Nimi McConigley (née Swamidoss; born 12 December 1939) is an Indian-born American politician and journalist. A Republican, McConigley served in the

Wyoming House of Representatives The Wyoming House of Representatives is the lower house of the Wyoming State Legislature. There are 60 Representatives in the House, representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts across the state, each with a population of ...

from 1994 until 1996, where she represented the 59th House district. McConigley, who was born in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, was the first Indian-born person and the first

Indian American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

woman to serve in any

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

Early life and education

Nirmala Swamidoss was born on 12 December 1939 in

(now Chennai),

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. She did her schooling in Doveton Corrie School in

Vepery Vepery is a suburb in the north of Chennai, India. Abutting the transportation hub of Park Town, the neighbourhood covers a rectangular area north of the Poonamallee High Road. History Vepery is among those oldest neighbourhoods developed duri ...

. She went on to receive a bachelor's degree in Arts from Queen Mary's College and her law degree from the

Madras Law College Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, commonly known by its former name Madras Law College, is a law school, located in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. It is also referred to as Government Law College or GLC, Chennai. It was established in ...

. During the premiership of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

, Swamidoss worked in national news. She went on to study journalism at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in the 1960s.

Career

After graduating from the Columbia University, McConigley went into journalism. She and her family moved to

Casper, Wyoming Casper is a city in, and the county seat of, Natrona County, Wyoming, United States. Casper is the second-largest city in the state, with the population at 59,038 as of the 2020 census. Only Cheyenne, the state capital, is larger. Casper is nic ...

in the 1970s. She became one of only two Asian American news directors when she took that role at CBS affiliate KGWC.

Political career

McConigley served as the campaign manager for state senator Charles K. Scott, who was running for Governor of Wyoming in the 1994 election. She decided to run for represent the 59th House district in the

in 1994, where she was elected. McConigley stated that she received private criticism from colleagues after wearing a

sari A sari (sometimes also saree or shari)The name of the garment in various regional languages include: * as, শাৰী, xārī, translit-std=ISO * bn, শাড়ি, śāṛi, translit-std=ISO * gu, સાડી, sāḍī, translit-std= ...

to speak at a high school in

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

. During her tenure in the legislature, she sponsored legislation to make

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

the state's official language. Rather than run for reelection, McConigley chose to run for

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

in the 1996 election. In a field of nine candidates in the Republican primary, she finished 4th, coming behind

Michael Enzi Michael Bradley Enzi ( ; February 1, 1944 – July 26, 2021) was an American politician who served in the United States Senate from Wyoming as a member of the Republican Party from 1997 to 2021. Prior to his tenure in the United States Senate ...

, John Barrasso, and

Curt Meier Curt Meier (born January 1, 1953) is an American politician from the state of Wyoming. A Republican, he is the Wyoming State Treasurer. He was a member of the Wyoming Senate, representing the 3rd district from 1995 through 2019. Meier was appoint ...

. She ran for the State House in 1998, but lost the general election to Nancy Berry.

Personal life

She married Patrick McConigley and has two daughters, Lila and Nina. She met her husband, a geologist, while working at

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

in Madras. In an interview, she recalled choosing to move to Wyoming, initially intended to be temporary before her husband would move to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

for work, because she was impressed by Jackson Hole. Her daughter Nina McConigley went on to become a writer, whose short story collection ''Cowboys and East Indians'' won the

PEN Open Book Award PEN/Open Book (known as the Beyond Margins Award through 2009) is a program intended to foster racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities, and works to establish access for diverse literary groups to the publishing i ...

in 2015.

References

External links