With the sea­son of renew­al just around the cor­ner, we’re pleased today to announce that Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra will be the Mas­ter of Cer­e­monies for our 2020 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala on Fri­day, April 17th.

A pros­e­cu­tor and North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion board­mem­ber, Man­ka Dhin­gra was first elect­ed to the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate in 2017 to rep­re­sent the 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, fill­ing the unex­pired term of the late Andy Hill.

Offi­cial por­trait of Wash­ing­ton State Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra, D‑45th District

In 2018, after a remark­able first ses­sion in which she demon­strat­ed great skill as a law­mak­er, Sen­a­tor Dhin­gra was over­whelm­ing­ly reelect­ed to serve a full four year term. Her col­leagues chose her to serve as the Deputy Major­i­ty Leader of the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic caucus.

In addi­tion, she is the Vice Chair of the Sen­ate’s Law & Jus­tice Com­mit­tee, the Chair of its Behav­ioral Health Sub­com­mit­tee, and a mem­ber of the influ­en­tial bud­get-writ­ing Ways & Means Committee.

It takes many new leg­is­la­tors years to devel­op clout in the state­house and fig­ure out how to effec­tive­ly move bills from con­cep­tion to the gov­er­nor’s desk. Not so in Manka’s case. She has, as men­tioned, proved to be extreme­ly adept at leg­is­lat­ing. Sev­er­al bills bear­ing her name and influ­ence have already been signed into law by Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee and she’s got more in the pipeline.

Man­ka Dhin­gra’s high­ly effec­tive, no-non­sense approach to rep­re­sen­ta­tion is what we want to see more of in the State Leg­is­la­ture. She’s a superb role mod­el and a per­son who under­stands the impor­tance of the Plat­inum Rule (which, in a nut­shell, is treat oth­er peo­ple the way they want to be treated).

That’s why we’re so thrilled that she will be the Mas­ter of Cer­e­monies at this year’s Spring Fundrais­ing Gala, tak­ing place on Fri­day, April 17th, online.

The gala, which began in 2008, is now in its twelfth year, and has always been an incred­i­bly suc­cess­ful event that both cel­e­brates our research and advo­ca­cy and secures the resources nec­es­sary to ensure that it will con­tin­ue. Past galas have empow­ered our team to research sup­port for pro­gres­sive ideas rang­ing from Medicare For All to pres­i­den­tial trans­paren­cy to cor­po­rate tax accountability.

We hope you can join us on Fri­day, April 17th to build a stronger NPI.

Click the but­ton below to buy a Vir­tu­al Gala Access Pass or a com­bined tick­et to the Vir­tu­al Gala and to NPI’s FallFest on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 3rd, where we’ll con­tin­ue our in-per­son gala tra­di­tions. Com­bined Indi­vid­ual tick­ets to both events are $100, and com­bined House­hold tick­ets are $150.

Get tick­ets for NPI’s 2020 Spring Gala

We will be announc­ing addi­tion­al gala speak­ers soon.

As in the past few years, we will be pre­sent­ing a Lynn Allen Award to a dis­tin­guished pro­gres­sive leader who has made indis­pens­able con­tri­bu­tions to pro­gres­sive caus­es. Our past hon­orees include Sound Tran­sit CEO Emer­i­tus Joni Earl, attor­ney Paul Lawrence, Major Gen­er­al Paul Eaton (Retired), activist Alex Hen­drick­son, pho­tog­ra­ph­er Al Gar­man, and El Cen­tro de la Gaza’s Estela Ortega.

If you’d like to RSVP for the gala on Face­book, you can do so here.

We hope you’ll help us make this cru­cial­ly impor­tant event a suc­cess by buy­ing your tick­et and com­mit­ting to attend. See you online on April 17th!