JD Vance's Wife Usha Used To Love One Of Trump's Biggest Rivals

Everyone knows that JD Vance and Donald Trump have a complicated relationship, not least because the Ohio senator was a vocal critic of Trump's before he got the opportunity to grow his career and abruptly switched sides. But what about JD's wife, Usha Vance? It turns out that she was not only a registered Democrat but also a well-established fan of Hillary Clinton. According to the Daily Beast, which reached out to several friends of the couple, JD actually told a pal that his wife was set to cast her vote for Clinton, who was competing against Trump at the time.

Another source shared that Usha held on to her job at the Munger, Tolles & Olson law firm due to its values, beliefs, and policies — one of which is diversity, equity, and inclusion. So, does this mean that Usha is secretly a Democrat who is sacrificing her values to support her husband's career, or worse, a Democrat being forced to submit and align with her husband? And is there any truth to the rumors about a divorce brewing between JD and Usha Vance? Not quite. Despite Usha's Democratic leanings, she actually has a history of aligning herself with conservatives.

Between 2013 and 2018, Usha was a law clerk for three right-leaning judges; Amul Thapar, Brett Kavanaugh, and John Roberts Jr. And while working for someone doesn't necessarily mean you agree with their policies, Usha has made it quite clear that she supports — or at least is impressed with — Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault and is one of the judges chiefly responsible for restricting women's access to healthcare through overruling Roe v. Wade.

Despite Usha Vance's political leanings, her parents, Krish and Lakshmi Chilukuri, appear to be on the other side of the coin. According to The New York Times, the Chilukuris are still currently registered as Democrats, at the time of writing, and have been vocal about their dislike for some of Donald Trump's policies. Usha's mother, Lakshmi, is a professor who signed a petition asking the divisive politician not to pull out of the Paris Agreement climate change treaty. Trump, of course, did not heed the advice of Lakshmi and her colleagues. It's worth noting that these disagreements in core beliefs don't mean the Chilukuris will be throwing their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris either. While the family's politics haven't been heavily documented, their support for their daughter has. 

Lakshmi Chilukuri reportedly took a sabbatical from her job as a professor to help raise Usha and JD Vance's first child for a year. The family refuses to give interviews and has not spoken out publicly either for or against Usha's husband's new political stance. Despite this, the GOP and JD, in particular, have not been as firm in their defense of Usha and her heritage. When conservative podcaster Eric Weinstein referred to Lakshmi as a "post-menopausal female" and claimed her entire purpose was to care for children since she was past childbearing age, Vance was oddly silent (via X, formerly known as Twitter). 

When Trump ally Laura Loomer racially attacked Harris by tweeting that if she won, "the White House will smell like curry," the "Hillbilly Elegy" author once again played down the significance of her words, making a joke about it before weakly stating to NBC News' "Meet the Press" that he didn't "like those comments." In other words, JD threw away a great opportunity to make it clear that the GOP doesn't support racism against Indian Americans.