New York: An Indian-American city council member from the US state of Tennessee has announced her run as a Democrat to represent District 90 in the state’s House of Representatives.

Varanasi-born Seema Singh will bid for the seat held by Representative Gloria Johnson, a fellow Democrat, who is running for the US Senate seat held by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn. She was elected and sworn-in as Knoxville city councilwoman for the third District in 2017 and again in 2021, becoming the first Indian-American to be elected to any public office in East Tennessee.

She serves as the Executive Director of the Healing the Home, a nonprofit agency serving families to address the abuse and trauma that are the result of generational domestic and intimate partner violence.

Her platform issues will be the funding of healthcare and education, defending women’s reproductive rights and economic issues. “I will try to bring up the points of view that I think are important and push ahead for a lot of people who are not being represented or listened to,” Singh told Knoxville News Sentinel, a Tennessee-based newspaper.

“I think I have proven that I have integrity and that I will listen through different ideas,” she said. Singh is currently serving on the Knoxville Family Justice Center’s Coordinated Community Response team, Knox County Domestic Assault Death Review Team, The Metropolitan Drug Center Gateway Advisory Board, and The YMCA of East Tennessee Board.

She is also City Council Representative and Chair of the Municipal Golf Committee. Singh’s family moved to Knoxville from India in the mid ’70s when her father was hired as a professor at the University of Tennessee.

She became a naturalized American citizen at age 13 and attended West Hills Elementary, Bearden Middle School and Bearden High School. She graduated from University of Tennessee in 1996 with a major in Psychology with an emphasis on Clinical, Counseling and Applied Psychology.