Usha Chilukuri, the Indian-origin wife of Republican JD Vance who could be US Vice President, Donald Trump's Vice President pick

 

On Monday, former President Donald Trump named Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate for the upcoming US presidential elections, marking a significant shift in their political relationship. Vance grew up in humble surroundings in Middletown, Ohio. After completing high school, he enlisted with the US marines where he served in the Iraq War as a combat journalist and a public relations officer.

Significantly, JD Vance's wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, has also gained quite some attention being of Indian origin and how she brings with her wealth of experience and a strong connection to Indian values and culture. After graduating from Yale in 2013, he practiced law for a brief while before moving to San Francisco to work in the tech industry as a venture capitalist. Notably, he worked at PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital.

At the time, Vance was staunchly anti-Trump. “I’m a Never Trump guy,” he told talk show host Charlie Rose in October 2016. In an op-ed for The Atlantic in July 2016, Vance wrote: “Trump is cultural heroin… Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein… He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they’ll realise it”.