Wednesday night marked the third evening for the Republican National Convention and traditionally designated for the Vice Presidential candidate to speak. After an introductory video for JD Vance, who former President and GOP nominee Donald Trump tapped for his running mate, Usha Chilukuri Vance took the stage to introduce him. Chilukuri Vance seemed nervous and a bit off kilter at first, which was refreshing.
It shows that the Vances are not a polished political family, but regular folk. After waiting for the applause to die down, Usha Chilukuri Vance began her remarks.
When I was asked to introduce my husband JD Vance to all of you, I was at a loss. What can I say that hasn’t already been said before. After all, the man was already the subject of a Ron Howard movie.
JD has shared much of his life through his own eloquent words. In his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” during his senate campaign, and now as a sitting United States senator.
It occurred to me that there was only one thing to do: to explain from the heart why I love and admire JD, and stand here beside him today. And why he will make a great Vice President of the United States.
Vance and Chilukuri met at Yale Law School and were married in 2014. There’s a common aphorism applied to dating and finding the person right for you: “Everyone comes with baggage. Find someone who loves you enough to help you unpack.”
JD Vance’s chaotic upbringing left him with a lot of baggage that he thought would hamper his success. It was Usha Chilukuri who loved him enough to partner with him, and him help unpack the Samsonites from his past.
Chilukuri Vance continued:
I met JD in law school, when he was fresh out of Ohio State. Which he attended with the support of the GI Bill. We were friends first, because, I mean, who wouldn’t want to be friends with JD? 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.”
The most determined person I knew, with one overriding ambition: to become a husband and a father, and to build the kind of tight-knit family that he had longed for as a child. 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. That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country.
It is also a testament to JD, and it tells you something about who he is. When JD met me, he approached our differences with curiosity, and enthusiasm. He wanted to know everything about me; where I came from, what my life had been like.
The Vances now have three children, and Vance moved into business, to create jobs, then into politics to address the problems he saw, to the Senate, and now as Donald Trump’s candidate for Vice President.
Chilukuri Vance saw the seeds of who he would become in that friend from law school who became an integral part of her family.
Before I knew it, he’d become an integral part of my family, a person I could not imagine living without. The JD I knew then is the same JD you see today—except for that beard. And his goals in this new role are the same that he has pursued for our family. To keep people safe, to create opportunities, to build a better life, and to solve problems with an open mind.
If all goes well in November, in 2025 JD Vance and Usha Chilukuri Vance may be unpacking at the Vice President’s house in Washington, D.C.
It’s safe to say that neither JD nor I expected to find ourselves in this position. It’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American dream. A boy from Middletown, Ohio, raised by his grandmother through tough times, chosen to help lead our country through some of its greatest challenges.
I’m grateful to all of you for the trust you’ve placed in him and in our family.
