Rep. Pramila Jayapal

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D Washington, 7th (2017-) In Office

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Biographical

Gender: Female
Pronunciation: pra-MIHL-uh JYE-uh-pahl
Date of Birth: Sept. 21, 1965 (age: 58)
Place of Birth: Chennai, India
Religion: Hindu
Hometown: Indonesia and Singapore
Place of Residence: Seattle, Wash.
Occupation: Financial analyst and activist

Wikipedia

Official biography

Family:

Married: Steve Williamson labor activist, Aug. 4, 2007

Children include Michael

1 stepchild

Previous relationship: Alan Preston Divorced, Nov. 1990

1 child: Janak Preston

Biography:

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal represents Washington’s 7th District, which encompasses most of Seattle and surrounding areas including Shoreline, Vashon Island, Lake Forest Park, Edmonds and parts of Burien and Normandy Park.

Congresswoman Jayapal is committed to ensuring that every resident of the district has economic opportunity; fairness and equity; and safe and healthy communities. She is proud of the district’s role in leading the country on issues like the minimum wage, racial equity and innovation, and will work to support that work and lift it up as a model for the rest of the country.

Her focus is on ensuring income equality; access to education, from early learning to higher education, including debt-free college; expand ing Social Security and Medicare; protecting our environment for our next generation; and ensuring immigrant, civil and human rights for all.

Jayapal will relentlessly challenge systems that corrupt our democracy, pushing for campaign finance reform, tax reform, voting rights and an end to institutionalized racism. In all of these endeavors, she’ll continue to build the movement to expand our democracy and create the political space for policy change that benefits working families and responsible businesses.

The first Indian-American woman in the House of Representatives, Jayapal has spent the last twenty years working internationally and domestically as a leading national advocate for women’s, immigrant, civil, and human rights.

She came to the United States by herself at the age of 16 to attend college at Georgetown University and later received her MBA from Northwestern University. She has worked in a number of industries in both the public and private sector.

Following college, Jayapal worked as a financial analyst on Wall Street for PaineWebber in leveraged buy-outs. During her years at business school, she became interested in applying her business skills for social good, working on economic development issues in South Chicago, and then spending the summer working on rural economic development issues for a private nonprofit organization in Thailand. Later, she worked for a cardiac defibrillator company in sales and marketing, covering territory in Western Ohio and Eastern Indiana where she was the first woman and first person of color in the sector. She left the private sector in 1991.

Jayapal began working in international public health in 1991 at Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), a nonprofit based in Seattle. At PATH, she served for several years as the director of the Fund for Technology Transfer, a loan fund that had tremendous success in providing capital for socially responsible health projects, including primary health clinics, small businesses, and micro-credit programs across Africa, Latin America and Asia. Jayapal went on to become a Fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, living for two years in villages and small towns across her birth country of India, exploring development issues. She published her first book in 2000, Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, and in the wake of discrimination and civil liberties abuses against Muslims, Arabs and South Asians, Jayapal founded the nonprofit Hate Free Zone (now OneAmerica). She served as Executive Director for 11 years, growing the organization to be the largest immigrant advocacy organization in Washington state and one of the largest in the country. Under her leadership, OneAmerica successfully worked to sue the George W. Bush administration to stop the deportations of thousands of Somalis across the country; to help end Special Registration of Muslims and Arabs; and to lead the fight for comprehensive immigration reform. OneAmerica also led the effort to establish an Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs in Seattle, and to make Seattle one of the first cities to ban asking about immigration status by law enforcement or city officials. At the state level, OneAmerica was at the forefront of the effort to preserve drivers licenses for all, regardless of citizenship status, in Washington state, and to promote immigrant integration. In 2009, Jayapal was named by Governor Christine Gregoire as Vice Chair of the state’s New Americans Policy Council. OneAmerica also led one of the largest voter registration efforts in Washington state, helping more than 23,000 new Americans register to vote.

Jayapal went on to lead the national coalition, We Belong Together, to bring a gender lens to immigration reform. The coalition played a key part in adding important provisions in the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill that ultimately passed the U.S. Senate with 68 bipartisan votes, but was stalled in the House.

She was appointed by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to the Income Inequality Committee that crafted the successful legislation to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15. She also co-chaired the search for a new police chief in Seattle, during a tumultuous time as the city was under a Department of Justice consent decree.

In May 2013, Jayapal was recognized by President Obama as a White House “Champion of Change.” She has won numerous awards for her work.

Jayapal was elected to the Washington State Senate in 2014, becoming the first South Asian American ever elected to the State Legislature and the only woman of color in the Washington State Senate. As a Washington State Senator, serving in a Republican majority Senate, Jayapal fought for gender equity, expanded access to contraceptives for all women, including those on Medicaid, and introduced legislation to increase the statewide minimum wage and provide free community college. She stood up to members of her own party against giveaways to predatory payday lenders, and secured $5.25 million into transportation pre-apprenticeship programs for women and people of color. She played a leading role in the push to pass the Washington State Voting Rights Act - blocked, unfortunately, by the Republican majority in the State Senate. She received a Champion award from the Children’s Alliance for her work on ensuring equity as the state invested millions into early learning.

Jayapal was born in Chennai, India and her parents still reside in India. Jayapal lives in Seattle with her husband Steve. She is the proud mother of a son and step-son, Janak and Michael, and their 65-pound labradoodle, Otis. See more >>

Miscellaneous Links:

Ballotpedia

C-SPAN

Project VoteSmart

Campaign Links:

Website, campaign

Email, campaign: info@pramilaforcongress.com

X (Twitter), campaign

Instagram, campaign

Facebook, campaign

Open Secrets political finance profile

YouTube, campaign

Social Networking:

Facebook

LinkedIn

Snapchat, official

Facebook, official

X (Twitter), official

YouTube, official

Instagram, official

Medium, official

TikTok, official

Official Links:

Website, official

Press Releases

Education

Northwestern University J.L. Kellogg School of Management - MBA, marketing and nonprofit management (1988-1990)
Georgetown University - BA, English language and literature/letters (1982-1986)
Jakarta International School - High school diploma (1982)

Office History

Congressional Offices:

U.S. House of Representatives (Jan. 3, 2017-) In Office

Member, 7th Congressional District of Washington

State Legislature Offices:

Washington Senate (Jan. 12, 2015-Dec. 12, 2016)

D Senator, District 37

Election Results

2021 (Nov. 3, 2020 election)

7th Congressional District of Washington

Pramila Jayapal, 82.99%
Democrat

Craig Keller, 16.77%
Republican
2019 (Nov. 6, 2018 election)

7th Congressional District of Washington

Pramila Jayapal, 83.00%
Democrat

Craig Keller, 17.00%
Republican
2017 (Nov. 8, 2016 election)

7th Congressional District of Washington

Pramila Jayapal, 55.98%
Democrat

Brady Piñero Walkinshaw, 44.02%
Democrat

Employment History

Center for Community Change (Oct. 2012-Sept. 2014)

Distinguished Taconic Fellow
OneAmerica (Sept. 2001-May 2012)

Founder and Executive Director
Pramila Jayapal Consulting (July 1997-Sept. 2001)

Consultant
Program for Appropriate Technology In Health (May 1991-April 1995)

Director, Fund for Technology Transfer
Physio-Control Inc. (Sept. 1990-Aug. 1991)

Account Consultant
Population and Community Development Association (June 1989-Sept. 1989)

Intern
Paine Webber (Sept. 1986-July 1988)

Financial Analyst/Leveraged Buyouts

Associated Organizations

Board membership:

Hedgebrook
Member, Creative Advisory Board
Congressional Progressive Caucus Center
City of Seattle, Wash.
Co-Chair, Police Chief Search Committee and Community Advisory Committee
City of Seattle, Wash.
Member, Income Inequality Advisory Committee
Fair Immigration Reform Movement
Member, Executive Committee

Own leadership PAC:

Election campaign:

Pramila for Congress (Washington)

Founder:

We Belong Together
Co-Founder/Chair

Membership:

National Partnership for New Americans

Fellowship:

Institute of Current World Affairs (May 1995-June 1997)

Awards

Public Official of the Year (Fix Democracy First) (2021)
Spirit of Enterprise Award (U.S. Chamber of Commerce) (June 2020)
Outstanding New Member Award (Voices for National Service) (2018)
Distinguished Community Health Advocate Award (National Association of Community Health Centers Inc.) (2018)
Crayon Award (Early Learning Action Alliance) (Aug. 2016)
Champion of Change (White House) (2013)

Activities and Interests

Languages: Thai, Hindi

Publications

Use the Power You Have: A Brown Woman’s Guide to Politics and Political Change (2020)
"Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland" (2001)

Official Signature

Contact Information

Email, member official contact form

Office Addresses:

Main Office:

Address:	2346 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515-4707
Phone:	202-225-3106
Fax:	202-225-6197

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» District Offices

Privately Financed Travel

3 trips taken between 2017 - 2018 costing $23,934

See map of trips

Trip Destinations:

Trip Sponsors:

» see more

Personal Financial Disclosures

Disclosures as a member:

Annual: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2019 (Amendment), 2018, 2018 (Amendment), 2017
Extension Letter: 2021, 2020
» see more

Congressional Staff

Staff Turnover:

Turnover Index: 0.34
(House Average: 0.25)
» See more

Staff Salary Rate:

Office Median Annual Salary: $80,094.91
» See more

Staff Salaries Paid:

» See full staffer list

» view all salaries

Committees

House Education and the Workforce Committee

House Education and the Workforce Committee Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee

House Education and the Workforce Committee Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee

House Judiciary Committee

House Judiciary Committee Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust Subcommittee

House Judiciary Committee Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement Subcommittee, Ranking Member

Caucuses

Caught Our Eye

Chief of staff stays loyal to Rep. Kirkpatrick

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Jan. 8, 2019
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) has made two returns to Congress — with one dedicated chief of staff who's made two returns to Kirkpatrick.Carmen Frias was most recently chief of staff to Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). read more

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