OLYMPIA — On Jan. 28, Shasti Conrad was elected chair of the Washington State Democrats. She is the first woman of color and youngest person to be elected to that role, as well as the first South Asian and first Indian American woman to serve as a State Democratic Party Chair in the country.
Conrad said, “I’m excited to work with Democratic leaders from every community to build an unprecedented field operation that will carry the message of how Washington Democrats are delivering for working families to each and every voter.”
Conrad has worked on political campaigns since 2008, when she got her start as a field organizer working for then-Senator Obama’s primary campaign. Since then, she’s worked on three more presidential races and concluded the 2020 cycle as Senator Bernie Sanders’ National Director of Surrogates. Locally, she served as Chair of the Martin Luther King, Jr. County Democrats from 2018 to 2022, where she raised nearly $300,000 for a county party organization mired in debt when she first took office. Under her leadership, the King County Democrats’ field operation helped flip six city councils and a County Council seat held by Republicans for 20 years.