JD Vance said he cried backstage when his wife introduced him as Trump’s vice president before his acceptance speech at the Republican convention
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance praised his wife Usha’s speech introducing him at the Republican Party convention, saying he cried backstage Wednesday night when she spoke in Milwaukee.
“She’s a really great person and she gave a really great speech,” Vance raved Thursday morning as speaking at the Faith & Freedom Coalition breakfast after accepting the GOP vice presidential nomination.
“It was such a difficult act to follow, partly because I was crying backstage, and partly because she’s beautiful and you can relate to her so much,” he continued.
“I thought, who in their right mind thought it was a good idea for me to follow this person and give the biggest speech of my life? And I realized it was my idea,” Vance recalled.
Senator JD Vance said he cried backstage while his wife Usha spoke at the convention. They shared a kiss after she welcomed him to the stage
Usha made her primetime debut on Wednesday when she delivered a speech in support of her husband, who was chosen this week as Donald Trump’s running mate.
The veteran attorney and mother of his three children told a roaring audience at Fiserv Arena about how they fell in love and how their relationship is a “testament to this great country.”
The 38-year-old Ivy League graduate then kissed her husband before he formally accepted the nomination to become Trump’s vice presidential nominee in the 2024 election.
“I can safely say that neither JD nor I expected to find ourselves in this situation, but it’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American dream,” she said.
“I am grateful to all of you for the trust you have placed in him and in our family,” Vance added before welcoming him to the stage.
Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance praised his wife’s speech at the Faith & Freedom Coalition breakfast on Thursday morning. He said he cried backstage
Usha Vance takes the stage at the convention to introduce her husband JD Vance before he accepts the Republican nomination for vice president
Over breakfast Thursday morning, Vance said his wife helped him find faith.
He said he was raised by his grandmother, who read the Bible every day. By the time he was in law school, he even called himself an atheist.
“What really brought me back to Christ was finding a wife and falling in love … and thinking about what was expected of me as a husband and as a father,” Vance said Thursday.
“The more I thought about those deeper questions, the more I realized there was wisdom in the Christian faith that I had completely rejected and completely ignored,” he added.
Usha Vance said her husband never imagined they would end up in the position they are in now, but called it a powerful “example of the American dream”
Usha and JD Vance with their three children. They welcomed their first child in 2017. Their daughter Mirabel was born in December 2021
Usha was with the senator on the Congressional floor when he was officially nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate for 2024 on Monday.
But on Wednesday night, viewers around the world tuned in to her first public speech since he was announced as the former president’s pick.
“When I was asked to introduce you to my husband JD Vance, I was at my wits’ end. What can I say that hasn’t been said before? After all, the man was the subject of a Ron Howard movie,” she joked to begin, referring to the film version of his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
She described Vance Wednesday Night as the most interesting person she knew, someone who had overcome childhood trauma and for whom it was a fun time to “play with puppies.”
She fondly remembers how Vance adapted to her vegetarian diet and learned to cook for her mother.
“Before I knew it, he had become an integral part of my family,” she recalls.
Usha Vance sits next to Donald Trump after a speech at the Republican National Convention as they watch her husband JD accept the vice presidential nomination
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance kisses his wife Usha on the convention floor in Milwaukee on Monday as he is officially nominated for the GOP slate
JD and Usha Vance with two of their three children Ewan and Vivek
Usha Chilukuri Vance stands with her husband JD Vance as he arrives for his 2022 election night party after being declared the winner of the Ohio Senate race on November 8, 2022.
Vance first met her husband JD when they were both students at Yale Law School in 2013. They married in 2014, shortly after graduating from law school.
In 2017, the couple welcomed the first of three children, Ewan Blaine. They also have a second son, Vivek, and welcomed a daughter Mirabel in December 2021.
The daughter of Indian immigrants, born Usha Chilukuri, Vance grew up in the suburbs of San Diego. She has said she was raised in a religious Hindu family.
After graduating, she attended Yale University where she studied history, then continued her studies at the University of Cambridge.
Until recently, Vance was an attorney at the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson in San Francisco and Washington, DC, where she focused on complex civil litigation and appeals.
She left the company after her husband was chosen as Trump’s running mate.