A Harker High School student joins Kumar for Congress

Rishi Kumar is running for Congress from the new CA-16. District 16 is mostly the old district 18 where Rishi garnered the most votes in 30 years as a challenger.
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**Introducing RIshi
Rishi is a Silicon Valley hi-tech executive and brings an actionable, results-driven mindset to politics. As an immigrant working as an engineer for IBM, Rishi found his calling as an activist stepping up for complex community challenges that he couldn't ignore.In his successful terms as a councilmember of Saratoga, he challenged the system and took up the toughest people-challenges. He led efforts to reject San Jose Water company's water rate increases, reduce burglaries, and stop a potential 300-room hotel mega development project on a hillside high fire-risk zone. In 2018, the people of Saratoga re-elected Rishi with the most votes in the city's history for fearlessly addressing issues that were found daunting by others. Rishi brings a people-centric platform and a track record of "Getting Things Done."

**Recap of Rishi's last run for Congress (November 2020 election):
Rishi garnered more votes (37%) than any other challenger from CA district 18 in the last 30 years, but fell short by 45,000 votes in challenging a 28-year veteran incumbent - who spent 3 times more than RIshi to ensure a win. All of our campaign funds came from people, whereas 47% of Rep. Eshoo's campaign contributions came from PACs. Rishi led a massive grassroots campaign - with volunteers from 29 states - for an unprecedented district engagement: 100,000 doors, a million phone calls, which included offering 86,000 seniors help with groceries/medications, and our campaign videos went viral with 1.25 million views.

**What drives Rishi?

**Rishi took charge during the once-in-a-life-time pandemic:
In his own words
"The pandemic imposed unforeseeable pressures upon America that nothing else could in past decades. The challenges of these times have touched me personally. However, they have also shown me what makes this community special — our collective resolve to help each other. When the COVID-19 crisis hit our area, I immediately suspended our campaign and repurposed our grassroots team to help our neighbors. For me, it was a very easy decision.

Once I saw the success of our initial outreach, our campaign organized an official team to continue the need of the hour - community assistance. We called it the Neighborhood Pandemic Preparedness Team (NPPT), modeled after the Neighborhood Safety Watch program, and we engaged new volunteers in every city, empowering a new set of neighborhood leaders to take charge and help their own communities get through the pandemic.

Our first task was to reach out to the senior citizens of our district during an unprecedented shelter-in-place to make sure that all their needs were met — whether it be picking up prescriptions, delivering groceries or supplying them masks — we had a neighborhood volunteer program ready and excited to get going. Our volunteers also started sending emails and walking from door to door, leaving flyers saying “I can help”. Others even pulled out their sewing machines to make masks* for medical professionals fighting the pandemic on the front lines.

There was so much misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic, and our campaign provided the much needed truth. We held over 23 town hall meetings with healthcare professionals, stimulus package experts, college admission counselors, and more. These town halls provided career advice for those laid-off and grappling for answers, information to local businesses regarding PPP/EIDL loan applications, how to make use of the stimulus package, and college admissions counseling to parents and students who worried about a post COVID-19 world. We even conducted shelter-in-place coding programs. Our Coronavirus webpage provided an informative newsletter that was updated daily by our intern team.

I am so proud of what we accomplished together. Hundreds of NPPT members have helped thousands of residents so far. We called all 86,000 seniors from our district. Many of our volunteers were young high school and college students who generously devoted their time and energy to this program. Together, all of our volunteers have proven just how much we care about seeing our communities succeed during these trying times.

I am emboldened with this opportunity to truly serve and be of help. My primary responsibility will always be the constituents of this district, and I look forward to collaborating with you as we take on the tough challenges."