Canton Sees Change In Puri's Successes In HD-21

Written by: Kyle Melinn (MIRS)

Shortly after Ranjeev PURI wrapped up his work on President Barack OBAMA's successful 2012 re-election campaign, the President himself addressed Puri and a couple of his colleagues.

The then-28-year-old oversaw the nuts-and-bolts of various budgetary tasks for the campaign. He had already been "blown away" by the experience.

Barack Obama was a driving reason Puri even got into politics. When he saw Obama speak for the first time at the 2004 Democratic convention, he saw someone who was "speaking to me." In 2008, he gave his time to help a tall, scrawny man of color with a strange-sounding last name become the President of the United States.

Now here he was, with Obama and a few of his colleagues. Obama told them this would be his last race. This was the end of the line.

"This is your time," Puri remembers the President telling him. "It's time for you to go into your communities. The representation that you want to see starts with you."

"How often do you get to hear that?" asked Puri, remembering the exchange. "I was crying. He was crying. I went home that night and I told my wife, 'I know what I need to do, Babe.'"

Today, Puri is one General Election vote away from being part of that change as an elected member of the Michigan House of Representatives for the 21st District. Now a member of the Fiat-Chrysler Leadership Development Program, Puri envisions himself advancing policies that will position Michigan to the forefront of the next generation of automobile production.

But before we get to that, who is Ranjeev Puri? Who is this first-time candidate who had squirreled away $100,000 for his House campaign before the calendar even flipped to 2020? The Democrat who racked up local endorsement after local endorsement, including that of term-limited Rep. Kristy PAGAN (D-Canton), before the filing deadline? Who now only needs to win Tuesday in a 60.5% Democratic-base district to secure his spot in the 101st Michigan legislative session?

First of all, Puri is a married father of two young boys whose parents came to United States from India with nothing more than a couple suitcases and a little money in their pocket.

His father was an engineer and his mom a nurse. They took a risk to create a better life for their future children. They mortgaged their home. They fit their belongings into a couple suitcases. They could have flown anywhere, but settled on Chicago. Someone his mother went to nursing school with was living there at the time and invited them to come.

Back in the late '60s and early '70s, the United States opened their immigration policies to Southeast Asia, allowing passage for those with engineering, doctor and nursing backgrounds. Puri's parents were one of those.

It took a couple weeks, but his father eventually found a job as a machinist in Wisconsin and the couple settled in Racine, 20 miles south of Milwaukee. There, his family eventually established the first Sikh Gurdwara, where Sikhs come together for worship, in Wisconsin.

"There was no Google. There was no playbook on what to do when they got there. They really didn't know what they were getting into," Puri said. "They took a risk and it worked out."

Puri spent his early years in Wisconsin but bounced around the Midwest a little in his youth. He attended pre-school and kindergarten in Canton, the hometown of his aunt and godmother. He ended up in Chicago, but he still had friends and connections in Wisconsin.

He'll never forget Aug. 5, 2012, when he saw his friends grieving outside the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, after a gunman shot dead six worshippers in a domestic terrorism incident.

"I saw our friends grieving on television. People who were lost attended me and my wife's wedding," Puri said. "And then, six or 12 hours later, the story was gone. It was a blip on CNN and then it was over. It made me understand that our community needed more representation. It stuck with me. It's something that's always on my mind."

After a Google internship in California in 2013, Puri and his wife, Nidhi, moved to Canton for Puri's new job with Chrysler. It's this work on the future of automotive that ignites his passion. Seeing what Google is doing with automated vehicles and electric-powered cars inspires him to see Michigan take a leadership role.

The airport-to-venue shuttle that's being planned for the next North American International Auto Show is great, but "Michigan needs to be doing more."

Some countries are talking about banning the combustible engine by 2024. Scandinavia is looking to electronic conductive charges built into a highway to power vehicles as they're moving down the road. The changing dynamic of car ownership is real. There's a spectrum of changes on which Germany, China and California are more than happy to take the lead.

"This is where things are headed," Puri said. "We're doing OK if we were any other state, but we're not doing OK if we're Michigan and Detroit. We should be leading the way as the Auto Capitol of the World. Michigan needs to be doing more."

This starts with recruiting and training STEM-level talent in state while creating the atmosphere of having the industry of tomorrow, he said.

It wasn't too long ago the move to politics happened. He was venting to his wife about some issue not moving the way he wanted. She told him, "The representation that you want to see starts with you."

Having Obama's words thrown back at him spurred him into action. He and his wife welcomed their second son a little more than a year ago. The timing wasn't perfect, but he took the leap shortly after the birth.

For Canton, one of Michigan's rapidly diversifying towns, Puri's pending election has been inspiring. Immigrants from all over the globe are coming here. To be the first person of color representing the 21st District wasn't missed by the local residents.

"There was a certain amount of pride to get over the hump, to break that glass ceiling," he said. "To see people being elected no matter what their name sounds like was something a lot of people were excited about."

In a way, though, it's prophetic. For this Canton community, change is starting with Ranjeev Puri.