Indians highlight Usha Vance's south Asian roots after Harris loses polls

By Diksha Madhok and Preeti Soni

  With Vice President Kamala Harris’s defeat in the US elections, Indian media are turning their attention to another woman of South Asian descent who’s gaining prominence in American politics. 

Usha Chilukuri Vance is the wife of JD Vance, running mate of Donald Trump, who won a second term in Tuesday’s US presidential election. She’s the daughter of Indian immigrants from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where local media said villagers had been praying for her husband’s victory this week. 

“We offered special prayers for Usha Vance’s success,” one of the villagers told Asian News International. “The victory of Usha’s husband will advance the bilateral relationship between India and US.” On Wednesday, residents set off firecrackers in the village to celebrate the election results, ANI reported.   Find special coverage on US Presidential Elections here

 

A Yale Law graduate, Vance was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year after her husband became Trump’s vice-presidential pick. At the time, some social media users had put her in the same category as several prominent American chief executive officers with Indian roots, like Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella. Vice President Harris was also the child of an Indian immigrant.  

Vance comes from a family known for its academic achievements. Her 96-year-old grand-aunt in Andhra Pradesh has been celebrated in Indian media as the country’s oldest working professor.  

The incoming Second Lady, 38, spoke about her Indian heritage at the Republican National Convention in July, highlighting her “very different” background to her husband’s.  

 

“I grew up in San Diego in a middle class community with two loving parents, both immigrants from India,” she said at the time. JD Vance, who met his wife at law school, rose from poverty to become a venture capitalist.

 

“That JD and I could meet and fall in love and marry is a testament to this great country,” she said, adding that her husband loves to cook Indian food for her mother. 

 

In an interview with Fox News earlier this year, Vance said that her parents practice Hinduism and that made them “such good parents.”  

 

“That made them very good people. And I think I have seen the power of that in my own life,” she said. In the same interview, which was shared widely in India at the time, the vice president-elect said that his wife was “very supportive” when he began to “re-engage” with his own faith. 

 

On Wednesday, local media played up Vance’s roots and speculated about what role she could play in India-US relations. One news outlet, Aaj Tak, said her heritage means that South Asian representation in US politics will continue despite Harris’s exit.

 

Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister also invited the pair to the state, adding that JD Vance’s victory is a “moment of pride” for his community.  

Both Vance and Harris were trending on social media in India on Wednesday as users debated the benefits of the regions their families hail from. 

 

Harris’s Indian connection — her mother was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai — had also sparked a social media frenzy when President Joe Biden had picked her as his running mate in 2020. Local outlets and TV crews had raced to hunt down an assortment of Harris’s aunts and even a great-uncle at the time. But that excitement soon died down as India hasn’t been a personal priority for Harris, and she hasn’t visited the country during her time as vice president.