Forming the Kamelot: Sabrina Singh Named Press Secretary for Kamala Harris’ Vice Presidential Campaign

Indian American Sabrina Singh has been named press secretary for Sen. Kamala Devi Harris’s Democratic vice presidential campaign. “I’m so excited to join the Biden-Harris ticket as Press Secretary for Kamala Harris! Can’t wait to get to work and win in November!,” Singh tweeted. 

Singh, 32, has previously headed the press department for two Democratic presidential candidates — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Prior to that Singh was the Deputy Communications Director at the Democratic National Committee. 

At the DNC, Singh was a key point person in the party’s messaging and outreach in her capacity as a top aide to DNC chairman Tom Perez and the new CEO Seema Nanda. She was responsible for overseeing the DNC’s activities in the various states and coalition programs.

After her DNC appointment in 2018, Singh told India Abroad that countering and combating the dangerous xenophobic, bigoted, racist and anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration was a top priority of the Democrats.

In previous interviews, Singh has disclosed that her political activism is inspired by her grandfather, Sardar J. J. Singh, a pre-partition freedom fighter in India. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1946 and continued his political and community activism that led to the enactment of the Luce-Cellar Act that allowed 100 Indians to immigrate to the U.S. annually. The act also permitted Indian nationals that numbered anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000, already residing in the U.S., eligible to become naturalized American citizens. Before the enactment of that Act, Indians were prohibited from becoming U.S. citizens and were allowed admittance only as visitors and tourists. 

Singh’s father, Manjit Singh, was born in the U.S. in New York, in 1956, but when he was just 5, her grand-parents moved the family to independent India and to New Delhi. In the 1980s Singh’s father  — who was chairman and CEO of Sony India — and her mother, Srila Singh, decided to immigrate to the U.S. Singh grew up in Los Angeles, California. 

Singh told India Abroad that her grandfather had died “when my dad was about 18 years old and I never knew much about my grandfather although my parents tangentially mentioned him every so often.” She told the paper that it wasn’t until she went to college that she “began to understand the significant impact he had.” She said it was then that she found herself feeling proud of him and “really inspired and interested in government.” She said she “always wanted to do something good and make a difference,” and she came to Washington, D.C., after her graduation, “inspired by the election of Barack Obama.”

Singh began her career at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) as the press assistant, “which was the first exposure to campaigns, what they do and how they operate,” she told India Abroad. 

Following the DCCC, she became the communications director for Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D.-Ill,) for a year and then left to become the deputy communications director for the Democratic Governors Association. Before joining the DNC, Singh served as Hillary for America’s Battleground Regional Communications Director for Florida, North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado. 

Singh, is an alumna of the University of Southern California, majoring in International Relations. She is married to Mike Smith, finance director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

A few days prior to Singh’s appointment, Harris named Sri Lankan-American Rohini Kosoglu as a senior advisor. Kosoglu made history on Dec. 10, 2018, by becoming the first South Asian American to be appointed as chief of staff in the Washington, D.C. office of a U.S. Senator. Kosoglu has worked for Harris since 2017, first as deputy chief of staff, and later chief of staff in her Senate office and on her presidential campaign.

The New Jersey born and raised Kosoglu was introduced to politics as a senior at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, when she went to work as an intern in the state office of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D.Mich.). She later moved to D.C. to work as Stabenow’s mail room manager. Two years later, in 2008, when she had worked her way up in Stabenow’s office as a senior policy adviser. She then worked for Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) as a policy director and senior health care adviser, which was at the time the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare as it came to be known, was being deliberated in Congress.

She received a B.A. in English with Honors from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University. 

Kosoglu’s father, Dr. Wijeyadevendram Ravindran has been a practicing emergency room physician for the past 36 years at the Community Medical Center in Tom River, New Jersey, and her mother, Shobhana Ravindran, is a homemaker. Kosoglu has one sibling, a brother Raman Ravindran, a video editor at the Aspen Institute.

She currently resides in the Washington D.C. area with her husband, Ozkan Sedat Kosoglu, and their three sons.