Political outsider Natasha Gupta jumps into State Assembly race

The assembly race for the seat to be vacated by Kansen Chu in the 25th district now has a new candidate: Natasha Gupta (age 28).

A political outsider from the private sector, Gupta will formally announce her candidacy at an event in Milpitas tomorrow, September 14. 

As a community organizer as part of Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, Gupta ran one of the candidate’s biggest independent teams here in Silicon Valley. But she felt even more drawn to politics in late July, in the wake of the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting. She and her husband had been festival attendees just one day before the violence hit. 

Says the candidate, “The divisions of our country showed up at our front door. I couldn’t stop thinking that it could have been us. I couldn’t believe that it could happen here. After that, I knew I had to do something.”

In the race, Gupta will be squaring off against Milpitas Vice Mayor Karina Dominguez, Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Anna Song, Santa Clara Unified School District Trustee Jim Canova, Political Advisor Alex Lee, and former Ohlone College Trustee Bob Brunton.

Gupta’s platform is hinged on providing moral leadership, which she sees our culture being deprived of given the leadership in Washington, D.C. In addition, Gupta’s ambitious agenda encompasses housing, infrastructure, and income inequality. She also seeks a rehabilitation guarantee for homeless people, wholesale college cost reform, a public option via California Care for All, and a California-wide Green New Deal. In the meantime, she’s honing in on domestic terrorism and gun violence as added top concerns.

A Bay Area native, Gupta makes her home with her husband, Michael Hsueh. Her campaign shall accept no corporate PAC money, and have a strictly volunteer staff, moves that telegraph her opposition to government corruption and her aim of introducing decency to public service.