Thomas Sipp

So going all the way to the start, I was born in Japan to an American father and a Japanese mother.

And my family moved to the United States when I was 10.

My parents separated shortly after.

And so I was learning English in middle school.

and also learning about what it means to be an American.

It's not only becoming this sort of racial minority because I'm mixed race, and coming to understand the social fabric that's kind of unique to the United States, especially compared to a relatively homogenous country like Japan.

And, you know, growing up with my single mom, who doesn't speak fluent English, and getting all those sort of experiences, I think, started to put me on the path that I'm on now.

Yeah.

I mean, there were difficult days for sure.

You know, whether it's not being able to make friends, being made fun of for my accent and stuff like that, that really, I think, started to form

like that sense of injustice that I think fuels me sometimes, right?

But at the same time, I moved to the United States, you know, in 2008 and during that election.

And there's all this conversation in America about hopefulness and about, you know, this being a country where there's a place for anyone, right?

And so...

I was also absorbing that as well.

In high school, I joined a debate team to practice public speaking.

And in college, I was studying political science at the University of Texas.

And I had this wonderful opportunity to be an intern at the United States Senate.

This was probably basically like a decade after I moved to the United States.

Suddenly, I'm walking through the halls of Congress with my little yellow Senate intern badge and running into senators and congressmen getting to sit in on important hearings.