(Photo: X/@SLOTUS)
Washington, September 11 (IANS) Vice President J.D. Vance brought his wife Usha and their newborn son into the political spotlight as he defended the American family and appealed for Republican victories in the November midterm elections.
Speaking at a Republican mid-term convention in Dallas, Vance said Usha had declined an invitation to introduce him because she was caring for their six-week-old son and three other young children.
“In July, my beautiful Usha gave birth to a baby boy, little Alec, just six weeks ago,” Vance said.
He said the organisers approached Usha when their son was only two weeks old. “She said, ‘Hell no! I got four kids to take care of,’” Vance said. “But she sends her love, and I know she’s watching at home.”
The vice president used the family story to introduce a broader argument about what he called the birthright of American children.
“I’ve thought a lot, ladies and gentlemen, about what is the birthright of this newest of Americans, my little boy,” he said. “He is now our fellow citizen, though he doesn’t know it.”
He spoke of his four-year-old daughter, Mira, asking to feed her brother and the older children seeing the newborn smile.
“It’s inside of that family where I’ve seen Usha show an almost divine patience with those four kids,” he said.
Vance also criticised Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan. He said El-Sayed had questioned whether Vance would take Usha back in time to meet his late grandfather, whom he called “Papaw”.
Vance interpreted the remark as an attack on whether his white grandfather could have accepted and loved Usha.
“Abdul looks at him, sees the colour of his skin, sees his background, and decides that he could never have loved my wife,” Vance said.
The vice president said El-Sayed himself had been raised by white step-grandparents. “They say that people with names like James Vance are incapable of loving people with names like Usha, and they couldn’t be more wrong,” he said.
Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants, became the first Indian American and first Hindu second lady of the United States when her husband took office as vice president.
The couple met while studying at Yale Law School. They have four children. Usha Vance, a lawyer, has frequently appeared with her husband at major political events but has generally maintained a lower public profile.
