Don’t agree with my husband on every issue: Usha Vance

U.S. Second Lady Usha Vance said she considers herself a trusted adviser to her husband J D Vance, the U.S. Vice President, especially when he’s taking a position on an issue that is “important personally.”

Ms. Usha, the first Indian American Second Lady, in an interview with NBC News, also said she and her husband do not see eye-to-eye on every issue, but the room for disagreement creates space for “open-minded” conversations.

“There are conversations all the time,” Ms. Vance said.

“I do really like to understand what’s going on in his world, what he’s really focused on, what concerns he has, because it’s a marriage. I mean, I want to be supportive of him, and if I don’t really know what’s going on, then I can’t do that.” She added that the vice president has an entire staff of policy advisers, but he comes to her “when something is troubling him” or “when he really wants to talk through something that feels more, kind of, intensely personal or important personally.” “I’m not his staffer. I’m not involved in this in any professional sense…There’s no expectation that we are going to see eye to eye on everything,” Ms. Vance said.

“The expectation is that we are going to be open-minded and have a conversation, and that I’ll provide meaningful input from, you know, the perspective of someone who loves him and wants him to succeed. So even if we don’t agree, it’s — I think it’s always very productive,” she said.

Ms. Vance said the 2028 presidential campaign was not a priority in her conversations with her husband, who was more focused on the mid-term elections due in November.

“JD is very focused on the midterm elections right now, on all the things that are happening right this moment, which are obviously exceedingly important,” she said.

Ms. Vance said she would have a better sense of her husband’s potential presidential campaign in 2027.