
Arati Kreibich was an Indian-American scientist and Democratic political candidate. She moved to the United States when she was 11, along with her parents and two younger brothers, and she became a neuroscientist who worked with the pharmaceutical industry to combat the opioid crisis. In 2016, she was elected to the Glen Rock Borough Council in Bergen County, having been motivated to run by her daughter's fear that the recently-elected Donald Trump would deport her; she became the first South Asian to serve on the council. In 2020, she challenged the centrist Democratic incumbent Josh Gottheimer for the NJ-05 congressional district, running on a progressive platform backed by Ayanna Pressley. She emphasized issues such as healthcare for all, student debt, feminism, immigrant rights, property taxes, and fighting corporate influence in politics. On 7 July 2020, she lost the Democratic primary by a significant margin.