The White House is set to see another history-making vice presidential spouse.
With Ohio Sen. JD Vance set to become the next vice president, his wife, Usha Vance, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, is set to be the first Indian American second lady in the White House. She will also be the first Hindu second lady.
That will follow Doug Emhoff’s history-making mark as the first second gentleman in the White House. He is also the first Jewish person in the role.
JD Vance thanked “my beautiful wife for making it possible to do this” on social media on Wednesday, after multiple news organizations, including ABC News, projected that former President Donald Trump will win the presidential match-up against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, waves as his wife Usha Vance looks on at an election night watch party, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Alex Brandon/AP
At 38, Usha Vance is set to be the youngest second lady since the Truman administration, when then-38-year-old Jane Hadley Barkley, wife of former Vice President Alben Barkley, assumed the role in 1949.
She was raised in a Hindu household in San Diego, where her parents are academics.
The Vances met during their time at Yale Law School and got married in Kentucky in 2014. They have three children together.
An attorney who once clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, she left her law firm, Munger, Tolles & Olsen, after her husband was formally announced as former President Donald Trump’s running mate on the Republican party ticket in July.
Usha Vance was in the spotlight at the Republican National Convention, where she introduced her husband.
“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,” she said at the convention. “That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country.”
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and his wife Usha Vance, arrive for a campaign event, Oct. 16, 2024, in Williamsport, Pa.
Matt Rourke/AP
She has since taken on a more behind-the-scenes role on the campaign trail, not delivering any remarks at a public campaign event since the RNC.
“Obviously, at the convention, I was asked to introduce JD, and so that was an active role,” she told NBC News in October. “But the thing that JD asked, and the thing that I certainly agreed to do, is to keep him company.”
She told NBC News at the time that she hadn’t given much thought to what causes or initiatives she might focus on if she became the second lady.
“You know, this is such an intense and busy experience that I have not given a ton of thought to my own roles and responsibilities,” she said.
“And so I thought, what would I do? See what happens on Nov. 5, and collect some information myself and take it from there,” she said. “There are certainly things I’m interested in, but I don’t really know how that all fits into this role.”
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, left, and his wife Usha Vance arrive to Minneapolis/St. Paul International airport in Minneapolis, Oct. 14, 2024.
Ellen Schmidt/AP
In her first interview after JD Vance was named Trump’s running mate, Usha Vance discussed with “Fox & Friends” how she and her husband share different political views and suggested that their opinions influence each other in a “nice give and take.”
“I mean, we’re two different people. We have lots of different backgrounds and interests and things like that, so we come to different conclusions all the time,” she said. “That’s part of the fun of being married.”
She was also asked to respond to her husband’s widely criticized “childless cat ladies” comment, which was directed at Harris and others in a recently resurfaced 2021 Fox News interview.
“He made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive,” she said. “And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase.”
She told “Fox & Friends” that she never thought she’d be in politics, that they planned to be lawyers with a family, and that they have agreed to keep their children out of the spotlight.
“Through his Senate candidacy, we had a lot of serious conversations, because, you know, we do have three children, and giving them a stable, normal, happy life and upbringing is something that is the most important thing to us,” she said.
