Family of JD Vance

Usha Chilukuri

Usha Bala Vance^[a] (née Chilukuri) is the wife of JD Vance. She was born on January 6, 1986^[3] in San Diego County, California,^[4] to Hindu parents,^[5] Lakshmi (née Yechuri)^[4] and Radhakrishna "Krish" Chilukuri,^[6][7] both Telugu Indian immigrants^[8][9] who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s^[10] from Andhra Pradesh.^[10][11][12]

She attended Yale University, graduating summa cum laude in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in history, with membership in Phi Beta Kappa.^[13][14] After graduating, she taught English and American history at Sun Yat-sen University.^[14][15] Vance then attended Clare College, Cambridge, in England, receiving a Master of Philosophy in early modern history in 2010.^{[16][17][18][19]} In 2013, Vance obtained her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, where she met her future husband JD Vance.^{[15][20][21][22]} They married on June 14, 2014, and have four children.^[23][24][25]

Ewan Vance

Ewan Blaine Vance is the eldest son of JD and Usha Vance. He was born on June 4, 2017.^[26] He is being raised Christian alongside his brother and sister.^[27]

Vivek Vance

Vivek Vance is the second son of JD and Usha Vance. He was born on February 12, 2020.^[27] On February 12, 2024, on Vivek's 4th birthday, his father JD addressed the U.S. Senate expressing regret that he couldn't be with Vivek at his "birthday dinner," but assured his son that "Daddy loves [him] very much" before reading the Dr. Seuss book Oh, The Places You'll Go! out loud.^[28]

Mirabel Vance

Mirabel Rose Vance is the only daughter of JD and Usha Vance. She was born in December 2021.^[26][29] She and her parents travelled to the Taj Mahal in April 2025.^[27]

Alec Vance

Alec Neel Vance is the youngest son of JD and Usha Vance. He was born on July 19, 2026.^[30]

Beverly Vance

Beverly Carol Aikins (née Vance) is the mother of JD Vance.^[31] She was born to Bonnie Eloise Blanton and James Lee Vance. She struggled with poverty and drug addiction most of her life. She worked as a licensed practical nurse, before she began to struggle with prescription substance abuse^[32] after one of her co-workers offered her drugs. She was fired and lost her nursing license after she got caught stealing morphine soon after.^[33] In 1979, at the age of 19, she had JD Vance's half-sister, Lindsay. She married Donald Bowman in 1983, a year before JD Vance was born.^[33] They divorced when JD Vance was only six years old.^[31] She eventually married her third husband, Bob Hamel, who adopted JD, renaming him James David Hamel, replacing her ex-husband's first name with her uncle’s name to preserve the "JD" nickname.^[34] After they divorced, she was married and divorced two more times, the last with a man surnamed Aikins.^[35]

When JD Vance was 12 years old, he was riding with Beverly in her car before she threatened to crash into a tree to kill them both. When the car came to a stop, JD successfully jumped out of the backseat window and ran to a nearby neighbor's house, who called the police. She was arrested and JD and his sister Lindsay were placed into the care of their grandparents, James Lee Vance and Bonnie Blanton.^[34] She began her journey to beating her addiction in 2015, and in 2025, she celebrated 10 years being sober with her son at the White House.^[33][35]

Donald Bowman

Donald Ray Bowman (August 15, 1959 – November 4, 2023) was the father of JD Vance.^[36] He was born on August 15, 1959 to Donald C. Bowman and Melva Shepherd (née Baker).^[37] His father died when he was 16 months old, and his mother remarried Joseph Shepherd, who raised him. He worked as a machinist for 13 years. He dated Beverly Vance and they got married in 1983, however they divorced when their son JD was two years old.^[31] In January 1988, he married Cheryl McCarty. He started his own construction business in 1996.^[34] He died from cancer on November 4, 2023 at his home in Hamilton, Ohio.

Lindsay Lewis

Lindsay Leigh^{[citation needed]} Ratliff (née Lewis)^[38] is the elder half-sister of JD Vance. She was born in 1979.^[39] Amid their mother’s abuse, JD Vance noted that Lindsay was a source of "comfort and protection" for him. Later in life, she got married and had three children. She is an aunt to JD Vance's four children.^[39]

Cory Bowman

Cory Bowman (November 1988) is the younger half-brother of JD Vance. He was born to Donald Bowman and his second wife, Cheryl McCarty. Bowman was also the Republican nominee in the 2025 Cincinnati mayoral election, losing to the incumbent mayor.^[40] Bowman and Vance had not met until they were teenagers as a result of his fathers adoption with JD. Bowman is married and has four children. He is uncle to JD Vance's four children.^[41]

Bonnie Blanton

Bonnie Eloise Vance (née Blanton; April 16, 1933 – April 24, 2005) was the maternal grandmother of JD Vance.^[42] She was born on April 16, 1933 to Blaine Blanton and Hattie Blanton (née Hounshell), along with her three brothers. At the age of 13, she and her family moved to Ohio. She married James Lee Vance in 1947.

Bonnie and James primarily raised JD Vance and his half-sister due to Beverly's drug addiction.^[43] On April 24, 2005, she died of pneumonia in Butler County, Ohio.

Nate Vance

Nate Vance is JD Vance's first cousin. He was born in 1978 to James "Jim" Vance (maternal uncle of JD Vance and son of James Lee Vance and Bonnie Eloise Blanton). He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17 in 1995.^[44]

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Vance traveled to Lviv to help.^[45] He was formally discharged from Ukrainian service in January 2025.^[46][47][48]

Lakshmi Chilukuri

Lakshmi Chilukuri is Second Lady Usha Vance's mother and JD Vance's mother-in-law. She is the provost of Sixth College^[49] and a Biological Sciences professor at the University of California, San Diego.^[50]