In JD Vance’s new memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” he writes that Usha Vance framed a coveted Supreme Court clerkship as an “insurance policy” for her career—so having children later “won’t ruin” it. The book’s personal detail lands against a
By the time JD Vance’s memoir reaches the story of his marriage, it’s no longer only about faith or politics—it’s about the quiet accounting women are forced to do around ambition, motherhood, and momentum.
In “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith. ” Vance writes that Usha Vance told him she wanted to land a prestigious Supreme Court clerkship not out of ambition. but as an “insurance policy.” Her reasoning. as Vance recounts it. was direct and time-bound: “It’s so prestigious that if I do it and then have kids. it won’t ruin my career.”.
The line carries weight precisely because Vance’s own path to power. described through his work in venture capital and his political rise. is mapped alongside a professional world where credentials and timing can decide futures. In 2016, Vance worked at Mithril Capital, a VC firm backed by Peter Thiel. A former coworker previously told Business Insider that Vance was often away from the job promoting his book, “Hillbilly Elegy.”.
Thiel later became instrumental in Vance’s rise to power in politics. The New York Times reported that Thiel donated $15 million to Vance’s Senate campaign and encouraged Trump to choose Vance as his running mate. After that pivot into Washington. Vance continued moving through venture capital. working at Revolution. a VC firm in Washington. DC. before founding his own firm. Narya Capital. in 2019.
Usha Vance’s career trajectory, as described through her professional history, also centers on steep credentials and high-stakes institutions. She worked as a litigator at Munger. Tolles & Olson before leaving to clerk for Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the US Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts. After her clerkships. she returned to Munger. Tolles & Olson. according to a bio on the firm’s website that has since been removed.
The juxtaposition is hard to ignore: Vance’s memoir frames the Supreme Court clerkship as career protection tied to family planning. while his own earlier professional leaps—from Mithril Capital to Revolution to Narya Capital—show a different kind of momentum. one backed by money and political matchmaking. Together. the facts don’t argue a point outright; they leave readers to feel the contrast between how certainty is built. and how it’s guarded.
For Usha Vance, the “insurance policy” was meant to work even if life changed after the achievement. The memoir turns that logic into a personal moment between spouses—one that lands in readers’ hands not as a policy platform, but as a stark sentence about what prestige is supposed to secure.
JD Vance Usha Vance Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith Supreme Court clerkship Brett Kavanaugh John G. Roberts Munger Tolles & Olson Mithril Capital Peter Thiel Hillbilly Elegy Senate campaign Revolution Narya Capital
So basically she planned the Supreme Court clerk thing like a life hack? Crazy.
Not sure why everyone’s making it sound like a scandal. Having kids shouldn’t “ruin” anything, but also women always get blamed anyway.
Wait, is the memo saying she actually helped get him the clerkship? Or is it just like, she said it in a book? Bc those are totally different things.
I read the headline and assumed this was about Supreme Court justices like, “insurance policy” means bribery or something. Then I saw venture capital and Thiel and I’m like… ok so it’s just rich people timing their kids. Still gross though, because it’s always the same old “credentials first” story.