WASHINGTON – Second lady Usha Vance said Friday that she and her husband, Vice President JD Vance, don’t always see eye to eye on every issue, but that an environment of disagreement creates an environment for “open” discussions.
“I’m not his employee. I’m not involved in this in any professional sense. … There’s no expectation that we’re going to see eye to eye on everything,” Vance said.
“The expectation is that we’re going to be open-minded and have a conversation, and I’m going to give a sound opinion, you know, the opinion of someone who you love and want to see succeed. So even if we disagree, it’s — I think it’s always very productive.”
Vance sat down with NBC News for 30 minutes interview in his new studio before the launch of her podcast, “Storytime With the Second Lady,” which will premiere on Monday.
Vance, 40, talked about her transition from Democrat to Republican, whether her husband plans to run for president in 2028, their decision to have another child, and why she feels strongly about doing a podcast to inspire new readers.
In late January, the Vances announced they were expecting their fourth child, a boy, in July. JD and Usha Vance will become the first vice presidential family in modern history to welcome a child while in office.
In his role at JD Vance’s job as vice president
The second one said that she sees herself as her husband’s trusted advisor, especially when he takes a side on an issue that is “personally important.”
“There are always conversations,” Vance said. “I really like to understand what’s going on in her world, what she’s really focused on, what’s bothering her because it’s a marriage, I mean I want to support her, and if I don’t really know what’s going on, I won’t be able to do that.”
He also added that the vice president has all policy advisors, but he comes to him “when something is bothering him” or “when he wants to talk about something that is more sensitive, kind, personal or very important personally.”
Vance said her husband’s political future prospects are not “at the forefront” of their current private discussions, although he is expected to run for president in 2028.
“JD is very focused on the midterms, on all the things that are going on right now, which are obviously very important. And if you come back in 2027 and you’re going to ask me, I’ll have a better sense of, you know, what he’s thinking about that way. But that’s not at the forefront of our discussions,” Vance said in response to questions about the potential presidential candidate.
The vice president himself said in a December interview with NBC News that he would not decide whether to run for president until after the 2026 midterm elections.
“I try not to wake up and ask myself, ‘What does this mean for my future?’ I’m always trying to think, ‘How can I do a good job right now,’ right? And that’s one of the reasons I’m trying to stay away from the 2028 debate. … I definitely don’t want the focus on the future to come at the expense of this job,” he said at the time.
The second woman, who was a registered Democrat until at least 2014 and voted Republican when her husband ran for Senate, was asked if she felt fully comfortable in the current political world. He said he has never felt pressured to conform to any policy ideas even though his ideas are not always well aligned with politics.
“I feel very comfortable that no one has ever asked me to engage in any kind of litmus test for anything. And what I’ve found is that I was me in 2014. I can be me today. And I feel very comfortable in that world,” Vance said.
“I don’t think I should go and do anything, I didn’t think I should do that. [in 2014]actually. Sometimes I have thoughts that fit freely in one direction or the other. Sometimes I have weird ideas,” he added. “And the world I think actually accepts that, because everybody knows that I really care about JD’s success.”
Vance also spoke about her role in breaking barriers as the second first woman to become a Hindu, saying she doesn’t feel “pressure” to be the first.
“Everything about this is so novel that this is just one aspect of something new, in many ways,” he said.
A fourth child is expected
Vance will be the first person to give birth while her husband was vice president since the 1870s.
“I learned that after my pregnancy,” she said with a laugh, adding that this pregnancy is very different from her first three because she has to dress up more often to play her role as the second woman.
“My last pregnancy, there were a lot of sweat pants,” she said. “I was working from home – you know, sometimes I put a blazer over what was underneath.”
She also responded to her husband’s comments at an event in Michigan this month where the vice president said he was “influential” enough to convince her to have a fourth child.
“I remember when we decided to run for vice president, I said, ‘Honey, I really want to have a fourth child.’ He said, ‘Well, you can be vice president or you can have a fourth child,'” the vice president recounted. “But, ladies and gentlemen, I am convincing, because I get both.”
Usha Vance laughed when asked to respond to this, saying that her husband urged her to have another child, “in a manner of speaking,” although “I never closed the door on that.”
The couple’s three children – two boys and one girl – are currently aged 4, 6 and 8.
“I grew up in a family of two. And I thought that was a great value. And then I had two children, and I thought—I felt accomplished, didn’t I?” Vance said. “So I really wanted to have a third child.”
She said that after having a third child, their family felt complete, but she was still happy to have another.
“We have our daughter, which is amazing, and it’s been great. So I wasn’t sure. But as time went on, I realized that I was feeling very excited about what could happen.”
So if there was an opportunity, I had to take it, and I knew that I would be happy if we only had three children, and I knew that I would be happy if we had four. So here we are.”
A new podcast with family life
The second lady said her children helped design and decorate her podcast studio, where she will record episodes of the show. The first three episodes will premiere on Monday, featuring one episode of a second lady studying alone, one episode with racing legend Danica Patrick and one episode with Paralympian runner and author Brent Poppen.
“It’s really a podcast just for kids. The idea is we’ll have someone come in – a special reader, we call them – read a fun book, have a very short conversation about things related to the book, maybe their work, if they have some interesting background,” Vance said. “Then invite the children to take books for themselves.
The podcast’s target audience, the second lady said, is late school or elementary school kids. Vance said each episode will be between 10 and 15 minutes long.
Vance added that part of the motivation for starting a children’s podcast with books was his experience teaching his own children to read.
“I have taught them all to read now. Our four-year-old child is at the end of the first process,” she said.
A second woman added that while teaching her children to read was “the most amazing thing,” she was also “starting to see some of the statistics that are out there about the decline in literacy rates, about the fact that this is really a long-term trend, not just something related to an epidemic.”
He added that the decline in children’s reading is “worrying,” and seeing the statistics made him think, “If I’m going to do something, this would be something we should focus on at this time.”
Vance added that he hopes the podcast will inspire parents to educate their children at home, saying, “There’s a lot people can do in their family home without a ton of resources or effort.”
The second wife also talked about some aspects of everyday life that she tries to maintain despite the prominence of her family, who lives in the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington.
“We have neighborhood stores. We have our Costco membership,” Vance said, adding that making those trips as a second family is always “a fun experience.”
“We have all the things we like that we can find,” she said. “They pick their lunches there. It’s just kind of a family tradition. It’s the kind of thing you don’t want to give up when you have a family life and go to something like the Naval Observatory.”
He also maintained a love of reading that caught public attention in the 2024 campaign by joining a book club, he said, that included “some of my neighbors.”
“One of the other benefits of my position is that, actually, people don’t see me that much. And if I put on my jeans and a t-shirt and put my hair up and go to the store or go to the library, maybe someone will notice,” Vance said. But most of the time, I can do those kinds of things. And I try to make a point about it, you know, so I’m not afraid to get out there. And I find that I am constantly surprised.
