Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election may have prevented Kamala Harris from making history, but Indians have several other reasons to celebrate. Among them is the India connection of Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Trump’s vice presidential nominee and now Vice President JD Vance.

The desi fan base has now turned its attention to Usha Chilukuri Vance, whose parents hail from Chilakaluripeta, Andhra Pradesh. Andhra is one of the two Telugu states.

This is happening at a time when the… The Telugu-speaking population in the US has quadrupled from 3.2 lakh in 2016 to 12.3 lakh in 2024. Telugu is now the 11th most spoken foreign language and the third most spoken Indian language in the US.

Usha Chilukuri Vance was born and raised in California, the American state with the largest Telugu-speaking population with nearly 200,000 residents.

The political influence of the small Indian community in the US is so great that Indians could have celebrated which side won the elections. In two villages in India, prayers were held for both Democrats and Republicans.

A CHANGE IN THE DESI WHITE HOUSE FANBASE

Thousands of miles from the United States, chants and hymns rang out at a temple in Tamil Nadu’s Thulasendrapuram village as villagers gathered to pray for Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris. The villagers have a special affinity with Harris as it is the ancestral home of their mother Shyamala Gopalan was born in Chennai before her family moved to the United States.

Meanwhile, nearly a thousand kilometers north, in the village of Vadluru in Andhra Pradesh, special prayers were offered for JD Vance, Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee and Republican vice presidential candidate. Vance, who is set to become the next vice president of the United States, is married to Usha Vance has roots in this village in Andhra.

Chilakaluripeta is the ancestral village of Usha’s parents, an engineer and biologist. Usha was born in the United States, where her parents emigrated.

Usha Vance, who practices Hindu, previously praised JD Vance for this Adopting vegetarianism.

With Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, the Indian fan base, which had passionately supported and supported Kamala Harris for the last four years, has now turned its attention to Usha Chilukuri Vance.

USHA HAS PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN JD VANCE’S POLITICAL CAREER

Usha attended Yale Law School, where she met her future husband, JD Vance, in 2013. They worked together to organize a discussion group on “social decline in white America,” The New York Times reported.

She is an experienced litigator who first worked at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in San Francisco and Washington DC from 2015 to 2017 before serving as a law clerk to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018. She returned to Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in January 2019, according to people.com.

Usha was instrumental in her husband’s political journey, often accompanying him to political events and giving him advice and support. Vance has described her as his “partner in the truest sense of the word.”

The shift in spotlight from Kamala of Tamil Nadu to Usha of Andhra Pradesh also comes at a time when Indian-Americans are showing a shift from favoring the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. While many Indian-Americans have historically leaned toward the Democratic Party, there is also an increasing presence of Indian-Americans in the Republican Party.

INDIAN AMERICANS WILL TURN STRONGER TOWARDS REPUBLICANS IN 2024

The “Indian Americans at the Ballot Box” survey released by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on October 28 found that Indian Americans still largely support the Democratic Party.

However, it was also pointed out that a slight shift towards Republicans within the community.

According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace survey, the share of Indian Americans who identified as Democrats fell to 57% in 2024 from 66% in 2020, while the share who identified as Republicans fell from 18% to 27 % rose.

In the 2020 presidential election, 68% of Indian Americans supported Democratic candidate Joe Biden while 22% supported Republican incumbent Donald Trump. By 2024, that split has shifted to about 60% for Democrat Harris and 30% for Republican Trump.

While Indian-origin women support Harris, men tend to vote for Trump.

The shift can be described not only as a shift in political affiliation, but also reflects a broader trend in which Indian-Americans are increasingly diversifying their political affiliations and choices.

Both Kamala Harris and Usha Vance represent different facets of the Indian-American dream and experience that truly showcase the diversity and achievements of the community. The Trump victory comes amid rising numbers of people from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and is sure to elicit loud Telugu cheers. The desi focus will now be on Usha Chilukuri Vance.