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Melissa Chaudhry
Melissa Chaudhry (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Washington's 9th Congressional District. She declared candidacy for the primary scheduled on August 4, 2026.
Biography
Melissa Chaudhry earned a bachelor's degree from The Evergreen State College in 2019. Her career experience includes working as a nonprofit consultant and in grant writing, fundraising, nonprofit management, and international grassroots development[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Washington's 9th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on August 4, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Washington District 9
Incumbent D. Adam Smith, Melissa Chaudhry, Janis Clark, C. Mark Greene, and Kshama Sawant are running in the primary for U.S. House Washington District 9 on August 4, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | D. Adam Smith (D) | |
 | Melissa Chaudhry (D) | |
 | Janis Clark (R) | |
 | C. Mark Greene (R) | |
 | Kshama Sawant (Independent) | |
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Washington's 9th Congressional District election, 2024
Washington's 9th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 6 top-two primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Washington District 9
Incumbent D. Adam Smith defeated Melissa Chaudhry in the general election for U.S. House Washington District 9 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | D. Adam Smith (D) | 65.4 | 182,780 |
| Melissa Chaudhry (D) | 32.4 | 90,601 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 2.1 | 5,917 | ||
| Total votes: 279,298 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Washington District 9
Incumbent D. Adam Smith and Melissa Chaudhry defeated Paul Martin, C. Mark Greene, and David Ishii in the primary for U.S. House Washington District 9 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | D. Adam Smith (D) | 53.8 | 78,761 |
| ✔ | | Melissa Chaudhry (D) | 20.7 | 30,229 |
 | Paul Martin (R) | 18.2 | 26,646 | |
| C. Mark Greene (R) | 6.5 | 9,459 | |
 | David Ishii (Bipartisan Party) | 0.7 | 963 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 248 | ||
| Total votes: 146,306 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Chaudhry received the following endorsements.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Melissa Chaudhry has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Melissa Chaudhry asking her to fill out the survey. If you are Melissa Chaudhry, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?
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You can ask Melissa Chaudhry to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing hello@votemelissa4congress.com.
2024
Melissa Chaudhry completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Chaudhry's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Foreign Policy and Human Rights: I hold a principled stance against war crimes and violations of international law, especially regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. America has a duty to stand against oppression and use our influence to support the human rights of all people.
- Grassroots Engagement and Representation: My campaign is powered by grassroots support. I do not take money from defense contractors or AIPAC-aligned entities. I am not beholden to high-stake donors and so I’m capable of genuinely representing the people of CD9 in all our beautiful, rich diversity.
- Inclusivity and Social Justice: I am committed to social justice, inclusivity, and equal rights for all, drawing on my background as a female candidate from an immigrant Muslim family with a deep history of community service. My platform includes strong stances on immigration, veterans' affairs, and human rights, both domestically and internationally.
I remember keeping a picture of my parents in my school desk a few years later, when my father, a Navy doctor, was deployed - first to Afghanistan, then to Iraq. I remember calling him in the evenings, and him helping me with my homework over the phone. I remember how different he was when he came home.
And I remember when Abu Ghraib came to light, and shattered my youthful naivete and faith in my country. Those photos blasted my heart open, and made it extremely clear to me that of course, people who were suffering foreign occupation and that kind of ill treatment would resist. Wouldn't you?
Because it shows how - over the long arc of generations - one human being could remediate some of the worst of humanity, change the course of history, and shape an entire civilization, simply by doing the best she could in situations she didn't control, and while feeling herself to be nothing special. Since I was a teenager, Cordelia has been among my best role models. She shows what true nobility of spirit - which has nothing to do with arrogance - and an attitude of servant leadership, plus a healthy dose of hard work and good luck, can accomplish.
There are three necessary components of that process that will be true challenges:
1. reckoning with American history of racism at home and regime change and wars of aggression abroad, and working to arrive at healing and peace - around shared principles;
2. dealing with our national economic situation (our country's debt burden, etc.) without hyperinflation or collapse, and
3. demilitarizing and decarbonizing, and countering the extreme momentum of the military-industrial complex and oil industry.
All of them are possible, with clear vision, a systems-thinking mindset, a deeply compassionate and empathetic worldview, solid principles, both global and frontline experience, independence from undue influence, and a willingness to make hard decisions and play the long game.
His case is riddled with *proven* instances of racism, bias, corruption, and fraud on the part of the United States Government, in some instances resulting in criminal convictions against government representatives personally involved in his case. Some of the bias is systemic, well-documented by the ACLU (www.aclusocal.org/en/publication/muslims-need-not-apply), and embedded in USCIS. There are children who were born after he left the military who can vote in this election, and he's been fighting for his naturalization - that should have taken a few weeks - this whole time.
To me, this story encapsulates two sides of America. On the one, an honorable, hopeful, hard-working, and well-intentioned immigrant dedicated to the ideals of America - to liberty, equality, and justice, the principles we're all raised to hold dear. And on the other, a system embedded in the institutional structures of this country that is deeply invested in maintaining its illegitimate power and preserving its racism, protecting itself against all honesty, exposure, and accountability.
People like my husband - and there are tens if not hundreds of thousands like him - deserve recompense. They deserve recognition, and they deserve justice. The only way for a healthy society to operate is with one set of rules for all - when there are different rules, based on discriminatory criteria, society will gradually fracture and decay. That's not the future I want for our kids.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Chaudhry’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Issues In Congress, I will work for a thriving future for our district - reducing war taxes, investing in our communities, and supporting the health and self-determination of all people, at home and abroad.
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” |
| —Melissa Chaudhry’s campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House Washington District 9 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 8, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Melissa for Congress, “Issues,” accessed July 21, 2024
