JD Vance took his secret weapon with him Tuesday on the campaign trail: his wife, Usha, whose Indian-American heritage may serve to blunt the fallout from racial stereotypes that Republicans have aimed at Kamala Harris.
The vice presidential aspirant spent most of his speech at an event in battleground Michigan lambasting critics for stoking political violence, including a second apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
What he did not address, however, was something largely lost in the midst of Sunday’s mayhem in West Palm Beach, Florida. Earlier that day on television Vance dodged a question about whether he or his wife were offended by insults aimed at Harris.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I make a mean chicken curry. I don’t think that it’s insulting for anybody to talk about their dietary preferences or what they want to do in the White House,” Vance told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
But he took it a step further, making a remark that was interpreted by some as more race-baiting stereotyping.
“Kamala Harris is running for president and whether you’re eating curry at your dinner table or fried chicken, things have gotten more expensive thanks to her policies,” Vance told moderator Kristen Welker.
JD and Usha Vance walked out together at Tuesday’s rally and kissed briefly before he took the stage and she found a spot out of sight.
Usha Vance, who, like Harris, is Indian-American, didn’t speak at the event. But her presence by her husband’s side served as a reminder that she can be a powerful shield.
Vance’s comments got little notice on Sunday when he dodged Welker’s questions about racist tropes promulgated by right-wing provocateur and Trump confidante Laura Loomer, who said if Harris wins the election the White House will become a “call center” and “smell like curry.”
Vance, through a spokesperson, denied that his answer about fried chicken was aimed at Harris, who is a biracial Black woman.
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance walks on stage with his wife, Usha, before speaking at a rally at a trucking company in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Getty Images“Senator Vance was referring to the fact that he prefers fried chicken, and his wife prefers curry chicken,” a spokesman for Vance told the Daily Beast. “Fried chicken was a staple in the Vance household when JD was a kid, as he wrote in Hillbilly Elegy.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment about whether the Democratic presidential candidate was offended by Vance’s reference to culinary choices. The left-leaning news site Raw Story linked to former FBI agent Asha Rangappa’s post in which she said, “Curry or…fried chicken? Good lord he’s like the KKK whisperer.”
Vance and his wife were also accompanied Tuesday by their German Shepherd, Atlas, who has traveled with them before aboard Trump Force Two, the campaign’s nickname for Vance’s plane. Atlas may also serve to provide cover for his master, who has promoted the unfounded far-right conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are kidnapping and eating people’s pet cats and dogs.
Atlas, J.D. Vance’s dog, boards a plane to join his owner on the campaign trail.
Courtesy of the Trump-Vance CampaignAt the rally in Sparta, Michigan—where Atlas remained out of sight—Vance lashed out at Democrats and the media, accusing both of inciting a second assassination attempt on Trump.
“It’s time to say to the Democrats, to the media, to everybody who’s been attacking this man and trying to censor this man for going on 10 years now: Cut it out or you’re going to get somebody killed,” he said.
