Just three months after giving birth to a baby girl, 38 year-old Krish Vignarajah launched her campaign to become the first woman of color to be governor of Maryland, reported The Baltimore Sun. Her name will appear alongside seven other candidates’ names tomorrow on Maryland’s Democratic Primary ballot.
According to her campaign website, Vignarajah and her family left Sri Lanka and moved to the United States thirty-eight years ago when she was 9 months old with $200 in their pockets. She grew up in Maryland and graduated from Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, a Master’s degree in Political Science, and a law degree from Yale College. She also received a MPhil in International Relations at Oxford University before attending law school.
Throughout her campaign, she has had to endure racist and sexist comments. She responded to the bigotry by participating in a video that went viral-generating 1.5 million views.
This is the first time Vignarjah has run for office, but it is not the first time she has worked in politics. According to her campaign website, after spending several years working as a lawyer, Vingnarajah served as Senior advisor at the State Department for the Obama Administration. She worked under both Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her time with the Obama Administration. Most recently, she served as Policy Director for Former First Lady Michelle Obama. While working for the former first lady, Vignarajah helped run the Let Girls Learn initiative.
Vignarajah is passionate about educating young women around the world and increasing women’s participation in politics. In a recent article about Vignarajah and the Maryland Democratic primaries, The Baltimore Sun reported that Vignarajah had “placed her gender and her motherhood at the center of her campaign.” The article noted that Vignarajah’s first campaign ad opened with a shot of her breast feeding her daughter. In the ad, she tells viewers that there are “no women in statewide or federal offices in Maryland.”
In an op-ed for The American Bazaar, Vignarajah told Maryland voters that a “central focus” of her campaign is “improving the public education system in Maryland.” Her campaign website describe her as a “proud product of Maryland public schools.” She wrote in the op-ed that her parents, who were both Baltimore City Public School teachers, instilled in her the value of education. Those values were a part of what inspired her To include public education as a central part of her platform.
Vignarajah is also campaigning on behalf of the South Asian community in Maryland. In the same op-ed for The American Bazaar, Vignarajah stated that she hoped “to be a representative for the South Asian community as Governor.”
Vignarajah also outlined eight progressive policies she supported. They are as follows:
“(1) Fully funding Maryland’s public schools and guaranteeing universal pre-kindergarten
(2) Making Maryland the most immigrant-friendly state in America
(3) Providing affordable, high quality healthcare through a state-run public option
(4) Reducing gun violence in our schools with stricter firearms regulation
(5) Building a 21st century transportation system to reduce traffic
(6) Reducing economic hardship and neglect of seniors by improving benefits
(7) Enacting community policing to reduce crime
(8) Creating 250,000 well-paying private sector jobs and supporting small businesses”
According to The Baltimore Sun both Democrats and Republicans had questioned Vignarajah’s eligibility because she had been a registered voter in Washington D.C. in 2014. Maryland gubernatorial candidates, the article stated, are required to be a resident and a registered voter of Maryland. However, a court rejected a case to take Vignarajah off the ballot. She and seven other Democratic candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination that will allow them to challenge the current Republican Governor, Larry Hogan in the election on November 6th.
The Maryland Democratic primaries will be held on Tuesday, June 26th.
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