Political Strategist Punya Krishnappa Joins Uber as Manager of Federal Campaigns
- A deputy national field director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, she was the Director of States for Michelle Obamaâs When We All Vote initiative.
Uber has named political strategist and advocacy professional Punya Krishnappa as manager for federal campaigns. In a LinkedIn post, C.R. Wooters, head of Federal Affairs at Uber wrote that the growing Uber Federal team is pleased to add Krishnappa and Erin Reif, who are ârockstars and we are lucky to get to work with them.â
Krishnappa most recently served as a senior strategist for Baltimore tech entrepreneur Michael Rosenbaumâs Maryland gubernatorial campaign. A deputy national field director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, she was the Director of States for Michelle Obamaâs When We All Vote initiative.
She has also worked for President Obamaâs White House campaigns and for Hillary Clintonâs 2016 presidential campaign. At DCCC, Krishnappa, who is trained in communications, digital, research and field tactics, ran the largest and earliest field investment program in the committeeâs history.
She graduated from Bradley University in 2011with a BA in Public Relations, Advertising and Applied Communications.
In an article titled âI Found My Voice Hereâ in Bradley magazine, Krishnappa wrote that when she started at Bradley in the fall of 2007, she had âevery intention of being the next Christiane Amanpour.â However, she credits her experience at the university for her entry into the political world. âIt started that same fall when Anna Ruch â10 asked me to volunteer for a trip to Iowa,â she writes, adding how she âwent from knocking on doors on weekends in Cedar Rapids for then-Sen. Barack Obama to organize trips to Missouri, Wisconsin and Indiana.â She eventually took the fall semester of my sophomore year to work for Obama in North Carolina during the general election.
She said one of her âfondest memoriesâ is the year she spent in Iowa in 2015 leading up to the start of the 2016 primaries. âA presidential campaign is the political Super Bowl, and working for Sen. Hillary Clinton was inspiring every day. Working with so many talented people was beyond what I could have expected.â
After a brief hiatus post-2016 â a year in the hospitality industry â she returned to politics as director of states for Michelle Obamaâs civic engagement initiative, When We All Vote. âFocused solely on motivating people to vote, the initiative aimed to change the culture around voting,â Krishnappa wrote in the magazine.