On July 15, Donald Trump picked Ohio Senator JD Vance as his Vice Presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As the attendees at the convention chanted “JD, JD, JD”, Vance basked in the appreciation, standing next to his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance, who has a decorated legal career herself.
Who is Usha Chilukuri Vance?
Usha Chilukuri was born to Indian immigrant parents from Andhra Pradesh and grew up in San Diego. Her father Radhakrishna Chilukuri was an aerospace engineer and her mother Lakshmi Chilukuri, is an academic in the field of molecular biology and biochemistry.
Usha Chilukuri earned an undergraduate degree in history at Yale University in 2003. Later, she got an MPhil in early modern history from the University of Cambridge. Between 2010 and 2013 she went to Yale Law School, where she served as executive development editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, according to People magazine.
Chillukuri met Vance at Yale, and shortly after graduating, the two tied the knot in 2014.
In 2015, the couple moved to San Francisco, where Chilukuri worked with the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson till 2017, before clerking in the Eastern District of Kentucky for Judge Amul Thapar, and later in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, under Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.
After stints as a clerk in the federal courts, Chilukuri returned to Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, as a Corporate litigator.
Shortly after the news of JD Vance’s pick as Trump’s Vice-Presidential candidate, her bio disappeared from the law firm’s website. In a statement to SFGATE, she confirmed that she will be stepping down from her role in the law firm to care for her husband, sons Ewan and Vivek, and daughter Mirabel.
“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,” she said.
In their statement, the firm thanked her for her service and wished her the best for the future.
“Yale Spirit Guide”
While she was charting her legal career, her husband JD Vance worked at and co-founded investment firms. In 2016, he published his memoir Hillbilly Elegy. The book became a bestseller and in 2020, was adapted into a film directed by Ron Howard. In the film, actor Freida Pinto played Chilukuri’s character.
“Usha was like my Yale spirit guide,” Vance wrote in the book. “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.”
In 2022, Vance ran for the Senate seat in his home state of Ohio, earning Trump’s endorsement in the process. His campaign against Democratic candidate Tim Ryan was successful, and he was sworn in as Senator in January 2023.
Now as Trump’s running mate, Vance is hoping that the next office he holds will be the Vice President of the United States.That would make his wife Usha Chillukuri the first Indian-American Second Lady of the country.
