Saira Sameera Rao (born June 12, 1974) is an American political activist, author, publisher, and former Wall Street lawyer and television producer. She is the co-founder of Race2Dinner, In This Together Media, and Haven, and came to greater prominence in 2018 when she ran for Congress, losing out to incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette in the primary.
Early life and career
A second generation Indian-American, Rao was born in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Dr. Sybil Philomena "Greenie" Rao and Dr. Jaikar Rao.
She received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Virginia in 1996 and went on to work as a journalist and television producer for CBS affiliate WUSA in Washington DC and Fox News affiliate WSVN in Miami. In 2002 she received a J.D. from New York University School of Law and took up a clerkship under Third Circuit court judge Dolores Sloviter between 2002 and 2003 in Philadelphia. She was then an associate in corporate law at Cleary Gottlieb.
Novel
In 2007, Saira Rao's first novel was published. Chambermaid concerns a recent law graduate called Sheila Raj who is a law clerk to Third Circuit judge Helga Friedman, described as a "sociopathic, homicidal, bipolar jurist" and a "toxic bitch." Rao had herself been a law clerk to Third Circuit judge Dolores Sloviter, and other characters in the book were also seen as having real-world counterparts. Rao began writing it while working at Cleary Gottlieb, but left the firm in November 2006 after they learned the topic of the book. For a lawyer to discuss a judge so unflatteringly, even in a fictionalized manner, was considered at least unusual and Rao attributed her desire to write the book partly to address that informal code of silence. Sloviter herself brushed the matter off, saying "I've had maybe close to a hundred law clerks, and it's not surprising that one or two hated me" and "I haven't read it. I don't intend to. I really don't care. OK?"
Kirkus Reviews described Chambermaid as "unoriginal", saying "at least Miranda Priestly was fun". Carlin Romano of The Philadelphia Inquirer described it as "highly entertaining, often insightful, frequently sarcastic and at times extremely nasty". Paula Reed Ward for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found that "even if the stories are too hard to believe, they are so often written with such an easy, casual air, that they prompt nothing but laughs".
In a 2013 interview Rao said that there was also a film deal attached to Chambermaid, though no film has been produced as of 2021.
Rao had said that her second book, a memoir called Broken News, about "her experience with racism in the new media", was to be published in spring 2020.
In This Together
In 2013, Rao and her friend from her University of Virginia days, comedian and recruiter Carey Albertine, founded In This Together Media, a publishing company intended to extend the range of children's books about girls, and their diversity in racial and other terms. The company operates a mixed model for acquiring titles, sometimes receiving submissions and sometimes commissioning authors to write stories based on ideas generated in-house. Initially the titles were print-on-demand rather than produced in bulk. Later, Rao reported success in selling books to other publishing houses such as Simon & Schuster, rather than publishing books directly themselves.
In This Together had a hand in the book Nevertheless, We Persisted, a collection of 48 short essays with a foreword by Amy Klobuchar.
Run for Congress
In 2018 Rao ran against Representative Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for Colorado's 1st congressional district. She received endorsements from, among others, Andrew Yang, the Justice Democrats PAC, and Buie Seawell, former chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, but lost the primary 32% to 68%. In the first quarter, Rao raised more money ($250,000) than DeGette ($240,000) for her campaign. DeGette ultimately spent more, reporting $720,000 expended compared to Rao's $415,000.
A month later, Rao tweeted "Short and long answer: YES", in response to a New York Times op-ed by philosopher George Yancy titled "Should I Give Up On White People?". She said that the threats she received in response made her family unsafe and that she had to temporarily leave Colorado.