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The Republican Party broke through some barriers over its lack of diversity when the California GOP elected an Indian-American to represent the state at the national level.
On May 1, Republican Vice Chair of the California Republican Party, Harmeet Dhillon, was elected as the first woman-of-color ‘National Committeewoman’ to the Republican National Committee, at the CAGOP convention in Burlingame, California. Dhillon becomes the first Indian-American on the RNC, and has promised to stir things up during her four-year stint at the high table.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, @CAGOP for electing me @GOP National Committeewoman from the great state of California! Honored to serve!” Dhillon tweeted May 1 evening after the votes were counted at the state party convention.
“It’s great to see more Asian Americans get involved in the Republican Party,” RNC Spokesperson Ninio Fetalvo told News India Times. “Our grassroots party activists electing more Asian Americans to the RNC is a testament to our party’s growing diversity as we work to have more voters of all communities included in our political process.”
The RNC has three representatives from each state and the 6 territories. At Burlingame, the Chairman, a National Committeeman and National Committeewoman from California were elected.
Though it is a four-year term, some in that position have remained there for decades. Dhillon’s vice-chair term ends in March-April next year, so she would start in her new position after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this July.
“A little girl from Chandigarh, India, the Bronx, and Smithfield, North Carolina back in the day, to being one of California’s three votes on the RNC. For the next four years starting in late July, I will help shape the policies of the party of Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman, the party of liberty and opportunity,” Dhillon is quoted saying in Sikhchic.com, after being elected.
“I believe we need some changes in how we select a presidential nominee,” Dhillon told News India Times in an earlier interview. The top jobs of the RNC, Dhillon said, included selecting a nominee, selecting a platform, and operating the rules of the party. “While the RNC is not in trouble, it needs some changes,” Dhillon said, adding, “My ‘Number 2’ position in the largest state was the training for that.”
Three years ago, when Dhillon took over as vice-chair of the CAGOP, she says the party was going through hard times, with a financial deficit, a leadership in disarray, and several electoral losses. “We have turned it around,” she said – brought in the money, held training programs for aspiring leaders and candidates, and taken back some seats. She hopes to shake up things at the RNC, and get more influence for CAGOP through steps such as advancing the primaries which usually fall in June in California, a heavily Democratic state.
Dhillon has broken new ground before. She was the first woman vice-chair of CAGOP. Before that, she was chair of the San Francisco Republican Party, and a member of the California Republican Party’s Executive Committee, as well as the Chair of its Networks Leadership Committee, where she spearheaded coalition-building and outreach efforts throughout the state.
An experienced business trial lawyer, boardroom advisor, Dhillon has been awarded the prestigious designation of Northern California Super Lawyer in business litigation by Thomson/West Publishing, an accolade reserved for the top 5 percent of lawyers in the jurisdiction.
She has worked at the Department of Justice, followed by a decade of practice at international law firms, and founded her own law firm, Dhillon & Smith in 2006.
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