The CAPA21 Asian Pacific American political action committee was proud to endorse and donate to Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal in her first run for Congress in 2016. We’re thrilled to again endorse her for re-election and invite you to meet Rep. Jayapal in Berkeley this weekend.
Rep. Jayapal will join Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage, at a fundraiser on Sunday, May 15, in Berkeley (location provided upon RSVP) at 1:00 p.m. co-hosted by CAPA21 co-chair Dale Minami, former CAPA21 leadership council co-chair Kiran Jain, our dear friend Vincent Eng, Dr. Karen Korematsu, Renuka Kher, Veena Dubal, Roy and Sara Bahat, and Aarti Kohli.
The event will feature a discussion with Rep. Jayapal and Ms. Jayaraman, who are together leading ballot measures in battleground states, including Michigan, that will raise wages and drive hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers and voters of color to the polls this November.
Re-elected twice since 2016, Rep. Jayapal is serving her third term as the U.S. Representative for Washington’s 7th District, which encompasses most of Seattle and its surrounding areas.
Rep. Jayapal has been a leader on a wide range of landmark progressive issues. She is the Chair of the 96-member Congressional Progressive Caucus and also serves on the House Judiciary, Education & Labor, and Budget Committees. She also serves on the Select Committee for Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, a member of the Immigration Task Force for the Congressional Asian Pacific Asian Caucus, and a Vice Chair of the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus where she is the co-chair of the Transgender Equality Task Force.
In Congress, she introduced the Medicare for All Act to guarantee health care as a human right, the Housing is a Human Right Act to invest billions into affordable housing, and the College for All Act to make public colleges and universities free for families making up to $125,000 while making community college and trade schools free for everyone.
Additionally, Congresswoman Jayapal has long been a champion for a $15 minimum wage, racial justice, the PRO Act to support workers’ rights, reproductive justice, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, and climate action so we finally transition to a 100% clean energy economy while prioritizing environmental justice and ensuring everyone has access to clean air, safe drinking water, and public lands.
Prior to becoming the first South Asian American woman ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, one of just two dozen naturalized citizens currently in Congress, and one of only 87 women of color to ever serve there, Congresswoman Jayapal spent decades working in global public health and development.
Born in India, Rep. Jayapal grew up in India, Indonesia, and Singapore before coming to the United States by herself at the age of 16. She attended college at Georgetown University and later received her MBA from Northwestern University before working in several industries in both the public and private sector. She is the author of two books, Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland and Use the Power You Have: A Brown Woman’s Guide to Politics and Political Change.
She lives in West Seattle with her husband Steve Williamson, a long-time labor leader. She is also the proud mother of a transgender child named Janak and the stepmother to Michael.
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