There is Beauty and a Burden to Being a Legislator With a Multifaceted and Hyphenated Identity
- I will continue knocking on doors throughout the summer, and well into the fall, hoping to make history again this November.
I bring many different aspects of who I am — Asian-American, Indian American, a woman, a Hindu, an immigrant, an engineer— as I take a seat at any table where people like me are not the norm. As a state representative, I bring a political label too. I’m a Democrat in a chamber with a Republican majority, the first Democrat to win this seat. I won my first election the same year Gretchen Whitmer won the governor’s race, and Mallory McMorrow defeated an incumbent Republican in State Senate District 13.
Headlines in 2018 focused on the pink wave, on the new slate of women elected to office; the unique trails that I blazed were largely ignored. My election to the Michigan Legislature was the first for an Indian American woman, an Asian immigrant, and a Hindu. I too chose to ignore these landmarks. As a woman in the engineering profession, as an immigrant with Eastern roots, I am sort of used to accepting my invisibility. It’s when I’ve advocated and fought for those who need help or are vulnerable that I have raised my voice to bring attention to something.
I’ve been a community volunteer and organizer for decades and advocated on issues that reflect the values of the city and the region where I live. I’ve spoken at local council meetings in support of a cricket ground, supporting a minority religious group’s desire to build a house of worship in the city, and protecting our public library. I have worked with educators and our school board to engage its diversity beyond black and white, and ensure all students feel a sense of belonging as they go through their K-12 education. I’ve driven to Lansing to request adequate funding for our local public schools. I’ve flown to D.C. to meet federal legislators and ensure our tax dollars support humanitarian needs internationally, not stoke violence. Alongside these efforts, there was always interfaith activism: seeking to promote pluralism, interreligious understanding, and build relationships to establish common ground.
I ran for office full of hope because of these experiences, wanting to bring this skill set, moving beyond identity labels, to my life as a legislator. The binary of politics — in choosing a party, winning or losing an election — was antithetical to my “both-and” approach and my “both-and” identity. While I knew that my win was unprecedented, I didn’t seek to draw attention to what makes me stand out, but instead focused on what draws us together and binds us: our shared values. These include ensuring that children have access to education, caring for our natural resources such as water from the Great Lakes to the water that comes out of our taps, and ensuring hardworking families and businesses have the services in place that will attract them to our region and our state.
At our recent State of the City address in Troy, our invocation was inclusive of four major world religions in our global city. Representatives from our local interfaith group that I founded 17 years ago came together to provide a voice of unity. I am honored to call them all my close friends. I seek to bring that harmony to our state Capitol in Lansing, and all I do to represent the cities of Troy and Clawson.
As we head into warmer weather and what promises to be a heated election cycle, it is in canvassing in Troy and new areas in District 9 that I find unity. Opposition voices in Lansing may call me names and identify me as a “far-left” candidate, but it is the new friends I make in the district I seek to represent as a state senator that remind me we are united.
The conversations at the doors underscore our shared values. These past several weeks I’ve been having conversations with women my mom’s age who don’t want to go back to the pre-Roe v. Wade era, and with parents and teachers who want us to pass laws to protect our kids from yet another mass shooting. And there’s that simple issue that brought me to the political arena in the first place: that we want to provide a quality education for all our children, regardless of where they live or their background. I will continue knocking on doors throughout the summer, and well into the fall, hoping to make history again this November.
Padma Kuppa, the State Representative for Michigan’s 41st House District serving her second term, is the Democratic candidate for the Michigan State Senate in District 9. A mother, an engineer from NIT Warangal, and an automotive and IT professional for over 2 decades, and a civic and interfaith leader for years, she is the first Indian immigrant and Hindu in the Michigan state legislature. You can reach her at [email protected]. Learn more at ElectPadmaKuppa.com or Kuppa.housedems.com.