‘I was told I can’t defeat a white American male’: Lawmaker Saba Haider

Messages have poured in from “all corners” since Saba Haider won the Illinois House of Representatives seat. One, received this morning, was from a young Indian woman in international law and politics who had followed the coverage and wanted to learn about her journey. “The response has been amazing. You feel the relief and joy of winning, but also the excitement of getting to work,” Haider, who moved to the US at 22, told TOI from her US-home.Politics, she says, was once “completely unimaginable”. At Aligarh Muslim University, where she earned a master’s in wildlife sciences and an academic gold medal, she studied ecology, with fieldwork at Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and months in Corbett Tiger Reserve. “It is not easy to study wildlife. I lived in the jungle to study ecology and ecosystems. Not many daughters were allowed to do that,” she said.“I had no political background, not even distant relatives.” Haider won the Democratic primary with more than 60% and the Nov 3 general election with over 70% votes. Illinois, one of the 50 US states, has over 1 crore residents and is best known for its architectural and financial hub Chicago and its association with Abraham Lincoln. Haider will represent the 84th House District in Chicago’s western suburbs.Her family hails from Bulandshahr, and she grew up in Ghaziabad before moving to US at 22. She and her husband went on to build a life there and raise their two children. “My husband and I had chosen this country to have and raise our kids… America welcomed us,” she told TOI. But the political climate began changing after Donald Trump’s election in 2016, a sort of “trigger moment” for her, with increasingly hostile rhetoric around immigrants and discrimination against people who looked like her, which jolted her into action. “I felt America was better than that. I wanted to do something about it, beyond running my business and family.” Community engagement and public-health work drew her into local politics.After losing the DuPage County Board in 2022 by a margin of about 1,000 votes, she won in 2024 with over 50% votes, working on public-health initiatives, including on a Crisis Recovery Centre offering mental-health and addiction care.During the Democratic primary in March, a woman voter told Haider she liked her, had read her website and was impressed by her achievements, but would vote for her opponent. “When I asked why, she said, ‘I don’t think you can win against a white male’,” Haider recalls. “To be told that to your face by a voter is heartbreaking.” She took a deep breath and kept knocking on doors. Voters, she says, “overwhelmingly saw beyond” her skin colour and Indian origin, instead voting candidates who would “get work done.“Talking about the Trump-administration, she said politicians may exploit division and fear, but everyday concerns-medical emergencies, hospital debt, unemployment and poor schooling-remain shared. “The perceived fear of a neighbour does not impact a life directly in any way… voters in the US as well as India are increasingly demanding accountability.”To young South Asian women, her message is to look beyond their immediate surroundings. “Young women must seek role models beyond their local ecosystem.”Her roots, however, remain in India, where her parents and siblings live. She misses “chai, samosas and jalebis”, as well as those walks through foggy winter days in Delhi, from Chandni Chowk to the food lanes near Jama Masjid. “I am incredibly lucky to call America home and to be able to impact lives here, but my roots are strong in India.” Asked what she would tell her 20-year-old self at AMU, she said: “Keep doing the work, drown out the noise, ignore the doubts and dare to dream.“