Born to Indian immigrants, Usha graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for conservative judges Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts.
She later worked as a trial lawyer at a prestigious law firm.
Usha Chilukuri Vance is the wife of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Donald Trump's 2024 presidential running mate.
Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who was recently selected as Donald Trump's running mate in the 2024 presidential election, has gained attention due to her unique background and rise to prominence.
Born to Indian immigrants, Usha graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for conservative judges like Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts. She later worked as a trial lawyer at a prestigious law firm. Her husband, J.D., gained fame with the publication of his memoir
Usha Vance entered the spotlight as the wife of JD Vance, former President Donald Trump's running mate in the 2024 presidential election.
Her rise comes at a time when Vice President Kamala Harris, of South Asian descent, serves as the nation's first woman and person of color in her role.
Usha Vance is registered Republican but had identified as a Democrat in 2014.
Accuracy
]Usha Chilukuri Vance entered the spotlight as the wife of JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election.[
J. D. Vance met the author at an event in Kentucky where he spoke about his grandparents being from and his memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy’.[
Usha graduated from Yale Law School, clerked for conservative judges like Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts, and worked as a trial lawyer at a white-shoe law firm.
Deception
(50%)
The article contains selective reporting as it only reports details that support the author's position about Usha Vance's rise to prominence and the response of South Asian Americans. The author does not provide any facts or quotes from sources that contradict their narrative. Additionally, there is emotional manipulation through phrases like 'quite an inspiration for our community in terms of the increase in representation within Indian, South Asian Americans.'
It sort of feels like the children of Indian immigrants on that main stage believe that these policies wouldn’t apply to them.
The piece that is important to remember is that these anti-immigration policies actually affect a lot of people in the Indian community, including families that people like Usha Vance and others are a part of.
Fallacies
(85%)
The article does not contain any formal or informal fallacies. There are no examples of dichotomous depictions, appeals to authority, inflammatory rhetoric or logical fallacies in the text. However, there is an implicit appeal to authority when mentioning the positions of Usha Vance and her husband JD Vance within their respective parties. Additionally, there are instances where the author highlights Usha's personal achievements without considering how some policies supported by her party may negatively impact other members of the South Asian community.
The Republican Party also saw increased South Asian representation with presidential candidates including Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.
J. D. Vance met the author at an event in Kentucky where he spoke about his grandparents being from and his memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy’,
Vance has no connection to Appalachia beyond a tenuous family tie and capitalized on American interest in the area for personal gain.
Vance abandoned Appalachia when he ran for Senate, trading in ‘hillbilly’ rhetoric for speeches about Ohio values.
Vance has spoken against women leaving abusive marriages, implying they should stay instead.
Rural women seeking domestic-violence protective orders are less likely to have an attorney and receive supportive services than those in urban areas.
A lack of resources in rural areas makes it difficult for people to navigate divorce proceedings and access specialized family court judges.
Vance has supported extreme abortion bans with no exceptions for rape or incest, particularly harming women in rural communities.
Kentucky, where Vance served as a Senator, has one of the most extreme abortion bans in the nation with only a narrow exception to save a woman’s life.
Nearly 65,000 women living in states with total abortion bans have experienced rape-related pregnancies since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Vance has expressed support for national abortion ban and wants it to be illegal nationally.
Day-care access is an important policy issue for women in rural areas, but Vance seems uninterested in supporting this sector or the families who depend on it.
COVID forced 100,000 Kentucky women to leave the workforce due to a lack of child care
About 40 percent of unemployed Kentuckians currently cite a lack of child care as the reason they are not working
Statewide, Kentucky has lost 46 percent of its child-care centers since 2012, and many closures have been in rural areas.
Vance’s policy stances on domestic violence and abortion have real impacts on women in rural communities.
Accuracy
J. D. Vance met the author at an event in Kentucky where he spoke about his grandparents being from and his memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy’.
Deception
(35%)
The author makes editorializing statements about J. D. Vance's policies and rhetoric towards divorce and abortion, implying that they are harmful to women in rural communities. She also selectively reports details that support her position, such as the lack of resources for rural women seeking protective orders or accessing abortions.
Vance has also supported an extreme abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest—another policy that particularly harms women in rural communities.
I met one woman who lived about an hour outside of Louisville who had been trying for years to get divorced. She couldn’t afford an attorney, so she tried to file the paperwork herself. Without a lawyer to move it along, her case went nowhere.
The idea that leaving a bad marriage that is ‘maybe even violent’ would make you happier, he said, was ‘one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace.’
Fallacies
(75%)
The author makes an appeal to emotion by sharing personal stories of women in rural areas and their struggles with domestic violence and access to healthcare. She also uses a dichotomous depiction by portraying J. D. Vance as someone who has abandoned Appalachia and does not care about its people, particularly women.
]The one time I met J. D. Vance was shortly after his book, Hillbilly Elegy, came out[., ]But what bothers me more is the impact that Vance’s policies and rhetoric have on the Appalachian people that he claims to care about[., ]I met one woman who lived about an hour outside of Louisville who had been trying for years to get divorced[., ]Just two years ago, one Kentucky woman, Hadley Duvall, became a nationally recognized leader on this issue when she shared her story of becoming pregnant at 12 after she was raped by her stepfather[.
Vance has also told us his position on day-care access[., ]I’m proud of the work our legislature is doing on this issue[.
Bias
(0%)
The author expresses clear bias against J. D. Vance by implying that he is not genuine in his connection to Appalachia and that his policies are harmful to women in the region, particularly with regards to divorce and abortion. The author also uses language that depicts Vance as extreme or out of touch.
But what bothers me more is the impact that Vance’s policies and rhetoric have on the Appalachian people that he claims to care about–particularly its women.
He has said that funding universal day care would be ‘class warfare against normal people.’
He then abandoned Appalachia when he ran for Senate, trading in his ‘Hillbilly’ rhetoric for speeches about his ‘Ohio values.’
I met one woman who lived about an hour outside of Louisville who had been trying for years to get divorced. She couldn’t afford an attorney, so she tried to file the paperwork herself. Without a lawyer to move it along, her case went nowhere.
Vance has also supported an extreme abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest–another policy that particularly harms women in rural communities.
Usha Vance is married to Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who was Trump’s pick for vice president.
Usha graduated from Yale Law School, clerked for conservative judges like Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts, and worked as a trial lawyer at a white-shoe law firm.
Accuracy
Should Trump and Vance win in November, Usha will be the second lady of the United States.
Despite previously insulting Trump, J.D. Vance’s political stance has closely resembled Trump’s, including anti-immigrant sentiment.
Viewers waved ‘mass deportation’ signs during Usha’s introduction at the convention.
Far-right Republicans have begun attacking Usha and denigrating her and her husband’s mixed-race family.
Deception
(30%)
The article makes several assumptions about Usha Vance's feelings towards her husband's politics without any evidence to support those assumptions. This is an example of selective reporting and emotional manipulation. The author also uses language that implies Usha is a damsel in distress, which is a form of sexism.
From mannerism analysis to the musings about love in a hopeless place to the “poor Usha’ projection, it all assumes that Usha Vance ultimately disapproves of her husband’s political ideologies.
Some political reporters have started to “read” her body language, surmising that she’s “uneasy” or unwilling to be in this position.
The Daily Beast took one moment of Usha looking at her husband during the convention, and came to the conclusion that this was a woman trapped: stuck in love with a man who made a Faustian bargain with Donald Trump.
But then the smile faded and at other moments she appeared fatigued and had a ‘What am I doing here?’ look.
Fallacies
(100%)
None Found At Time Of
Publication
Bias
(15%)
The author demonstrates a clear bias towards portraying Usha Vance as a damsel in distress who is unwilling or unable to support her husband's political beliefs. The author uses language that depicts Usha as being trapped or needing saving, and makes assumptions about her feelings based on her body language and lack of media training. This bias is an example of benevolent sexism, which undercuts women's autonomy and attempts to exonerate them from their own choices.
But then the smile faded and at other moments she appeared fatigued and had a 'What am I doing here? look'
He added, 'And when he and Usha gazed at each other there was a spark of what appeared to be true love, even in MAGAland. Then she had a look that made you hope that the heart will prove to be enough when your husband has sold his soul.'
The more likely possibility, though, is that she does not disagree with J.D. Vance.
Usha Vance is the daughter of two Indian immigrants
Usha Vance introduced her husband J.D. Vance at the Republican convention
Accuracy
Usha Vance is a Yale-educated lawyer with three children
Deception
(50%)
The author makes editorializing statements about the appearance of Usha Vance and Kimberly Guilfoyle, implying that their appearances are representative of a certain type of femininity in the Trump orbit. This is an example of selective reporting and emotional manipulation as it focuses on specific details to support the author's opinion.
It involves a lot of hair, often left to cascade in glossy, carefully controlled Breck girl waves.
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It calls to mind a cross between a Miss America – or Miss Universe – pageant contestant and a Fox newscaster.
Fallacies
(95%)
The author makes several observations about the appearance of women in the Trump orbit and implies that Usha Vance does not fit this mold. This is an appeal to stereotype and a dichotomous depiction of femininity. The author also uses inflammatory rhetoric when describing Kimberly Guilfoyle's speech, but it is not directly related to any fallacious assertions made by the author.
][The women in Mr. Trump’s closest orbit all share a certain kind of look that has become a defining gender trope in his own political reality show. It involves a lot of hair, often left to cascade in glossy, carefully controlled Breck girl waves. It involves heavy mascara (or false eyelashes), lip gloss and vertiginous heels. It often involves a brightly colored sheath dress. It calls to mind a cross between a Miss America or Miss Universe pageant contestant and a Fox newscaster.][][Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe Subscribe. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.]
Bias
(90%)
The author makes clear distinctions between Usha Vance and the women in Trump's orbit, implying a bias against the appearance and presentation of these women. The author describes their look as 'a cross between a Miss America or Miss Universe pageant contestant and a Fox newscaster', 'it involves heavy mascara (or false eyelashes), lip gloss and vertiginous heels', 'brightly colored sheath dress' and 'looks as if it requires a lot of effort to maintain'. These descriptions are not neutral, but rather convey a negative judgment towards the women in question.
It calls to mind a cross between a Miss America – or Miss Universe – pageant contestant and a Fox newscaster.
It involves heavy mascara (or false eyelashes), lip gloss and vertiginous heels.
J.D. Vance's memoir 'Hillbilly Elegy' was published in 2016 and gained widespread praise.
Vance was not a politician when the book was published, but later became a senator and Trump’s running mate.
The book touched on a nerve and became an urgent sociological text during the election season.
Critics declared the memoir essential and it became a staple of university reading programs.
Within a few years, public mood soured on the book with criticism being bipartisan.
Accuracy
J.D. Vance was not a politician when the book was published, but later became a senator and Trump’s running mate.
Vance has no connection to Appalachia beyond a tenuous family tie and capitalized on American interest in the area for personal gain.
Vance met the author at an event in Kentucky where he spoke about his grandparents being from and his memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy’.
Usha Vance is married to Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who was Trump’s pick for vice president.
Usha graduated from Yale Law School, clerked for conservative judges like Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts, and worked as a trial lawyer at a white-shoe law firm.
Deception
(30%)
The article contains selective reporting as it only mentions negative criticisms of J.D. Vance and his book 'Hillbilly Elegy' since the public mood seemed to sour on it. It does not mention any positive reviews or critiques that have been published recently.
Their opinions of the author aside, do the critics think that Hillbilly Elegy still had something to say to America in 2024? ‘It was an inspiring story. I learned a lot about a segment of America that I didn’t know very much about before I read the book. Those things totally still stand,’ Smith said.
Slate critic Laura Miller wrote Tuesday: ‘All the qualities that made Hillbilly Elegy one of the best books I read in 2016 – its brutal honesty, its challenges to the self-delusional and self-defeating aspects of hillbilly culture, its mournful ambivalence about the identity he’s only partially left behind – have been shamelessly jettisoned by Vance for the sake of his political career.’
As the Republican National Convention unfolded this week, some critics noted Vance’s shift away from the beliefs he’d espoused in the book.
