chilukuri Santhamma, physics professor from Andhra Pradesh, said, “Not everyone can reach the top in a foreign country and get accolades and it is fortunate that Usha has reached the position that comes to a millionth.”
Additional reporting by Soutik Biswas in Delhi
