Second Lady Usha Vance has dismissed a personal remark made by Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed about her marriage to Vice President JD Vance, saying she laughed off the comment and considers her husband’s Ohio family her own.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Usha Vance responded to El-Sayed’s recent quip asking whether JD Vance would take her “back in time to meet Papaw,” a reference to the vice president’s late grandparents, who featured prominently in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
“I mean, I have to admit, I kind of laughed,” Usha Vance said. “Yes, I never met JD’s Mamaw and Papaw, but I do know and love the children that they raised.”
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She said her husband’s family has embraced her from the beginning of their relationship.
“His mom, his aunt and uncle, and they have never been anything but incredibly loving. His aunt is like a second mother to me,” she said. “I have to think that if they raised children like that, they would have been loving as well.”
Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants, said she had never visited Ohio before meeting JD Vance and admitted she had little idea what to expect.
“He makes fun of me because I thought it would look more like Iowa, which obviously it does not,” she said.
Instead, she said, Ohio surprised her with its diversity and welcoming communities.
“Whatever expectations I might have had were blown up when I got there. It’s a culturally diverse place in many ways. It has all sorts of traditions that were new to me in other ways, but the people are so welcoming.”
She ended her response with a personal reflection on her relationship with the Vance family.
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“They are my family. They treat me like their family.”
El-Sayed’s original remark came during the Michigan governor’s race and was widely shared on social media, with critics describing it as a personal jab at the vice president and his family. Usha Vance did not directly criticize El-Sayed, instead choosing to emphasize the warmth she has experienced from her husband’s relatives.
The Vances have frequently spoken publicly about the influence of JD Vance’s family, particularly his grandparents, whom he credits with helping shape his upbringing in Appalachia and Ohio.