Once a Never-Trumper, a literary star married to an Indian wins Senate nomination by echoing Trump

WASHINGTON: A Trump-backed literary star whose wife is Indian but is seen as an anti-immigrant nativist by sections of the Indian-American community has won a Republican primary in Ohio, potentially paving way for a crucial

Senate

seat for Republicans in a chamber currently tied at 50-50.

JD

Vance

, a one-time never-Trumper who once called the former President "cultural heroin," defeated two other Republicans to clinch the party nomination in a race that attracted national attention to assess

Trump

influence that some pundits see as waning.

While his victory affirmed Trump's continuing sway in the party, many Indian-Americans in the Appalachians, the economically devastated mountain regions that form the backdrop of Vance's personal story related in Hillbilly Elegy, see his win as an emerging threat to immigrants in region.

“A political opportunist with no core beliefs, the one time ‘never-Trumper’ found a path to electoral success by blaming immigrants and minorities for the country’s economic problems. Despite profiting off of immigrant labor himself, Vance has vowed opposition to H1-B visas, claiming that the government and corporations abuse the program to hurt Americans," an Indian-American political lobbying group said following his victory.

Vance is married to Usha Chilukuri, a litigator who has previously clerked with conservative Supreme Court justices John Roberts and

Brett Kavanagh

. The couple met when they were both studying law at Yale, during which time he was persuaded by his mentor and professor Amy Chua (known for her parenting memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) to write his own memoir. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis went on to become a best-seller, with some critics calling him the "Voice of the Rust Belt" who helped rest of America understand Trump's 2016 victory.

Vance was initially on track to become a venture capitalist but Trump's win led him back to the Rust Belt where he grew up, and a subsequent career in politics. The couple now live in Cincinnati, Ohio with their three children.

Vance initially opposed Trump, calling him "reprehensible," admonishing him for demonising immigrants, and trashing his policies as "immoral and absurd." But he eventually became a pro-Trumper and echoed many of the former President's views, including falsely blaming election fraud for Trump's 2020 election loss.

Vance's primary victory has alarmed many Indians, and political activists among them are planning to back his Democratic rival Tim Ryan, as the two fight it out for the Senate seat come November.

Among those agitated is

Neema Avashia

, author of Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, who urged Appalachians in Ohio to "truly think about whether the narrative offered by Trump and Vance aligns with the values of community and acceptance that allowed my immigrant family to make a home in Appalachia."

"People in Appalachia are exhausted by the narrow vision of their community that Vance offers to the world... Politicians like Trump and Vance offer a narrative to make sense of the decline, but it is one grounded in exclusion and hatred," Avashia said in a commentary on NBC News.