JD Vance Changes His Tune About Usha's Religious Beliefs & We Wonder If He Knows Her At All – thelist.com

Usha and JD Vance have had more than their fair share of painfully awkward moments in 2025, and they apparently aren’t stopping anytime soon. At a recent Turning Point USA event, JD said something rather strange about his wife’s religious beliefs, and it probably isn’t going to help those divorce rumors.
🚨 JUST IN: JD Vance says he’s raising his children Christian, and he hopes his agnostic wife, Usha, comes around to the Christian faith
Vance’s 8-year-old did his first Communion “about a year ago,” and his two oldest kids go to a Christian school
“Most Sundays, Usha comes… pic.twitter.com/RuXAWOD58j
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 30, 2025

On October 29, JD spoke to students at the University of Mississippi as part of an event for Turning Point USA. JD, who is outspoken about being Catholic, explained that when he and Usha met back in 2010, they had similar religious convictions. “She grew up in a Hindu family, but not in a particularly religious family,” he said. He explained that, at the time, he identified as “agnostic or atheist,” adding, “that’s what I think she would have considered herself as well.”
While JD has found Christianity and the couple has chosen to raise their three children Catholic, Usha still isn’t religious, although she has recently identified as Hindu. At the event, JD said, “Most Sundays, Usha will come with me to church.” Then, he said something somewhat surprising. “As I’ve told her, and I’ve said publicly, and I’ll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends: Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved [by in] church? Yeah, I honestly do wish that, because I believe in the Christian gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.” News that JD hopes Usha will convert to Christianity is eyebrow-raising — especially since Usha has spoken publicly about the fact that she has no intention of doing that. 
JD Vance noted that if Usha Vance never converts to Christianity, “then God says everybody has free will … so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.” While he doesn’t consider Usha’s beliefs a dealbreaker, he still doesn’t exactly support them. In June, Usha appeared on “Citizen McCain with Meghan McCain” where she and the titular host talked about religion, and McCain introduced Usha as “a Hindu mom raising Catholic kids.”
Usha explained, “When I met JD, he wasn’t Catholic, and he converted later.” She added that, as part of his conversion, JD agreed to raise his children within the Catholic faith. “We had to have a lot of real conversations about how do you do that, when I’m not Catholic, and I’m not intending to convert or anything like that,” she said. She added that, while the kids are being raised Catholic, they’re still very much exposed to her family’s Hindu faith. “It is a part of their lives.”
Now, just months later, JD is insisting that he still hopes Usha converts. This isn’t just a bit odd because Usha recently said she doesn’t plan to convert. It’s also odd based on what he’s said in the past. “I feel terrible for my wife, because we go to church almost every Sunday. … I feel kind of bad, because you didn’t sign up to marry a weekly churchgoer,” JD said in an interview with the New York Post in 2024. If this indicates that JD is changing his feelings about his wife’s religious beliefs, then it may be another sign of trouble in their marriage.

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