Saira Rao

Saira Sameera Rao (born June 12, 1974) is an American political activist, author, publisher, and former lawyer and television producer.

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.

Rao began writing it while working at Cleary Gottlieb, but left the firm in November 2006 after her employers learned the topic of the book.

Rao attributed her desire to write the book partly to address an informal code of silence in the legal profession precluding the criticism of judges.

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 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.

In 2013, Rao and comedian Carey Albertine, who she met at the University of Virginia, founded In This Together Media, a publishing company intending to increase diversity and representation in children's books.

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.

In 2017, she wrote an opinion piece for HuffPost about her reasons for "breaking up" with the party.

She said afterwards that she was "mortified" in retrospect by her support of Clinton, but said that it was not the party she was breaking up with, as she'd previously put it, but rather the "Democratic Party establishment".

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.

A second generation Indian-American, Rao was born in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Dr. Sybil Philomena "Greenie" Rao and Dr. Jaikar Rao.

Both her parents are physicians from Southern India.

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.

Rao considers herself a progressive.

Prior to the election of Donald Trump, Rao had been a long-standing supporter of the Democratic party and particularly Hillary Clinton, who lost in that election.

Subsequently, Rao felt disillusioned by the party leadership, which she felt had failed to respond properly or to listen to the concerns of non-white women.

In an op-ed for Teen Vogue during her 2018 primary run, she identified her main goal in running as being to promote and achieve "equity — racial, social, and economic", with policy positions including reforms to gun law, a path to citizenship, and reducing the influence of corporate money in politics.

Rao has on occasion been fiercely critical of Democrats whom she does not regard as sufficiently progressive.

She has accused prominent figures in the Democratic party, such as Pete Buttigieg and Nancy Pelosi, of racism and white supremacy.

Much of Rao's critique more broadly is related to issues of racism and particularly what she sees as the complicity of white women, especially white liberals and white feminists, in maintaining a racist society.

Rao has written, for example, that white feminists are "the most powerful subset of liberal white supremacy" and that they "scare [her] more than all [their] enemies combined".

Shortly after the election, which Joe Biden won, she wrote an article framed as a letter to white American women, whom she called "pawns of the patriarchy, diligent foot soldiers of white supremacy".

In 2023, the Creative Artists Agency severed ties with Rao after she made inflammatory comments about Israelis, referring to them as “bloodthirsty genocidal ghouls” who are so “obsessed with land and power and money that you murder newborns to obtain this STUFF”.

She claimed that “the vast majority of white Americans are pro-genocide”, as is the CAA itself, for failing to condemn what she alleges is the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.