WASHINGTON – US Vice President JD Vance has defended his recent comments expressing hope that his wife, Usha, who was raised Hindu, might one day convert to Christianity — saying criticism of his remarks stems from “anti-Christian bigotry.”
Speaking at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi, held in honor of slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Vance discussed interfaith family life and raising their three children. “Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly do wish that,” he said. “But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.”
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After facing backlash online, the 41-year-old, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, responded on X: “What a disgusting comment, and it’s hardly been the only one along these lines,” he wrote to a critic who accused him of disrespecting his wife’s faith. “She is not a Christian and has no plans to convert, but like many people in an interfaith marriage, I hope she may one day see things as I do.”
Usha Vance, born in San Diego to Indian immigrant parents, has previously spoken about how Hindu values shaped her upbringing, telling Fox News in 2024 that her parents’ religion helped make them “really good people.” The couple met while studying at Yale Law School and married in 2014.
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Vance, who has been floated by former President Donald Trump as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has said his faith plays a central role in his political views, shaped by his evangelical roots and later conversion to Catholicism.