Milwaukee | Senator J D Vance would make a great vice president for America, his Indian-American wife Usha Chilukuri Vance has said, as she introduced him to Americans by giving an insight into their life, about him accepting her vegetarian diet and his ability to cook Indian food.
A Yale law graduate and a trial lawyer, Usha, 38, who has so far maintained a very low profile, acknowledged that she and her husband come from very different backgrounds - he, a white man from the rust belt, and she the daughter of Indian immigrants.
She said the fact that the pair of them are even together is a testament to the kind of country America is.
“That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry is a testament to this great country,” Usha said while introducing her 39-year-old husband on the third day of the four-day Republican National Convention on Wednesday.
“He will make a great Vice President of the United States,” she said, minutes before Vance accepted the Republican Party's nomination as its vice president candidate in the November 5 general election.
Introducing Vance, a junior United States senator from Ohio to their fellow Americans, Usha described the love and affection of her husband.
Usha, the mother of three children, said she met Vance at Yale University.
“We were friends first,” Usha, whose parents hailed from Andhra Pradesh, said.
“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 to end up at Yale Law School, a tough marine who had served in Iraq, but whose idea of a good time was playing with puppies and watching the movie ‘Babe.’”
When she was asked to introduce her husband to thousands of Republican delegates from across the country, Usha said she was at a loss.
"I was at a loss. It occurred to me that there was only one thing to do: to explain, from the heart, why I love and admire J.D., why I stand here beside him today, and why he will make a great Vice President of the United States,” she said.
In her address, Usha mentioned her background. She said she grew up in San Diego, in a middle-class community to parents who emigrated from India.
Usha said J D Vance approached their differences with curiosity and enthusiasm.
He wanted to know everything about where I came from, what my life has been like.”
“Although he’s a meat and potatoes kind of guy, he adapted to my vegetarian diet and learned to cook food for my mother.”
“My background is very different from JD’s. I grew up in San Diego in a middle-class community with two loving parents — both immigrants from India — and a wonderful sister,” she said.
