AAPI VOTE 2018: Trump's nightmare: South Asian American declares her intention to run for Maryland's governor

Krishanti Vignarajah is running for Maryland's governorship.

ONE GOOD THING having Donald Trump as 45, he's inspired more women to run for public office.

Having a sleazy, misogynistic, accused sexual predator as our country's leader has inspired a record number of women to take matters into their own hands and seek elected office.

2018 is shaping up to be a big year for women in politics.

EMILY's List, a group dedicated to helping elect pro-choice Democratic women, saw a hugejump in the number of women showing interest in running for office around the country. According to Vogue, 920 women expressed interest to EMILY's List from the beginning of 2015 to the end of 2016; more than 16,000 have done so in 2017 alone. That's massive.

Meet Krishanti Vignarajah: Trump's worst nightmare and a candidate for governor for the State of Maryland.

"I hope Marylanders will agree the best man for the job is a woman," Vignarajah said when she declared candidacy.

“We live in a day where the president of our country thinks everything I am is what’s wrong with America,” she told the Baltimore Sun last Aug. 9. “I’m a woman. I’m a minority. I’m an immigrant and I’m a new mom. I think each of those aspects of my identity provides a valuable perspective that will color and shape what I talk about on the campaign trail.

She faces an uphill battle because she is relatively new, said Todd Eberly, an assistant professor of political science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

“She basically represents everything Trump is not,” said Deckman, who researches women in politics. “She is young, she is the daughter of immigrants. She worked for the Obama administration and the Obamas are extremely popular in Maryland.”

"I am running for Governor because I am worried my daughter will not have the same opportunities my parents gave me when they brought our family here when I was a baby girl."

Vignarajah's story is yet another retelling of the American Dream.

Krish with her husband Collin O'Mara and daughter Alana.

The 37-year-old Baltimore resident told Cosmopolitan about her family's journey (they fled Sri Lanka on the brink of civil war when she was nine months old for the U.S. with $200 in their pockets) and reflected on whether they would even be allowed to enter the country had their trip happened in 2017 instead of 1980.

"President Trump, he can demonize immigrants to our country, but the truth for me is there's a family just like mine out there who applied, and they waited their turn, and they want to work hard and pay their taxes and raise a family and live a decent and safe life here," Vignarajah told Cosmo. 

"Just as immigrants before them have for generations. I know that that story is not only personal to my family, but it’s fundamental to the American experience."

Vignarajah has never held elected office before but she has a history of involvement serving the public. She has long promoted gender equality. She worked in the State Department as a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and most recently served as Michelle Obama’s policy director in the White House. There, she spearheaded the former first lady’s signature initiative Let Girls Learn, which helps give girls in developing countries opportunities for education.

She lists education, the economy, drug addiction, infrastructure, and the environment among her priorities. Just as important, she says, "We need a new generation of leadership that will make progress at home, while standing up to a White House that threatens the very values that unite and define us."

She will be challenging Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan, Jr. a Repubican in his first term. He is married to Yumi Hogan, the first Korean/American First Lady in the U.S. Hogan hasn't declared his intention if he'll run for a second term. 

Education was important to her family, both as a value and as an employer. Both of her parents were teachers in Baltimore's public schools. Her father recently retired after 37 years as a high school teacher. 

It was no surprised that Vignarajah excelled in school, graduating with a bachelor's and masters from Yale as magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University, where she received an M.Phil. in International Relations, before returning to Yale Law School, where she served on the Yale Law Journal.

Five other Democrats are already vying for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. They include Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker; Alec Ross, a tech entrepreneur and Obama State Department alum; Maryland state Sen. Richard Madaleno; attorney James Shea; and Ben Jealous, a former NAACP president. The primary is in June 2018.

Being a politician and the path to getting elected is a rough, often dirty, road but Vignarajah tells other women considering office not to be paralyzed by indecision. If you can't commit to that first decision, then maybe it is not for you.

But for Vignarajah, she listened to her heart. "I know that I should run because I’m worried that my baby girl and all of our children would not have the same opportunities that I had growing up in Maryland."

Below: Vignarajah's commencement address at Hood College was voted as one of the country's most inspirational commencement addresses in 2017.

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