Indian-American doctor could be the next Democrat to flip a red district in the Trump era

Indian-American doctor could be the next Democrat to flip a red district in the Trump era
Hiral Tipirneni is the latest test of the strength of the "blue wave."
Addy Baird
Apr 17, 2018, 8:00 am


In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, Hiral Tipirneni talked to her three kids about the importance of civic engagement, of standing up for the issues you think are important, and of the value of women in politics. In response, Tipirneni’s daughter Mira — who was 19 years old at the time — told her mother to put her money where her mouth was.

“She basically threw down the gauntlet,” Tipirneni recounted in an interview with ThinkProgress.

Now, just shy of a year and a half later, Mira’s mom is locked in a tight race to replace Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) in Arizona’s 8th district, who resigned late last year after it came to light that he had asked a staffer to be his surrogate.

“We blame Mira for all of this,” Tipirneni’s campaign manager Jason Chamberlain said with a laugh in a phone call Monday.

Tipirneni, a doctor who’s worked in emergency rooms and as a cancer research advocate, came with her family to the U.S. from India when she was three. She, like many of the other record-breaking number of women running for office this year, is brand new to politics.

After her daughter encouraged her to run for office, Tipirneni applied to Emerge, a training program for Democratic women interested in running for office, which began the day of the Women’s March last January. She’s already a success story.

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https://thinkprogress.org/hiral-tipirneni-vying-replace-trent-franks-arizona-198247f5ac08/