Why I'm Backing Rakhi Israni Singh for California's 14th Congressional District

 She's not a career politician. She's a builder. And right now, CA-14 needs someone who actually knows how to build things.

I don't endorse candidates often. Let's be honest, politics is crowded with people who say all the right things but deliver very little. So when I tell you I'm genuinely excited about Rakhi Israni Singh, the Democratic candidate for California's 14th Congressional District, I mean it. This isn't an endorsement I give lightly.

I got a chance to sit down with Rakhi recently, and honestly, our conversation has been stuck in my head ever since. She’s completely different from the usual politicians who are, frankly, career politicians. Rakhi has actually lived the challenges we’re all facing, she’s built real things right here in our community, and she has a no-nonsense plan for how to actually get things done for us. Critically, she is not a career politician. 

Who Is Rakhi Israni?

Rakhi is the daughter of immigrants who arrived in the United States after Congress finally opened the door for Asian families - they came with no connections and no safety net. They built a life through sheer hard work. That story is part of candidate Rakhi's DNA, and it shows in everything she does. 

She's an attorney with an LL.M. from Columbia and an MBA from Rice. She's a former police academy graduate. She's the founder of a Fremont-based education company she grew from scratch into a nationwide business, mentoring tens of thousands of students and creating jobs along the way. She served as PTA president at the elementary, middle, and high school levels in our public schools. And she volunteers as a leader of one of the country's largest faith-based humanitarian organizations, doing disaster relief, fighting human trafficking, and supporting families in crisis. 

The word she keeps coming back to is sewa, which means selfless service. In a world where politics is usually all about ego and self-interest, Rakhi’s approach is refreshing. For her, sewa just means putting the community first, no strings attached. It’s what drives everything she does here locally, and honestly, it’s exactly the kind of attitude we need to send to Washington. 

“The power to make a difference doesn't belong to politicians in Washington — it belongs to all of us.”

The Housing Crisis Is an Infrastructure Crisis

If you want to know why so many young families and workers feel like they’re being squeezed out of our community, just look at the housing market. The median home price in California has hit roughly $854,000, but the median household income in CA-14 is only about $137,000. A home shouldn't cost six times a family's annual income. Today, less than a quarter of California households—just 23%—can even qualify for a mortgage. In 2019, that was nearly a third.

$854KMedian California home price (2026), pricing out the vast majority of residents

23%Share of California households who can qualify for a median-tier home mortgage — down from 31% in 2019
6:1Home price to median income ratio in CA-14, one of the most severe affordability gaps in the nation

When we talked, Rakhi pointed out that we’re dealing with thirty years of neglected foundations and we can’t just wish our way out of a housing crisis. We have to start building fast. She believes CA-14 can be the blueprint for California, proving we can have smart, progressive growth that actually makes financial sense. That’s what clicked for me. This isn't about political slogans, rather, it's about competence and focus.

Three Areas Where Smart Investment Can Change Everything

When I asked Rakhi where she'd focus first, she gave me three clear priorities where targeted and well-designed investment can produce outsized returns for the district.

Water infrastructure. Our water systems in many parts of CA-14 date back to the 1960s. Aging pipes, outdated computer systems, real cybersecurity vulnerabilities, we're one sophisticated attack or one catastrophic failure away from a water supply crisis. Rakhi's point is simple: if we wait until we're in emergency mode, the cost multiplies and the options narrow. Proactive investment now is the fiscally responsible play.

Housing infrastructure investment. Not just rhetoric about building more. She would provide more attention to the infrastructure that makes housing possible and affordable. Zoning reform, density, transit-oriented development. She knows this is generational work, and she's not promising a miracle. But she is promising a serious start, at scale.

Education and AI workforce readiness. This is the one that lit her up the most when we talked, and it's the one that I think separates her from the field. Rakhi has spent thirty years in education — in our public schools as a PTA president, in her own education company, working with thousands of students and families in this district.

“The advent of AI is existential for our economy. We need to align the skill set of this district to emerging technology shifts. And we have an opportunity to show California and the country the art of what is possible with coherent leadership.”

Instead of campaign rhetoric, this is a language of someone who has watched the job market transform in real time and is thinking seriously about what it means for the families she wants to represent.

A Common-Sense Democrat Who Doesn't Perform for the Cameras

One of the things I appreciate most about Rakhi is that she isn't performing. She's not optimized for viral moments. She's optimized for actually solving things — which is a genuinely rare quality in people who run for office.

She supports term limits for Congress. She wants a ban on insider trading by elected officials. She believes in a mandatory retirement age for federal officeholders. These aren't fringe positions — they're the kind of structural fixes that most voters, regardless of party, actually want. She just has the nerve to say them out loud.

She's also clear-eyed about the cost-of-living crisis facing working families — rising tariffs driving up grocery prices, healthcare being gutted, wages that haven't kept pace with housing or childcare. She doesn't moralize about it. She talks about it as someone who has run payroll, hired hundreds of people, and raised four kids in these same school districts.

Why This Race Matters Right Now

California's 14th Congressional District is currently vacant and the June 2nd primary will determine who advances. CA-14 covers the East Bay, including Fremont, and it's a district that should have serious, competent Democratic representation in Washington. This is a moment to get that right.

Rakhi Israni Singh is a first-generation American, a working mother, a builder, and a lawyer who has spent decades in service to this community without ever running for office before. She's bringing a track record and a mission. 

I believe CA-14 has a shot at being something genuinely special: a district that models what effective, grounded, progressive governance actually looks like. But only if we send the right person. I think that person is Rakhi.

I'm voting for her. I hope you will too.