Residents of Vadluru in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district are hoping for a visit from Usha Chilukuri Vance, the Second Lady of the United States, who traces her roots to the village.
Usha Vance arrived in New Delhi on Monday along with her husband, U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance, and their three children -- Ewan (7), Vivek (4), and Mirabel (2) -- on their first official visit to India.
The four-day itinerary includes stops in Jaipur and Agra, but a visit to Vadluru is not currently scheduled.
Still, villagers in Vadluru are hopeful that she might make time for a brief stop in her ancestral village. They have appealed to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to extend an official invitation to the US Second Lady.
Usha Vance, 38, is the first Indian-American and Hindu to serve as the Second Lady of the United States. Her family hails from Vadluru, a village located near the town of Tanuku, about 35 km from the district headquarters, Bhimavaram. The village had celebrated her elevation to the role with great pride.
After J.D. Vance’s election as Vice-President, Chief Minister Naidu had called it a historic moment, noting that Usha Vance is the first woman of Telugu heritage to assume the role of Second Lady. He said he looked forward to welcoming the couple to Andhra Pradesh.
IT and Electronics Minister Nara Lokesh had also hailed the Vance victory as a proud moment for the people of Andhra Pradesh, particularly those from West Godavari. “We are proud that people of AP origin continue to make their mark globally,” he said.
Usha is the daughter of Telugu immigrants -- Radhakrishna “Krish” Chilukuri, an aerospace engineer, and Lakshmi Chilukuri, provost at the University of California, San Diego. The couple migrated to the United States in 1980, and Usha was born and raised in San Diego.
A lifelong book lover, Usha earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge. She later returned to Yale for law school, where she met J.D. Vance. The couple married in 2014, following a traditional wedding and a separate Hindu ceremony.
Usha has played a key role in her husband’s political journey -- actively supporting his Senate campaigns in 2016 and 2022 and contributing significantly to his successful bid for the vice-presidency.