https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/everyday-explainers/usha-vance-jd-wife-india-family-background-9663283/Trump described JD as “feisty” and called on “his absolutely remarkable and beautiful wife, Usha Vance.” Usha has drawn media attention for her long list of academic and professional achievements and the accomplishments of her family members, who trace their lineage to India. Here are three things to know about her, from her family background to how she met JD Vance.
Usha's parents emigrated from Andhra Pradesh to the US around 1980. Shruti Rajagopalan, an economist at the Mercatus Centre of George Mason University, wrote about her family’s origins in an article on Substack.
“Usha Chilukuri, (was) born in San Diego, to Indian-born Telugu-speaking professors. Her father, Krish Chilukuri, is an aerospace engineer from the prestigious IIT Madras. His father, Chilukuri Ramasastry, was a member of IIT’s founding faculty and the best student prize in physics memorialized in his name. Usha’s mother, Lakshmi, is a marine biologist and now provost at one of the colleges in UC San Diego. Usha’s great aunt Shanthamma Chilukuri, now 96, continues her career as a physics professor in Visakhapatnam,” she wrote.
In terms of the image she has projected thus far, her unique style has been of note, especially in comparison to other women involved in the campaign, including Melania and Ivanka Trump. “The rare photos of her until now suggest someone who isn’t particularly interested in using her clothes to attract attention, but rather to effectively get her through the day… as if she was not that fussed about fashion. Just, as she has said, she is not that fussed about politics,”
