 "From cooking desi food to spirituality: The Indian influence on JD Vance, Trump's VP pick")
Taking centre stage at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Usha Chilukuri Vance introduced her husband, JD Vance, as Donald Trump’s running mate in the upcoming United States presidential election.
On the third day of RNC, JD shared the story of his hardscrabble upbringing, while his wife Usha spoke more of his softer side, calling him “a meat and potatoes kind of guy," who adapted to her vegetarian diet and learned to Indian cook food from his mother-in-law.
Soon after Trump named JD as his running mate , much is being written about the 39-year-old Ohio senator, his Indian connection and even his spiritual beliefs.
Here’s all we know about it.
‘A meat and potatoes kind of guy’
During her speech at the Republican National Convention, Usha Vance described their past, including their first meeting and the path that brought them to this major day where JP Vance is now Donald Trump’s running mate for vice president.
She characterised JD as a working-class person who overcame childhood traumas and enrolled in Yale Law School, with the help of the G.I. Bill.
Future Second Lady Usha Vance: "Neither J.D. nor I expected to find ourselves in this position — but it's hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American Dream."
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 18, 2024
FULL REMARKS: pic.twitter.com/JJgdJbem0H
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“When I was asked to introduce my husband, JD Vance, to all of you, I was at a loss. It occurred to me that there was only one thing to do: to explain, from the heart, why I love and admire JD, why I stand here beside him today, and why he will make a great Vice President of the United States,” Usha said.
She added, “I met JD in law school when he was fresh out of Ohio State, which he attended with the support of the G.I. Bill. He was then, as now, the most interesting person I knew. A working-class guy who had overcome childhood traumas that I could barely fathom to end up at Yale Law School. A tough Marine who had served in Iraq, but whose idea of a good time was playing with puppies.”
“Although he’s a meat and potatoes kind of a guy, he adapted to my vegetarian diet and learned to cook food from my mother. Indian food. Before I knew it, he’d become an integral part of my family. The JD I knew then is the same JD Vance you see today, except for that beard.”
Also read: Explained: Usha Vance and the growing importance of South Asian-Americans in US politics
The love story
The couple first met in a discussion group at Yale Law School in 2013 on “social decline in white America.”
This experience also influenced JD’s 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which Ron Howard filmed in 2020.
In his memoir, JD Vance describes how he fell in love with a classmate who also happened to be his writing partner.
She is “bright, hardworking, tall, and beautiful,” he said, adding that she has a great sense of humour and a blunt-speaking approach.
After just one date, he broke all of his dating rules and proclaimed his love for her, marking the beginning of their relationship at the end of their first year.
In the memoir, JD described her as his “Yale spirit guide,” helping him navigate life at the elite university where they met.
“She instinctively understood the questions I didn’t even know to ask, and she always encouraged me to seek opportunities that I didn’t know existed,” he wrote, as per CNN.
As they clerked together in northern Kentucky, their relationship grew stronger, and Usha assisted him in overcoming mental hurdles stemming from his traumatic upbringing.
Additionally, her Indian family gave Vance fresh insights and a sense of belonging that he had been missing. Vance was touched by her family’s genuineness and love as he thought back to his first Thanksgiving with them.
The couple tied the knot in 2014 and have three children: sons Ewan and Vivek, and daughter Mirabel.
In a 2020 interview on the Megyn Kelly Show podcast, JD also praised his wife by saying, “Usha definitely brings me back to Earth a little bit. And if I maybe get a little bit too cocky or a little too proud I just remind myself that she is way more accomplished than I am.”
He called her the “powerful female voice on his left shoulder,” offering him advice, and he lauded her intelligence, pointing out that she could read a 1,000-page book in a matter of hours.
Hindu faith guidance
Vance said that he was able to overcome challenges in his personal and professional life and reunite with his own Catholic faith thanks to his wife's Hindu beliefs .
It was during an interview with Fox News, weeks before he was chosen as Trump’s vice presidential nominee, that he disclosed the details. During the conversation, he was accompanied by his wife, Usha.
Raised as a Protestant, the 38-year-old started thinking about becoming a Catholic around 2016. He said his wife, Usha, a Hindu, encouraged him in search of his Christian faith.
“I was never baptised. I was raised Christian but never baptised. I was first baptised in 2018. Usha was actually raised non-Christian. But I remember when I started to re-engage with my own faith, Usha was very supportive,” said Vance.
Usha, who was raised in a “religious household,” stated that her parents’ influence was one of the reasons she encouraged her husband to tap into religion as a means of self-discovery.
“My parents are Hindu and that’s one of the things that made them such good parents and really good people. And I have seen the power of that in my own life,” said Usha.
“And I knew that JD was searching for something. This just felt right for him," she added.
Regarding family matters, Usha stated that despite coming from two different faiths, there are some things that the couple “just agrees on.”
“The answer is, we just talk a lot,” she said.
His life
In his speech, JD shared his story of growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent.
He later joined the Marines, graduated from Yale Law School, and went on to the highest levels of US politics — an embodiment of an American dream he said is now in short supply, according to The Associated Press.
JD, who had never attended, let alone spoken at a previous Republican convention, spent much of his speech talking up Trump and going after Biden, using his relative youth to draw a contrast with the 81-year-old president.
He said he was in fourth grade when “a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good American manufacturing jobs to Mexico.”
“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington as long as I’ve been alive,” he added. “For half a century, he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”
The crowd inside the convention hall welcomed JD warmly. They erupted into chants of “Mamaw!” in honour of his grandmother, and chanted, “JD’s Mom!” after he introduced his mother, a former addict who has been sober for 10 years.
With inputs from agencies
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