Karthik Soora is a reformer with a record of results.
Karthik grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas and attended Arkansas’s public magnet schools as part of a busing program.
He wasn’t born in Texas, but he got here as fast as he could! Karthik attended Rice University in Houston, where he earned a triple major in Political Science, History, and Asian Studies with a minor in Global Health Technologies.
After completing his undergraduate studies, Karthik became a chemistry teacher and taught in the Houston Independent School District in Houston’s East End at Eastwood Academy, a school with over 85% of the students ranking as economically disadvantaged. His students scored over two standard deviations ahead of predicted district exams scores on the TAKS and STAAR Chemistry exams, and over 12 students passed the AP Chemistry exam, a feat that had never before been achieved at Eastwood Academy.
Karthik was then recruited to work for the newly-founded Emerge Program, where he recruited, managed, and taught over 50 first generation, low-income students who were accepted into top tier universities. While working in HISD, Karthik realized that there was no one-stop online shop for enrichment programs geared towards high-achieving low-income students. So he co-founded a social venture called One Jump, a web platform that links low-income students to transformative enrichment opportunities to improve college access. He assembled a team and negotiated partnerships with four public school networks to connect the platform to over 5,000 teachers and 30,000 students nationwide. The organization was showcased in the Houston Chronicle, Huffington Post, and Xconomy as a game-changing social venture in education. One Jump still exists now as a 501c(3) organization called Momentum Education that has helped over 600 students, and Karthik remains on the Board of Advisers.
With the rise of Trump, Karthik knew how crucial both electoral change and protest were. When MAGA Republicans attacked Texas and America’s communities, he was there. When Trump was elected, he attended the Women’s March. When the Trump administration tried to silence Climate Scientists, he joined the March for Science. When the Trump administration enacted its Muslim ban, he was out on the streets. When George Floyd was murdered, he joined over 60,000 Houstonians to make clear how comprehensive criminal justice reform was needed. When the GOP Legislature tries to ban Chinese-Americans from buying houses in legislation like SB 147, he joined the massive walk across Chinatown.
Karthik helped co-found the Texas Chapter of TheySeeBlue, a volunteer organization dedicated to mobilizing South Asians in Texas. TheySeeBlue Texas volunteers made over 44,000 calls, sent over 153,000 text messages, wrote over 32 op-eds, and recruited over 721 volunteers, with their efforts obtaining recognition by the Houston Chron, TeenVogue, the Guardian, and the Texas Tribune. Their efforts led to an increase of almost 10%+ amongst South Asian voters in the Texas 2020 election.
As a renewable energy developer, Karthik has helped develop over 1 GW of solar and storage projects which will be built in 2027 and is putting into place the steps for over $1 billion of capital investment into rural Louisiana which will provide clean electricity to both Louisianans and Texans.
