State Representative Kesha Ram
Vermont

“Why I Ran for Office”

The first time I ran for office was fifth grade.  There were three boys and no girls running to be the Student Council President of my elementary school in Los Angeles; I saw this as a grave injustice and stepped into the race.  It was the first election I won and, looking back, I am amused by how seriously I took my role as a young public servant.  I shared brief speeches, painstakingly written on index cards about school activities with the local board of education.  I worked with other students to write a newsletter for our parents. I sought to engage and empower my peers, while demonstrating that we, as young people, genuinely cared about our school and our neighborhood.  Little did I know that the index card speeches and letters home would be fertile ground on which to lay the foundation of my future political career.

My parents certainly had much to do with my youthful initiative and drive.  My mother grew up in Chicago, a Jewish woman whose family came through Ellis Island fleeing persecution abroad and fighting for the chance to earn a living.  My father immigrated to the United States from India, sent here to receive a college education after his Hindu family had suffered great loss during the Partition of India.  They taught their three children, of which I am the youngest, to embrace and celebrate diversity and equality; to embody fierce self-determination and passion for our beliefs; and, most of all, to give back to the community from which we have gained so much.

In my adolescence, I took a long hiatus from elected politics in favor of the activist path.  I worked at the Coalition for Clean Air on a campaign to pass legislation that would phase toxic chemicals out of dry cleaning establishments, started a recycling program in my public high school of over 4,000 students, and organized a group of students to attend the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India to better understand the responsibilities we had as Americans to the international community.  It was through these experiences that I discovered the vital link between environmental protection and basic human rights, which was to become a major part of my life’s work and passion.

Making the transition from Southern California to Vermont to attend the University of Vermont was no easy feat, but I fell in love with the sense of community and connection the natural world I found in Burlington.  I quickly began expanding my networks and horizons.  In 2006, as a college sophomore, I experienced a watershed political moment that brought me back to my childhood dream of political ascent, which I had all but forgotten.  Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders was running for the US Senate and invited me to give the introductory speech at an event featuring then-Senator Barack Obama, who was visiting Vermont to support his candidacy. 

In front of thousands of Vermonters, I gave a speech urging engagement in the political process by my college-age peers, as it was our future at stake and we could not afford to sit on the sidelines.  When then-Senator Obama took the stage, I became fully enraptured in his words and presence, listening to him conjure up the wisdom of civil rights leaders while feeling an affinity to his background of having a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, not to mention a name that was difficult to pronounce.  The spell he had put me under was only broken when he turned to me and told Congressman Sanders that he better “behave himself” or they were going to run me for the Senate instead of him!

That moment re-oriented my energy and efforts within the system, rather than as an outside agitator.  The following year, I entered a seven-way race to become the Student Body President and earned a hard-fought victory, becoming the seventh woman and first person of color to fulfill a term in that role.  I soon found myself representing nearly 10,000 young people while overseeing a budget of $1.5 million and 150 student organizations.

While taking on this major role, I was still heavily involved in local and state politics.  I was the policy team leader for Burlington’s Climate Action Plan and the Head Start Advocate for a local preschool.  With the help of another Young Elected Official, Representative Rachel Weston, I turned my thesis work on environmental injustice in Vermont into a bill to increase equitable citizen access to clean natural resources and meaningful participation in local environmental decisions.

It was Rep. Weston who further nurtured my political aspirations, revealing to me my own potential: I already represented over half of the voters in the political district that encompassed the university as the Student Body President, I was fast becoming a respected member of the greater community, and I had worked to get policy on the table in the legislature without even being elected.  When presented to me in this way, it made it slightly more plausible that, at age 22, I could successfully challenge entrenched incumbents for a seat in the Vermont House of Representatives.

Talking to many of my neighbors during the campaign confirmed for me that they cared deeply about what I cared about: a clean environment, access to a quality education for themselves and their children, and inclusive, sustainable, and equitable economic opportunities.  It also gave me a window into their lives and a growing collection of their powerful stories—some heartwarming and others heart-wrenching, but always enhancing the diverse perspective I would take to Montpelier.

Now, currently serving as the youngest member of the Vermont Legislature and the youngest state legislator in the nation, I have achieved what I sought since my early years: the honor of bearing the torch for my generation in the political sphere, and the privilege of engaging and empowering my community to feel a part of the political process rather than apart from it.

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