REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL

First elected in 2016 and twice re-elected with more votes than any lawmaker in the House, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal serves as the U.S. Representative for Washington’s 7th District, which encompasses most of Seattle and its surrounding areas.

She is the proud Chair of the 96-member Congressional Progressive Caucus and also serves on the House Judiciary, Education & Labor, and Budget Committees. Additionally, she is honored to be 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.

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. She is an award-winning national advocate for women’s, immigrant, civil, and human rights and spent 12 years as the founder and Executive Director of OneAmerica, the largest immigration advocacy organization in Washington State. Prior to that leadership, she spent almost a decade working on global health and development for the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), an international nonprofit organization. 

Born in India, Representative 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 a number of industries in both the public and private sector.

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 step-mother to Michael.