Who Is J.D. Vance's Wife Usha? 5 Things to Know About the Second Lady of the United States

Usha Vance has been by J.D. Vance's side long before he became the U.S. vice president.

The Second Lady was born in San Diego, Calif., to immigrant parents: a mechanical engineer father and a molecular biologist mother.

According to her LinkedIn page, Usha attended Mt. Carmel High School, a public school in Rancho Peñasquitos, before earning a BA in history from Yale University. She also completed a master's degree from the University of Cambridge.

Usha also attended Yale Law School, where she met her future husband.

"We were friends first, because — I mean, who wouldn't want to be friends with J.D.? 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," she revealed when she delivered her RNC speech.

J.D. also reflected on their meeting in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, writing, "She seemed some sort of genetic anomaly, a combination of every positive quality a human being should have: bright, hardworking, tall, and beautiful."

He then gushed about his wife as he detailed her massive role in his success and happiness.

"Even at my best, I'm a delayed explosion — I can be defused, but only with skill and precision," he wrote. "It's not just that I've learned to control myself but that Usha has learned how to manage me."

Following their 2013 graduation from Yale Law School, J.D. and Usha exchanged vows in a June 2014 ceremony in Kentucky.

They became first-time parents when they welcomed their first child, Ewan, in June 2017. The couple expanded their brood with the births of Vivek and Mirabel in February 2020 and December 2021, respectively.

The now-defunct profile page of Munger, Tolles & Olson confirmed Usha worked for the company as a litigator in its San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices from 2015 to 2017. She then served as a law clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court until 2018 before returning to Munger, Tolles & Olson, where she began focusing "on complex civil litigation and appeals in a wide variety of sectors, including higher education, local government, entertainment, and technology, including semiconductors."

After Donald Trump announced J.D. as his running mate for the 2024 election, the law firm issued a statement confirming Usha's exit.

"Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm," said the representative. "Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career."

Usha released her own statement via SFGATE, which read, "In light of today's news, I have resigned from my position at Munger, Tolles & Olson to focus on caring for our family. I am forever grateful for the opportunities I've had at Munger and for the excellent colleagues and friends I've worked with over the years."

Speaking in a June 2024 interview with Fox News, Usha revealed her Hindu parents raised her in a religious household.

"My parents are Hindu and that was one of the things that made them such good parents, that make them really, very good people," she shared. "And so, I think I've seen that, the power of that in my own life."

More than a decade after their 2014 nuptials, J.D. expressed his hopes that his wife would eventually convert to Christianity.

"As I've told her and I've said publicly, and I'll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends: Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church?" J.D. told the audience at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi on October 29. "Yeah, I honestly do. Because I believe in the Christian gospel and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way."

As for their kids, J.D. and Usha reportedly reached their "own arrangement" to enroll their two eldest kids in a Catholic school.

"Usha's closer to the priest who baptized me than maybe I am. They talk about this stuff," he added. "My attitude is, you figure this stuff out as a family, and you trust in God to have a plan."