KS-SEN: Her father just pleaded guilty to raping her, but she hopes that won't define her Senate bid
Usha Reddi, a Democrat who launched her Kansas Senate campaign Thursday, never meant for her experience as a survivor of sexual assault to be central to her platform.
But when her father pleaded guilty this summer to raping her when she was a child, Reddi, a city commissioner in Manhattan, Kansas, decided she should be the one to make it an issue.
“My personal life and my public life were about to intersect,” she told CQ Roll Call in an interview. “I thought the community needed to hear about it from me first.”
Reddi, 54, is one of several Kansas Democrats vying to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. Local backlash against the deep budget cuts instituted by former Gov. Sam Brownback has convinced many Democrats that they have a shot at the seat, even though they haven’t won a Senate race in Kansas since 1932 — the longest dry spell for either party in the country.
Those hopes have been compounded by the lack of an obvious Republican front-runner, though Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been rumored for months to be weighing a bid. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Solid Republican.
https://www.rollcall.com/news/campaigns/her-father-just-pleaded-guilty-to-raping-her-but-usha-reddi-hopes-that-wont-define-her-senate-bid
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By Suman Guha Mozumder
Aug 3, 2019
An Indian-American city official in Manhattan, Kansas,considering a U.S. Senate run as Democrat, has received wide acclaim for her exemplary courage after the 53-year-old woman revealed in a radio interview last month that she was raped as a child by her father in Ohio.
Usha Reddi, who was first elected to city commission in 2013 disclosed in an interview with News Radio KMAN,which featured “a personal story of the Mayor pro tem” on July 23 that she had been raped and sexually assaulted by her father Venkata Yeleti during her childhood and adolescence.
Yeleti, pleaded guilty in a Virginia court July 19 to raping his daughter Usha Reddi. He was convicted of the crimes which occurred between 1975 and 1977 in Virginia. Yeleti, 76,was sentenced to 10 years in prison for each of the two counts of rape but will serve just one year total as part of a plea agreement, according to news reports.
Reddi, who was first elected to city commission in 2013, is a teacher by profession. Sheserved as mayor in 2016 and 2017, and will be mayor again in 2020. A resident of Manhattan for more than 25 years, Reddi hopes to inspire victims of sexual abuse to come forward.
More:
https://www.indiaabroad.com/indian-americans/the-extraordinary-courage-of-indian-american-politico-usha-reddi-a/article_5a979be0-b604-11e9-a34c-17744b43fa9e.html
