Rising Stars: Rida Shaikh, Senate Elections Committee

At just 24, Rida Shaikh has already found her footing in Sacramento, overseeing operations of the Senate Elections Committee. But her path to the Capitol wasn’t straightforward – it was a journey of persistence and defiance of expectations.

Shaikh was born in Tennessee, and her family moved to California at nine. Her father encouraged her to pursue a career in the medical field, but Shaikh always knew she wanted to follow a different path. By the time she transferred from Folsom Community College to UC Davis, Shaikh was ready to follow her interests in history and the government, opting for political science. She assured her parents that she would apply for law school – if she wasn’t going to be a doctor, she could at least be a lawyer.

Her first college internship exposed her to the breadth of career opportunities in public policy. As an intern with the Fund for Public Interest, Shaikh canvassed for the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG) and Environment California. There she advocated for AB 2146, a bill authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) that prohibited non-agricultural use of neonicotinoid pesticide, and then-Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s (D-Glendale) AB 2026, which sought to reduce single-use plastic packaging. While both bills ultimately failed, Shaikh enjoyed informing constituents how these bills could make a real difference in people’s lives.

Eager to continue down the political career route, Shaikh undertook an internship with the UC Center Sacramento program, where she engaged in elections research, analyzing how the availability of polling locations affects voter turnout. She also worked for the California Energy Commission, where she learned how to conduct bill analyses.

Despite a growing body of work experience, Shaikh found it difficult to secure a full -time job after graduation. After months of rejections, she decided to move home to Folsom and work at a bakery. Shaikh was grateful for the work, but felt like she was falling behind. She did all the “right” things – graduated from college, undertook various policy internships, and applied widely for jobs, but to no avail.

Finally, in November 2023, she received an offer to work as an assistant in the Senate Elections Committee. Shaikh adapted quickly to this role. She handles administrative tasks, sets up bills for hearings, organizes agendas, proofreads analyses, calls roll and quorum, ensures procedure is followed, and submits documentation to the Senate desk after each hearing. Essentially, Shaikh is responsible for ensuring that every aspect of committee hearings run smoothly.

This responsibility requires confidence; as a young woman in the Capitol, Shaikh has faced instances where her knowledge of the legislative process is questioned.

“There’re so many [rules] and every situation has a certain rule to it that you need to know,” says Shaikh. “As an assistant, that’s your job. If situations come up during the hearing, you have to tell the chair what they need to do.”

Carrie Cornwell met Shaikh when she started working as the Staff Director for the Senate Elections Committee.

“I have been here for decades, but it is easy to see she is a rising star,” says Cornwell. “Even after a short time working in the Capitol, Rida gets this place. Her curiosity, intelligence, and professionalism enable her to thrive in the legislative environment. Rida is a keen student of the process by which a bill becomes a law. I hope she decides to stay here in the Senate and make the legislature her career.”

Being a woman of color in the Capitol has also shaped Shaikh’s experience. She expected to see more diversity in California’s capital city, but she was disappointed by the reality.

“It made me realize how much more work there is to be done in terms of letting people into these spaces.” She hopes to be an example for others: “If people can see that I’m here, they can also get here. I’m very open to helping people and giving them guidance on things that I wish that I had done differently in order to get here,” she says.

Brian Green, former media consultant for the Senate Democratic Caucus, met Shaikh after she started working for the Senate. They worked on the same 5th floor hallway, so they began exchanging pleasantries, which evolved into coffee chats and a connection that has continued into Green’s retirement. Green notes what a remarkable achievement it is that Shaikh carved a path to the Senate Elections Committee at such a young age, completely on her own volition.

Being a woman of color in the Capitol has also shaped Shaikh’s experience. She expected to see more diversity in California’s capital city, but she was disappointed by the reality.

“I’m humbled by Rida’s personal story – a young woman of color being born of an immigrant Indian family living in the deep south of the US, moving as a child to a conservative part of Northern California, and likely having to grow up around bias or prejudice, and at the very least not seeing hardly any other young women (or men) of color in those circumstances, as role models or colleagues,” says Green. “Thus, I fully support and honor her desire to be a role model herself, an inspiration and welcoming voice as a senate staffer, for Indian-American young people who want to pursue a legislative career.”

Shaikh has made a concentrated effort to integrate into the Capitol community. She frequently attends events and visits different offices for their open houses. For Shaikh, building and maintaining connections is key to thriving in Sacramento. She says that young staffers ought to put themselves out there and not hold back, as “a lot of working within the capitol and working within politics is just getting out there and showing your face and having people know who you are.”

In addition to learning the inner workings of the elections committee and building community at the Capitol, Shaikh is also pursuing an online Master’s Degree in Public Management with a focus in Public Policy through the Johns Hopkins online program.

Shaikh is just at the start of her political career, and she doesn’t plan to stay in Sacramento forever. She eventually would like to move to the East Coast to work for an organization that prioritizes issues of social justice or environmental policy.

And what do her parents think now, considering she didn’t go to medical or law school? They don’t fully understand Shaikh’s role, but she says they could not be prouder.

“I know they’re just super happy and supportive about my career and where I want to go with it,” she says.