US elections | Far-right extremists troll Usha Vance over immigrant background

It has been a strange experience for Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Ohio Senator JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate in the US presidential elections.

When Usha Vance introduced her husband at the Republican National Convention this week, there were members in the audience holding placards with the message “Mass deportation”, mirroring the conservative party’s strong anti-immigrant stance.

Though she spoke to a largely supportive audience at the convention, she was unfortunately the target of some far-right extremists who posted messages on social media attacking her immigrant roots, and questioning whether her husband Vance would be “soft” on immigrants, if elected to the post of vice president.

The wife of the vice-presidential nominee is the daughter of Indian immigrant parents. She and her parents are practising Hindus.

Conservative base of party

The Republican party has a strong base of conservative Christians and white supremacists, some of whom believe in the racist “great replacement theory” – the line of argument popular among the white nationalist fringe that falsely claims that there is a plan to “replace” native-born White Americans with immigrants.

Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist who visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in November 2022 suggested that Vance would not be a “defender of white identity” because of his wife’s Indian heritage.

“Who is this guy, really? Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?” said Fuentes on his podcast.

A conservative commentator Stew Peters wrote, “There is an obvious Indian coup taking place in the US right before our eyes.”

The backlash is not totally unexpected given the fact that Trump has in the past called for harsh anti-immigration measures and used violent rhetoric to describe migrants.

Positive reactions to Usha Vance from Republicans

On the other hand, several Republican delegates at the convention who saw her introducing her husband praised her performance.

Wendi Baggaley, a 53-year-old delegate from North Dakota, said Usha’s Indian heritage is “beautiful” and called her a “rock star”, according to USA Today.

“Oh, my goodness, she’s amazing. She didn’t seem nervous or anything. She just delivered a sweet message,” gushed Wendi.

Kay Schell, 81, and her 83-year-old husband who attended the event, said they thought Usha Vance was lovely.

“America is made of immigrants. As long as an immigrant is here legally, I think it’s great,” said Kay.

Welcome people with diverse backgrounds: Nikki Haley

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, herself the daughter of immigrants, during her speech at the convention asked Republicans to be better at welcoming people into the party who have diverse backgrounds.

“We must not only be a unified party, but we must also expand our party. We are stronger when we welcome people into our party with different backgrounds and experiences,” said Haley.

‘Marginal voices’

American university professor Brian Hughes, who studies extremism and radicalisation, said the extremists’ attacks on Usha Vance show that “anti-immigrant rhetoric and very standard White supremacist ideology frequently overlap”.

However, Hughes noted that these were “marginal voices within the broader far right”.