Manka Dhingra
Washington State Senator and current Senate Deputy Majority Leader Manka Dhingra (D-WA) wears many hats—mental health advocate and behavioral health expert, co-founder of an organization serving women in the AAPI communities who are survivors of domestic violence, prosecutor, and more. She’s also the first Sikh woman elected to any state legislature in the United States. Dhingra recently sat down with Carolyn Bick for the Northwest Asian Weekly to talk about the experiences that informed her path, from championing survivors’ voices to her personal experiences as a woman of color in high office.
Northwest Asian Weekly
I am really interested in your early life, because you seem to have several causes that are close to your heart and to which you have devoted a lot of time and effort. I would like to get into those in a bit, but first I want to ask what were the pivotal experiences that led you to where you are now?
Sen. Manka Dhingra
I lost my father when I was very young. And that’s when my mother, who was a young widow at the age of 33, moved to this country, so my brother and I could have a better life. So, I think that experience as an immigrant, as being brought up by a single mom, who was working at a school, realizing that she couldn’t provide us with the lifestyle that she would like, and went back to college at night to get her degree in computer science [was formative].
I’ve been working since a very young age. I started babysitting and then working at a store while I was in high school. I think that definitely was a building block to who I am, as a human being, and I think that immigrant experience solidifies a lot of our lives. For practical purposes, most of my upbringing was in Los Angeles, because the time that I was in India—you’re a child and not as cognizant of when you’re a teenager. So I think that was a huge, pivotal moment in my life.
The second I’ll say is my awareness of gender-based violence issues. I started really becoming aware of sexual assault on young girls when I was in high school, because my friends were dating, and there was a lot of talk about safety and how to make sure that women are being safe. And I remember thinking, “Are boys being taught not to sexually assault? Girls are always simply told to be careful.”
When I went to Berkeley, I actually found out about this woman called Laura X, who had started the National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape. (Editor’s Note: The National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape closed in 2004, but its webpage has been archived for posterity.) I started volunteering there, and just learned so much about the history of the feminist movement and domestic violence and sexual assault.
Then, I started working at a shelter in Oakland, helping survivors, and that’s when a lot of these conversations were happening in the South Asian community. There’s a group in San Francisco forming called Narika. It was one of the first few South Asian domestic violence organizations, and so I got involved with that. In the meantime, I graduated from Berkeley.
I moved to U-Dub (University of Washington) for law school, and I really wanted to continue that work. I would say that’s how I started founding Chaya (now API Chaya). It was very important for me to continue that work. A lot of what Chaya was based on was actually what I learned through Narika, and A Safe Place—really combining both of those learnings. So, I think that was another pivotal moment, was starting that nonprofit and really wanting to talk about gender-based violence in the Asian community. So I’m really proud of the work that API Chaya has done.
I’ll mention two other things. I think the one other one would be when I became a supervisor of the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and at that time, there was this new little thing called mental health court that supervisors would oversee. Learning about therapeutic alternatives to incarceration, and learning about mental health courts and treatment courts I think definitely changed my view on the criminal justice system. My work with criminal justice reform, my work with developing crisis intervention training for law enforcement, and a lot of my work in mental health stemmed from that.
I was satisfied and excited about my career—and then Trump got elected. So I think that was the next pivotal moment, where I really felt like I had to stand up and do something different. And so I went to my first Democratic Party meeting that December, in 2016, and then I announced I was running for the Senate in February 2017. And a lot of that desire came from the rise in hate crimes, especially in the Asian community. I had started working on hate crimes after 9/11, when the Sikh cab driver was assaulted in Seattle.
It really was making sure we’re standing up for women, LGBTQI individuals, marginalized communities, immigrants, that drove me into the political arena. And that is really what drives me to run to the next attorney general—I think we really need people who lead with our values, who are bold, who want to challenge the status quo, and don’t do what is politically convenient.
Northwest Asian Weekly
Until I was doing some reading before this interview, I had no idea you co-founded API Chaya. What or who motivated you to co-found the organization?
Sen. Manka Dhingra
You know, I’ll tell you, when I moved to Seattle for law school, I didn’t know the Indian community, so I actually reached out to a lot of the local domestic violence organizations, and I said, “Hey, I’m a trained advocate. I do a lot of work with cultural competency. I would love to know how many Asians you serve.”
And they’re like, “Oh, we don’t see a lot of Asians. We really don’t think there’s domestic violence in those communities.” And I’m like, “No, that’s not true.”
That was kind of the response I got from many of them, so I offered my services to do cultural competency training with them. And then at one of the domestic violence agencies, there was an Indian woman, Lana DeSouza, who loves staying in the background.
I started chatting with her. And in my naive state, I actually made these little posters that I put in the local Indian grocery store—they were only like two or three at the time. And I said, “Hey, interested in starting to talk about domestic violence in the South Asian community? Here’s my phone number and email—call me!” —like you would a rental, you know? I kid you not, that is what I did (laughs). And, you know, the internet was new-ish. This was the old days.
And then I befriended Lana, the one who said, “There are actually a few of us who are interested in this and are talking about this.” I met with a few others who were talking about this, and many of them wanted to do something, but they didn’t really have the background.
When I left California, I had the Narika manual we were working on, I had the Safe Place’s manual, so I … wrote the articles of incorporation. I did all the paperwork. The address was my home, because that’s where the organization ran out of.
To me, it was really important that the culture of Chaya—that we be very deliberate about it. So, that’s why even the name came about—Chaya. It means “shade.” It’s from a Rabindranath Tagore poem that says, “On your weary journey, let us provide you with shade.” And what would happen in Asian culture is that if someone was struggling, people would be like, “Oh, I have a spare bedroom—why don’t you come?” And then they would tell the survivor what to do.
So, we wanted to really have this organization be one of empowerment, where this is your journey. We’re simply providing you with the shade, so you can have the respite and the help you need to continue on your way. And so that’s why that name. I was very clear on why we wanted that name to drive the culture of the organization.
And we’d be talking about confidentiality. We had a lot of people in the beginning, coming and going, people who were interested. There were many who would say, “Please don’t let others know I’m involved with this organization,” because there’s a stigma attached to it. And I was young, so it was just like, “This is unacceptable! Everyone should be proud of working with this organization.”
We even had donors who would make anonymous donations, because they didn’t want to be affiliated with Chaya. And now, API Chaya is the gala to be at. We’ve come a long way, but I would say that no one does this work on your own. It takes communities and individuals. And so, yeah, I helped with the articles of incorporation. I had the first helpline. I was the first advocate. I helped train our first hired advocate—[but] there were a lot of people who helped out, and were passionate about it.
I stepped down from the board when my second daughter was born, because I couldn’t continue to be working as a prosecutor, and do this [work at API Chaya], and have two kids at home. I fundamentally believe that it is very important for nonprofits, for the founders, to actually take a step down in role, so that the organization can grow and thrive. So, I’m just so very proud. And when there were talks about Chaya merging with API Safety Center [to eventually become API Chaya], they called me, and my ask was really that we keep the Chaya name, because it’s about the culture on how we treat survivors, not just the name of an organization. So, very proud of API Chaya, and all the people who have helped develop it and make it what it is today.
Northwest Asian Weekly
When you first ran for office in the special election in 2016, what messaging were you getting about being a Sikh woman of color stepping forward for such a high state office?
Sen. Manka Dhingra
When I went to my first [Democratic Party] meeting in December [2016], I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just knew that I had to get involved and actually do something. And so, a very good friend of mine, who’s now the mayor of Redmond, Angela Birney, saw me at the meeting. And she’s like, “Let’s have coffee.” And so we met for coffee, and she was like, “Are you thinking of running for office?” And I said, “I have no idea what I want to do. I just know that I need to do something.”
She’s the one who started by saying, “I think you should run for the Senate.” And I gotta tell you that my first answer was a complete cliche, because I said, “I don’t think I’m qualified.” And you know how, in cartoons, you see people falling off their seat laughing? She literally fell off her seat laughing in front of me. And she’s like, “You’re the most qualified person I know.”
That really got the ball going. And there were instances with hate crimes in the Asian community that really solidified it for me. But, I have to tell you, when I decided to run, people were like, “Oh, what role will your husband play in the race? Because he’s a turbaned, Sikh man.”
And I said, “We are a proud Sikh family.” I said, “Everyone in the family, including my dog Sheru (who has since passed), who has a good Punjabi name, will be part of the campaign.” So, we made sure that the whole family was represented. We had a huge team campaign committee where the youth in the district were engaged, and they were a diverse group of youth. They still are—we have a youth campaign committee for the AG (attorney general) race. The diversity of the youth in the campaign just warms my heart.
Being Sikh definitely was an issue. Being a woman of color was an issue. I cannot tell you how many times—I mean, the racism was very, very evident. The Republicans spent $3 million in attack ads. $3 million.
Northwest Asian Weekly
Against you, in specific?
Sen. Manka Dhingra
Yeah, against me, in that race alone.
The thing is, we had been residents of Redmond at that time for so many years. My husband is well-known in the tech industry. I had spent a lot of time, you know, running Chaya. I was on the board of NAMI Eastside, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I did a lot of work with the kids in schools. We were known in the community. And I think at the end of the day, that is what won over—the fact that people knew my work and knew what I stood for, and trusted me as an individual. I think that message of having people in the community run for office and having people challenge the status quo really resonated with people, because I think people really wanted something different. They wanted action. They didn’t want to continue to have politics as usual. I think that’s still true today.
Northwest Asian Weekly
You said something in your answers that was really interesting to me. And I think this is probably honestly how pervasive the issue is. You mentioned the standard answer, “Oh, I’m not qualified.” Well, that, to me, sounds like, “Oh, well, you’re not enough if you are an AFAB (assigned female at birth) of any stripe. That messaging just ingrains itself. And then, also, I found it interesting, the fact that you said that being Sikh and being a woman of color were issues, rather than saying, “People tried to make my religion and part of my identity as issues against me.” That really struck me. And I’m wondering if you’re running into the same thing now.
Sen. Manka Dhingra
Oh, 100%. I think women of color have to work twice as hard to get half the credit. Over and over and over again, even in the AG race. They’re challenging my qualifications as a prosecutor. They did that in 2017, as well. And you know, you can have guys who work at a job for a year and a half, and no one says, “Hey, you only did this job for a year and a half. How is it that you continue to use this title?”
I’ve been a prosecutor for 20 years. You see that the misogyny is just so real. It’s completely ridiculous. You see it in the way news is covered. You see it in the way even donations happen. … A lot of that has to do with economic power. We’re just seeing the first generation of women that are self-sufficient, in terms of wealth. And that plays out in politics, as well. It’s really fascinating. And it’s not like the Republican-Democrat thing. This is a cultural thing. And I think this is why it’s also exciting for people to see women run for office, because they do recognize that there’s the potential of doing something different. So I think it always was an issue, and continues to be an issue.
It was an issue when I started the prosecutor’s office. So many times, I’d be sitting at counsel table and the defense will walk up and say, “Hey, can you go get the prosecutor?” And I’m sitting in my business suit at counsel table with the file in front of me. I’ll be like, “Well, I am the prosecutor.” And when I became a supervisor, they’re like, “Oh, can you go get the supervisor to approve this?” I’d be like, “I am the supervisor.” It’s something I’ve dealt with my entire life, and especially when I started training law enforcement, crisis intervention—I have stories. You have to constantly prove yourself, and especially in politics, that doesn’t stop at all.
I was actually talking to another reporter this morning. And she pointed out that Brandi Kruse has gone after me 55 times—that she’s really targeting me and I’m like, “You know, that’s just what happens when you’re in the space and you’re unapologetic about who you are.”
Northwest Asian Weekly
Your victory in 2017 turned over the State Senate to a Democratic majority for the first time since 2012. What did it feel like for you to be such a singular person whose achievement meant so much, and had such profound effects on the state’s governance?
Sen. Manka Dhingra
You know, that is huge. And you realize it’s huge when you reflect back. At the time, a lot of what drove me was just rage about what was happening in our country. And what was happening with immigrants and women and people of color just seemed like we were just going backwards. And at that time, I was just so scared about what would happen with the Supreme Court. And, unfortunately, all those fears were accurate. And so, you know, rage drove me to do it. But once I won, it was really about what we can do to shore up the state of Washington.
That session was so furious, because we just had so many bills we had to pass, because they had been clogged by the Republican-controlled Senate. And so I have to say, it was such a great opportunity for us to basically go through the wish list of how we as Democrats can lead and do it in a responsible way.
And since then, actually, the state of Washington has had a triple-A bond rating [from Moody’s]. We have been rated routinely as being one of the best states for business, as well as for labor—employers and employees. You don’t normally get to have that distinction. Both those distinctions, we have that. And so, to me, I really think of Washington as a shining example of what responsible government looks like under Democratic control. Because we have that fiscal responsibility, and we have the social justice, and the humanitarian responsibility.
I’m very proud [of] our 988 [Suicide and Crisis Lifeline] system. We are not normally known for mental health access in Washington, but I worked on that bill, and it’s now the national model. I got a call from Mental Health America a few years ago, and … I got a national award for our 988 crisis system.
We’re recognized for our work in terms of unions and environment. It’s across the board. And, of course, gender-based violence will be no different. We have some of the best protection laws, because I had to, of course, rewrite all of them, so that we can protect survivors. We have such a long way to go. And that’s why I’m excited, as attorney general, to really have that statewide voice with survivors. We have to be serious when we say we believe survivors, because right now we’re not.
I had a big sexual assault bill, just last session. I redid a lot of trafficking laws, just this last session. I’ve been working on domestic violence for a long time. So I’ll just say, across the board, when you take a look at policies, Washington has been able to lead the nation. And I really do think that that is what responsible majorities get us. But it is this passion for the policy—and not just from me, but so many others—that has enabled this work. But the contrast between before and after is extremely real. And I think it has a great story to tell about what responsible governance looks like under Democrats.
Northwest Asian Weekly
Is there anything else you would like to add or that you think readers might just like to know about you as a person?
Sen. Manka Dhingra
I love gardening. My husband has been learning how to bake. Unfortunately, he has started making yummy bread. So you know, a low-carb diet is out the window (laughs). It was just COVID hobbies that I’ve continued, and he’s fantastic at it.
But on a more serious note, if or when elected, I’ll be the only immigrant attorney general in the country. And with the anti-immigrant sentiment coming from all sides, it’s really important to have that voice to really have honest conversation about immigration, about workforce development, on what it means to be a country made up of immigrants—and, frankly, setting the stage for what it’s going to be like when we have climate refugees coming into our country, because that isn’t that far away. And so I think we need to be deliberate about making sure we have that national and statewide immigrant voice.