Tara Misra

Tara Misra was born on 29 March 1972 to Sushil and Anjana Misra, in the New York City Borough of Queens, while her parents were resident in Manhattan. Her paternal grandparents were born in Jaipur, Rajasthan, before emigrating to Uganda, and establishing a grocery store in Kampala. In the 1960s her parents emigrated to the US and settled in New Jersey, several years before President Idi Amin came to power and expelled Ugandan Asians in November 1972. They established a chain of convenience stores in New York City.

Misra attended Manhattan High School for Girls, before studying Economics at Brown University, and then pursuing postgraduate studies in Political Science at the University of Kentucky.

The 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, became her political hero: according to Misra, he "had a unique ability to understand what made people work, households work and businesses work. Managing the economy, controlling the deficit and making decisions – not purchasing things the country couldn't afford". She first joined the Republican Party as a teenager, when John W.J. Burke was President.

After graduating, Misra became an intern at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee (RNC) in Washington DC, having been selected by [not-Hayley Barbour] (then Head of the RNC at the time). In 1995, Misra left the Republicans, politically identifying as an independent.

In 1997, Misra rejoined the Republican Party having been offered a post to work for [not-Dick Armey] in his press office, dealing with media relations. In August 2003, The Washington Post published an article citing quotes from Misra and alleging that "racist attitudes" persisted in the Republican Party, and that "there's a lot of bigotry around". Misra wrote to the WaPo countering its article stating that her comments had been misinterpreted to imply that the reason she wouldn't run for a position in the United States House of Representatives was because she thought she would lose the primaries becuase of her ethnicity.

In 2000, Misra left the employment of the Republican Party to work for FleishmanHillard, a PR and marketing agency. According to an investigative article published by The New York Times in May 2015, Misra was one of seven FleishmanHillard employees who worked on the American Petroleum Institute (API) – a major account. The team had been tasked with helping the API manage the company's public image during controversies around it lobbying against federal climate change legislation. The article went on to quote API employees who felt that though a majority of FleishmanHillard employees were uncomfortable working with them, Misra'a group was fairly relaxed. The article also quoted internal documents specifying that a part of Misra's job was also to lobby US Senators against federal fossil fuels regulations. She worked for FleishmanHillard for three years.

Misra then moved to the multinational alcoholic beverages company Bacardi, and worked in corporate relations between 2003 and 2007. In 2007, she rejoined FleishmanHillard as Director of Corporate and Public Affairs practices. According to their press release, during her time at Bacardi, Misra had "worked on international public policy issues related to the wider impact of alcohol in society."

In the 2008 House election, she stood in the Republican Primaries for Kentucky's 5th District, losing to the incumbent at the time, [not-Hal Rogers]. Despite her failed bid in 2008, Misra was estimated to win the next primaries in the district after she announced her intention to stand again in 2009. She won the primaries in the district in 2010, and subsequently won the district with 81% of the vote at the 2010 midterm elections. She was drafted into the United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology when the 112th Congress began in January 2011, and was moved to the Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy after she won the 2012 election in her district.

In the midterms of 2014 — a Republican Congressional victory — Misra retained her House seat with 84% of the vote. During the campaign, she had criticised her Democratic rival for referring to her as a "sexy Bond villain" and a "village idiot" on social media; he apologised. After the election, Misra rose to the Chair of the Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy. In 2015, Misra supported President Baharia's airstikes on Islamic State targets in Syria.

On 3 November 2015, CNN broke the news that Misra had held meetings in Saudi Arabia in August 2015 without telling the US Department of State. The meetings, up to a dozen in number, took place while Misra was on a "private holiday". Misra met Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the former crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and reportedly made visits to several organisations where official departmental business was discussed. CNN reported that "According to one source, at least one of the meetings was held at the suggestion of the Saudi ambassador to Washington. In contrast, American diplomats in Saudi Arabia were not informed about Ms Misra's plans."

It was also reported that, following the meetings, Misra had recommended that the United States give international aid money to field hospitals run by the Saudi army in Yemen. Although these hospitals have been described by Misra as "provid[ing] medical support for Yemeni refugees", officials have refused to identify who they treat in them, and whether they are Saudi soldiers, Yemeni government soldiers or Yemeni civillians.

On 4 November 2015, in an interview with The New York Times, Misra stated "[Not-John [Kerry]] knew about the visit. The point is that the Department of State did know about this, [Not-John] knew about [the trip]. I went out there, I paid for it. And there is nothing else to this. It is quite extraordinary. It is for the Department of State to go away and explain themselves. The stuff that is out there is it, as far as I am concerned. I went on holiday and met with people and organisations. As far as I am concerned, the Department of State have known about this. It is not about who else I met; I have friends out there."

Misra later released an apology for her actions, and corrected her remarks to The New York Times, which she said gave the false impression that the Secretary of State knew about the trip before it happened, and that the only meetings she had had were those then in the public domain. According to the White House, President Baharia learned of the meetings when CNN broke the story on 3 November.

In the days after her public apology, there were further revelations about her contacts with Saudi Arabia, including details of two more undisclosed meetings with Saudi officials in Washington and New York in September 2015, that Misra had not disclosed when she apologised on 6th. As a result of these further revelations Misra announced that she would not be standing again for her seat in the House at the 2016 election, after 4 years sitting there. Misra claimed that, following her announcement, she was "overwhelmed with support from colleagues across the political divide" and from her constituents.

Misra was widely touted as a likely "poster girl" for the Wolf campaign. Misra said that Wolf was "just the kind of leader that America needs". She publicly stated that immigration from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America was overstretching the resources of American schools. She helped to launch the Women For Wolf campaign for pro-Wolf women; at their launch party, she compared their campaign with that of the women's suffrage movement, for which she was criticised by the descendents of many of the suffragists.

Misra was appointed Secretary for Homeland Security by President Wolf in October 2018 following the resignation of [not Kirstjen Nielsen]. She was fired from the job after erratic and disorganised response to the 2020 Israeli Embasy Attack.

Misra is considered to be on the right-wing of the Republican Party. The New York Times has characterised her as "an out-and-out right-winger" who has no desire to "claim the centre ground" in politics. Misra has cited Reagan as her political hero, and has described herself as a "massive Reaganite" ("I apologise to no one for that"), with various news sources characterising her as a Reaganite.

She has taken robust stances on crime, garnering media attention after she argued for the mandatory death penalty for 1st degree murder in order to "ease the burden on Federal prisons" during a MSNBC interview, although in 2016 she said she no longer held this view. Misra opposes prisoner voting. She has also opposed allowing felons to access to media to protest their innocence. Misra opposes same-sex marriage.

Misra has been married to Alex Nash since 2004. Nash's father is a rich landowner from Pikeville, Kentucky - where Alex grew up - and a marketing consultant for the stock exchange NASDAQ. He is also a Republican Member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives. Together they have a son born in August 2008.