Political consultant Shasti Konrad has been elected the new chair of the Washington State Democratic Party. With this, she has become the youngest and the first Indian-American woman to serve as a state party chief in the US. Konrad has been working on political campaigns since 2018.

On being elected head of the state Democratic Party, Conrad said, “I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to continue the outstanding success we have achieved at the ballot box as chair of the state party. "I look forward to working with Democratic leaders from every community to spearhead a field operation that will drive home the message of how Washington Democrats are making things work for every voter," he said in a statement released Saturday. 

Today, Shasti Konrad was elected chair of the Washington State Democrats, said a statement from the Washington State Democratic Party. Conrad is the first black and youngest woman to be elected as chairman of the Washington State Democrats, as well as the first South Asian and first Indian woman to be elected as chairman of the state Democratic Party in the country. 

Konrad replaces Tina Podlodowski, who served as party president since 2017. I am eager to cite the example of my friend Shasti Konrad, said Podlodowski. Shasti has been a vital part of our organizational efforts for the past six years, helping build the State Party, which has seen unprecedented success in both state and federal elections. 

The statement said that Konrad has assumed leadership of an organization whose voter outreach campaign has played a key role in the Democrats' statewide election campaign since the 2016 election. Conrad served as chairman of the Martin Luther King, Jr. County Democrats from 2018 to 2022, where he raised nearly US$300,000 for the debt-ridden county party organization when he first took office.