Kiran Sreepada, a newly launched candidate for US Congress in Tennessee’s 7th District, discusses his career in government oversight and how it inspired him to run for office during his interview with “Two Broads Talking Politics” at Politicon.
When Kelly Pollock, host of the Two Broads Talking Politics podcast, asked Kiran Sreepada why he decided to run for Congress, he made it clear that his interests have always been set on being a civil servant.
His team believes that Kiran’s experience within the Government Accountability Office – the independent, nonpartisan agency that helps the federal government save money and work more efficiently – will give him a broader appeal to Tennesseans who have become frustrated with DC’s ineffectiveness.
After earning advanced degrees in Global Policy Studies, he went to work for the Government Accountability Office in D.C. “That non-partisan, fact-based, report-oriented approach on evaluating and understanding policy just stayed with me and underpinned how I saw a lot of things in government.”
Then he moved to Grant Thornton as a public consultant where he took an even larger role in implementing pieces of legislation. He experienced first-hand the political games and tactics plaguing D.C.
“It was very, very alarming – because at some point you realize that this is not a function, or result, of someone doing a bad job or because they don’t know what to do. It is actually a function of the dysfunction within Washington.”
Partisanship’s effect on policy ignited many conversations with his wife and friends. It was during the record-setting 2018 government shut-down that his family decided Kiran should run for office and take the leap from concerned citizen to change agent.
“We thought Congress suited my interests and my knowledge the best. We felt, also, that the current person in office right now didn’t have policies that reflected what we knew our friends and neighbors believed… It was ominous that the government also shut down in December because that kind of facilitated everything we had thought… the decision, the movement, and just kind of underscored – Hey yea, this is dysfunction at its finest.”
Being a 38-year-old congressional candidate may seem young when the average age for Congress is almost 60, but Kiran admires a more traditional style of politics. During the podcast, he recalls his dad reminiscing about how “Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill could be seen just talking together” despite their differences. Kiran shares that same desire with many Americans who want to bring back an era when politics were about policy, ideas, and advancing the common good.
Kiran and his team are passionate about running a clean and positive campaign in 2020 and hope to be an example of civility and decency in a climate that seems to incentivize partisanship. Listen to the 301st episode of Two Broads Talking Politics at twobroadstalkingpolitics.com or learn more about Kiran’s campaign at Kiranforcongress.com.
