Dhruvak Mirani has what we all want: thick hair. Well, that and energy, high ideals, and a compassionate spirit. But come on–thick hair is awesome! He also has something else we all want: youth. Well, I guess young people don’t want it…they have it. But as soon as you’re not young, you’re like, “What was I thinking–give me back my youth!” I don’t see that in Dhruvak’s future, though. I could tell instantly upon meeting him that he loves life and keeps moving forward. He looks at what he can help him create the world he envisions. But he’s not all about himself. In fact, when I asked him to chat with me about running for a spot on HoCo’s Democratic Central Committee (HCDCC), he seemed so excited! “Sure, Robert!” When we did talk, he said he thought it was important for him to be a guide for those younger than him.
“I co-founded the Young Democrats Club at Glenelg High School, and we didn’t have a lot of guidance–there just aren’t the resources.” Now Dhruvak wants to be a guide, to help along kids who might not feel their voice matters in a county like HoCo.
I told him–wow! I can actually see the excitement on your face and how much it matters to you. It matters to him. It matters. These days, with women’s reproductive freedom, books people decide they don’t like, and more in jeopardy, well it matters to someone, to Drhuvak. In fact, the day before, I saw a post by him on his Facebook page voicing support for women’s reproductive health choices.
It had a link to a Baltimore Sun article on anti-choice protesters at local schools. Dhruvak wrote this: “I want every young person and community member to know that I stand firmly with the rights of all people to bodily autonomy—abortion is health care, and health care is a human right.” Thank you, Dhruvak. It’s just so nice for someone to boldy, flatly, say what they believe–especially if they’re running for office. I haven’t seen someone take a stand like that in a long time. But Dhruvak does have a habit of saying what he thinks, believes, feels.
“He’s a smart young man with a good head on his shoulders,” RoCo bestie Deeba Jafri told me. And a good head of hair on that good head that’s on his shoulders. When did this become an anatomy lesson?!?
But seriously, Zach Koung, an LGBTQ+ rights activist and former Student Member of the Board of Education has faith that Dhruvak will advocate for marginalized communities when he’s on Central Committee. “When we talk about the importance of youth voices, it starts with actually electing young people. I support Dhruvi because he will [work to] build a stronger, more inclusive Democratic party that will fight for marginalized voices.”
I told Dhruvak that Colleen and I got involved in local politics here in HoCo after Trump won the 2016 election.
“The spring before I was a freshman at Glenelg High School, a group of graduating seniors spray-painted racist, homophobic, anti-semitic graffiti, and threats against the principal, David Burton,” Dhruvak said. Burton is African-American. Dhruvak said it was scary for him as a person of color entering the majority white Glenelg that fall.
But he wasn’t cowed. After school started in the fall, Dhruvak’s classmates elected him class president, and later he co-founded the Young Democrats Club. Now that he’s graduated, he sees it as his duty to shape a safe community for them.
“I see parents filing police reports to get books banned from our school. I see right-wing extremists running for Board of Education.” Dhruvak said, a veil of seriousness falling over his face. He’s proud to be a product of the public education system. And his knowledge of how it works positions him to be a voice for education. And not pseudo-education issues like “Critical Race Theory”, he made sure I understood.
And: See what local advocate Becca Niburg had to say about her time on the southern border.
He sees a desperate need for more young people to be involved in the community, in local politics. On Central Committee, Dhruvak says he hopes he can be a part of a movement to teach young people how to get involved, “things like phone-banking and canvassing.” As a Central Committee member, he said, he’ll be in a position to connect with a large base of volunteers. And, of course, Central Committee is all volunteer. I told him that had intimidated me a lot. He just smiled. I knew he understood. But it wasn’t going to stop him.
“We have to stay connected to the community. We can’t just approach local Democrats and ask for money after not having reached out to them in two years,” Dhruvak said and scooted up on his seat across from me. He said, he feels, that Central Committee is stagnating. “We need to incentivize participating in the community,” he said. He believes the members of Central Committee do care about getting people involved. And he’s poised to do that.
Luckily, Dhruvak will be a freshman at University of Maryland College Park (UMCP). He’s glad he can stay involved and come out for the events he foresees HCDCC having frequently when he’s a member. Dhruvak lives in Western Howard County right now. He shared my marveling at how Western Howard County just keeps stretching out and out, farther and farther, further and further. I had to take a sip of water then–the vastness of Western HoCo made me thirsty.
“One of my main goals is helping young people use their voices effectively. It’s super-important to me. I want to build bridges between young people and elected officials in Howard County,” he said. He’s looking to connect students and local electeds who might need grassroots-level support. Oh, you know they do! Another example of his goal on HCDCC is to teach young people and Young Democrat clubs skills, like how to run a voter registration drive. And then, of course, there’s funding. There’s always the funding. Dhruvak is keenly aware that the connecting, bridging, reaching out–it all requires funds.
Dhruvak was a member of the Howard County Association of Student Councils (HCASC), which shouldn’t surprise you. This is what that HCASC’s website has to say about his time there: “On the Policy 9260 Review Committee on Student Search and Seizure, Dhruvi presented evidence of an emerging consensus among legal scholars regarding the unconstitutionality of police dog drug scans in public schools to the committee and subsequently introduced a motion to end all such scans in HCPSS schools, which passed the committee on a supermajority vote.” Presented evidence? Fourth Amendment? Supermajority vote? I needed another sip of water, and this time I had to lean back and relax. Imagine what Dhruvak will accomplish at UMCP and beyond!
“It’s been so rewarding to me as I campaign to talk to young folks and show them that I’m proof that they too can run for office,” he said. He’s the youngest person in the state, he pointed out, running for any elected office. “Representation matters,” he told me, grinning, adding that he knew it’s a little cliche. I told him I didn’t agree. I don’t hear people say it often enough! “I hope I’m sending a positive message to other young people by getting involved, showing them they can get involved.
“We have voices and we have to use them,” he said.
I asked him what’s been challenging about his campaign so far. I predicted he’d say, “Running during COVID” as so, so many candidates have told me. Dhruvak looked at me with a mischievous grin. “I’m running against 44 opponents for the 20 seats on Central Committee,” he told me. I loved that he said this with a smile, not a bit of the sparkle in his eye dimming. In fact, it got brighter. We’ve seen he’s not one to demur in the face of competition. This is the perfect race for him! He pointed out that those who know him well all know that he’s “extremely persistent”. ”
I consider myself pretty resilient with challenges,” he said. After he graduates from Glenelg on June 1st, he told me, he’ll be spending all day, every day. “I’ll be talking to voters, engaging people on the issues,” he said.
I asked another RoCo bestie, Becca Niburg in what have become too-rare conversations between us, what she thought of Dhruvak. She answered simply, almost breathlessly.
“He had helped with my campaign,” Becca said. I knew, then, that while she’s running for Delegate in District 13, nothing could have meant more to her than that. When Dhruvak had pointed out his own resilience, I thought then, well, he needs to meet The Queen of Resilience, Becca. And he already had!
If someone gave him $10,000 right now, Dhruvak said, he’d use it to support the progressives running for seats on the Board of Education. There are some candidates, he said, that pose a threat to the well-being of students of color, of LGBTQ+ students in the county. So a $10,000 gift would be a much-needed boost to the progressive-minded people on Board of Ed.
“For my campaign,” he said, “it’s a more boring answer: I’d use it for campaign literature, yard signs, t-shirts, things to help me get my message out.” I assured him it wasn’t a boring answer at all. Those things are important in a campaign.
Was he getting a little bashful, then, I wondered. He was, because he looked down a bit and said: “I was in D.C. last night for an awards ceremony. The Washington, D.C and Baltimore arm of Princeton Race Relations Committee gave him a Certificate of Accomplishment in promoting race relations and racial equity. This was a reward for a good deal of work he’d done last year during his campaign for Student Member of the Board of Education, specifically regarding school resource officers, reforming hiring practices in our school system, and implicit bystander training and bystander intervention for staff. Leading up to that award, he said his schedule was packed. “I loved meeting so many students, having so many great conversations: being inspired,” he said. And I felt inspired again too, after a long time. A lot of local government, he’s learned is about putting in the work.
And there comes canvassing, which is a lot of what Dhruvak is doing these days. Campaigns all over the state are reaching a frenzied pitch as Election Day approaches. Dhruvak is in lots of meetings these days. He’s talking to individual people who want to meet him. “I really want to stay engaged on issues that are contemporary and affect people’s lives,” he said. “I want to continue to communicate my stances on these issues,” he said, referring back to his Facebook post.
When I asked Dhruvak he had any siblings, I was sure he’d say he was the oldest of a few. Not so! He’s the youngest! He has an older brother and sister. I wish I’d had time to ask him where he got this instinct to nurture people younger than him. If I had to guess, I’d say his parents. If you live with love and caring, you give love and caring.
“Some people really have a knack, too,” I said, “for answering questions succinctly.” It’s a real talent. In his future career at UMCP, I’m certain it’ll come in handy. Dhruvak said he’ll be doubling down on the majors. “One will be computer science, and for the second, I’m still deciding between government and politics and public policy.” I pointed out that so many of HoCo’s local politicos have studied public policy at the graduate level: Sen. Guy Guzzone (D-13), Tara Eisenhauer Ebersole, Felix Facchine (another candidate for HCDCC). Dhruvak nodded and smiled. He was signaling to me that it was such a valuable course of study, I’m sure. Well, he wasn’t going to get any argument from me on that one!
We returned, then, to talk of meetings. There’s a lot to say about these suckers–seriously. “I’ve also been meeting with people who are really on the ground advocating for the issues I mentioned.” I didn’t say it, because he already knew it, that so much of politics, be it local, national, activist, is about getting to know people. You meet the stakeholders and you meet the doers. Dhruvak’s really loved, he said, meeting people. That’s a common refrain when RoCo interviews local politicians. And it’s no surprise. Politics is all about meeting people–and meetings. I never got to ask Dhruvak another question: had he met Eric Ebersole? I’m still a little bummed that Eric’s district isn’t 12 anymore (it’s 44), though, so I didn’t want to put a damper on things. I’m sure when Dhruvak’s on Central Committee, he’ll met Eric. Mark my words, readers, they’ll become fast friends.
Also: Here’s why we’re such Ebersolian fans at rocoinhoco.com!
“It’s a little hectic,” Dhruvak said, “but it’s so important to me.” He seemed mystified when I laughed, what with our serious conversation up until now. I explained I was only laughing because I learned the hard way that how true it was that local politics is a hectic affair, when Colleen and I got involved in in HoCo. I learned it by sheer exhaustion. But Dhruvak’s got that energy, that resilience, that love of meeting people. So he’ll be fine.
Thanks for reading! Check back with us each here at rocoinhoco.com every week as Robert, Colleen (and pup, Moses) get to know the many facets—one each week–of this prismatic place called Howard County. We want to take you along with us, so follow us on Twitter at @rocoinhoco, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Instagram at @rocoinhoco.