Much has been made of Donald Trump’s audacious choice of running mate in the last week — including by this writer, who sees JD Vance’s life story and unique grasp of the issues of the white working class as a revelation and a potential game-changer in swing states.
But the vice-presidential nominee is not the only potentially formidable member of the Vance family when it comes to national politics.
Possible Second Lady Usha Chilukuri Vance brings a perspective every bit as refreshing as that of her husband and, perhaps more important, represents a marked contrast from the vapid and instantly forgettable second gentleman (Never mind the pandering Mrs. Biden, who won’t be the American people’s problem for much longer.)
Doug Emhoff has been imposed on the nation for half a decade now, with live microphones in his face at dozens of events as he functions as a political adjunct and surrogate for the Biden-Harris campaign. And in all that time, he’s yet to say anything remotely memorable — much less anything responsive to how normal people live.
Usha Vance? She’s in a position to represent marked change — particularly if the Trump campaign gives her platforms to speak her mind and deviate from stultifying scripts of the sort that plague the spouses of the current president and vice president.
At the first Trump-Vance rally, Saturday in Grand Rapids, Mich., the vice-presidential candidate delivered remarks that put him on the attack against Kamala Harris but also projected humility and an “I can’t believe I’m here” aura.
Yet the most interesting line JD Vance delivered wasn’t about Harris being a government employee for decades; nor was it about his Mamaw — it was an offhand remark about Usha.
“My wife’s not a very political person. She thinks the whole thing’s corrupt, and she’s probably right about that,” the vice-presidential hopeful said, deviating from the script to offer real candor.
“Not a very political person” is a marked contrast to Emhoff, who has dropped his congenial mask to deliver rote Dem talking points like some sort of ambulatory ChatGPT that’s been prompted to attack JD Vance.
“Look at the guy that he picked. An extremist and an opportunist. This is the guy who wants no exceptions at all to abortion — not even for incest or rape. That’s JD Vance. So we already know what it was like the first time. He didn’t care about us, terrible economy, incompetence, COVID-19, insurrection, and now you’ve got Project 2025. That’s their platform,” he said in Arizona over the weekend.
Usha Vance doesn’t need to follow either path.
Indeed, the best thing she can do for the Republican ticket is humanize it and tell the story her husband teased out in Grand Rapids — about how even though she has justifiable reservations about the political process, she backs her husband as he embarks on a reform mission via the vice presidency — a future that seemed unimaginable to a boy from a dysfunctional family and troubled upbringing in Middletown, Ohio.
Politics is an inherently corrupt business, and many who enter the game intending to clean it up end up enmeshed in the compromise. Usha Vance is someone who can show it doesn’t have to be that way — and that it isn’t that way for her husband.
But it all comes down to whether the potential second lady and the Trump campaign recognize the potency of that message.
There are indications they might.
During last week’s RNC, Usha Vance described JD in a way completely alien to the distortion-mirror images of him distributed by the Democratic National Committee.
Arguably the best part had nothing to do with politics but with the person she fell in love with, “a working-class guy who had overcome childhood traumas that I could barely fathom to end up at Yale Law School. A tough Marine who had served in Iraq but whose idea of a good time was playing with puppies and watching the movie ‘Babe.’”
The Trump-Vance campaign needs more of this. And so does American politics.
So here’s some advice: Let Usha be Usha.
It’s a winning strategy.
And potentially a transformative one in a presidential race thrown into flux when Joe Biden decided to stand down.