In a rare interview from the Naval Observatory, second lady Usha Vance spoke with conservative commentator Meghan McCain about adjusting to public life and the realities of raising three young children while in the high-profile political role.

The conversation also offered a glimpse into the Vance family’s world, from their love of Ohio to the vice president’s talent as an “excellent, amazing baker,” and Usha’s reliance on a group chat of friends for style advice.

Why It Matters

Second lady Usha Vance has largely kept a low speaking profile while in office, with Wednesday’s Citizen McCain with Meghan McCain podcast episode offering insight into the couple and family as a whole.

McCain, who praised Usha Vance several times during the interview and used the conversation to announce her pregnancy and seek parenting advice, did not vote for the Republican ticket led by Donald Trump and JD Vance in November 2024. Instead, she wrote in her late father, Senator John McCain, who was the previous Republican nominee for president in 2008.

What To Know

Usha, 39, is a legal scholar and academic powerhouse, having earned degrees from Yale College and Yale Law School, where she met JD Vance, as well as a master’s from Cambridge. She holds an extensive list of legal accomplishments and fellowships, including a clerkship with Chief Justice John Roberts on the U.S. Supreme Court—a role she told McCain she began just seven weeks after giving birth.

Usha was raised in San Diego, California, by Indian immigrants who came to the area in pursuit of higher education, she told McCain.

Up until Vance was nominated as President Donald Trump’s running mate in July 2024, she was working as a trial lawyer at Munger, Tolles, and Olson.

The couple has three children: two sons, Ewan and Vivek, who are 8 and 5, and a daughter, Mirabel, who is 3.

Raising A Multi-Faith Family

When Vance converted to Catholicism, “we had to have a lot of real conversations,” Usha, who is Hindu, and told McCain that she is “not intending to convert,” she said.

When asked how the couple manages both faiths and presents them to their children, Usha said they offer their children the opportunities to explore both religions and make their own decisions.

“We send our kids to Catholic school and have given them each the choice,” she noted. Their oldest child, Ewan, has decided to be baptized Catholic.

Usha says going to church is “a family experience,” even though her kids know she is not Catholic.

“They have plenty of access to Hindu tradition – from books that we give them to things that we show them to the visit recently to India and some of the religious elements of that visit.”

The family travelled together to India in April, visiting historic sites such as the Taj Mahal among others.

In addition, Usha says the children have access to learning about Hinduism through their relatives, telling McCain, “My grandmother is a particularly devout Hindu.”

The family doesn’t necessarily celebrate Hindu holidays at home, but the second lady floated the idea of a Holi party next year.

She told McCain that all three of her children eat meat, unlike her. Vegetarianism is a common diet among Hindus.

Transitioning to the Public Eye and Maintaining Normalcy

Throughout the interview, Usha Vance emphasized her efforts to maintain a sense of normalcy for her family—a priority that influences many of their decisions, including whether to bring their children to public events.

“Almost every decision is directed at making it as much like what it would have been like if they had been growing up in Cincinnati as we planned,” she told McCain.

“So sometimes that means they are at public events because if there were a cool military parade or something like that they’d want to go see it, and if their dad was going to go be doing something that they’re interested in they want to be with him and experience it as a family of five and not just dad’s off doing this other thing,” she explained.

However, the couple “also make a lot of decisions that keep them out of the public eye and make them have to do pretty normal prosaic things” such as handling everyday chores like putting away laundry or cleaning up spills—despite having staff members nearby who offer to help.

Beyond parenting, Usha Vance acknowledged that “one of the things that’s kind of difficult about this life is that you are constantly set apart,” citing differences in security and social interactions compared with their life before Vance took up such a high-profile post.

She noted that there’s “all of these ways in which you’re just sort of pulled out of everyday life and the pressure that I feel is how to reinsert myself in it at every possible turn and actually just be a millennial person living in the world as opposed to some sort of like figure on television.”

Her way of doing that, she says, is partaking in regular activities like not always getting her hair styled or leaving the house with a ton of makeup on, or “going out to the gym and coming out sweaty and walking down the street and getting coffee.”

“I try to do that every day, just have a normal life that is in public and ignore that people are watching it,” she said.

By doing these regular activities, she hopes it shows that “you can be in a position of some prominence in the public eye but still sort of be a part of this generation and do the same things that everyone else does.”

She echoed a similar sentiment with her wardrobe, noting that she tries not to always purchase a new outfit for certain events, but works to try and mix and match various items already in her closet.

Second Lady Life

Usha says she’s undertaken a handful of “self-improvement projects” now that she’s second lady, which include restarting German language lessons, reading a “backlog” of books, gym classes, and “personal projects that are fundamentally unrelated to anything in politics.”

She still spends time with her friends despite her busy schedule, noting that a few of them are going white water rafting, hiking, and visiting some breweries in the near future.

While Usha and Vance’s lives have drastically changed over the past six months, with her remarking that they miss road trips, and Vance specifically drives, they have shared many fond memories in the new role and have befriended many of the staff at their new residence in the Naval Observatory.

The couple still tries to have dates sometimes, with Usha noting that being on a discrete date in Cincinnati, “that sense of being anonymous in public is honestly the best of all dates for us.”

In her political role, she is seeking to encourage young kids to read more and draw attention away from their phones and other technology, and she launched the Summer Reading Challenge, in which children read 12 books between June and September. They can then write or draw a reflection and submit it to the White House.

She told McCain that while literacy is “going to be a major issue” for her, it’s not the only one she is seeking to tackle.

When asked about her political future and the possibility of becoming first lady soon, Usha replied, “Four years ago, I had absolutely no intention of leading any sort of life in politics,” later adding, “I’m not plotting out next steps or really trying for anything after this.”

“In a dream world, eventually I’ll be able to live in my home and kind of continue my career and all those sorts of things,” she said, noting that right now she is “along for the ride and enjoying while I can.”