US VICE PRESINDENT JD Vance has defended his statement that he hopes his wife, Usha, who was raised as a Hindu, converts to Christianity.
Vance, a practising Catholic who converted in 2019, said on Friday that criticism of his comments reflected “anti-Christian bigotry.”
The 41-year-old made the original remark on Wednesday during a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi, held in memory of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. He was asked about raising their three children in an interfaith marriage.
“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,” Vance said.
“But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.”
Vance, who has been mentioned by President Donald Trump as a potential candidate in the 2028 US election, later responded to criticism on social media.
Replying to a user on X who accused him of throwing the Second Lady’s religion “under the bus” to please right-wingers, Vance wrote: “What a disgusting comment, and it’s hardly been the only one along these lines.”
“She is not a Christian and has no plans to convert, but like many people in an interfaith marriage — or any interfaith relationship — I hope she may one day see things as I do,” he added.
Usha Vance was born in San Diego to parents who emigrated from India. She told Fox News in 2024 that her parents’ Hindu faith helped make them “really good people.”
Vance was raised as an evangelical Christian in a difficult upbringing, which he described in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
The couple met while studying at Yale Law School and married in 2014.
Since converting to Catholicism five years later, Vance has often spoken about how his faith shapes his conservative political views.
(With inputs from agencies)
