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Goli Ameri
Goli Ameri ( Goli Yazdi) is a Republican Iranian-American businesswoman who ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon. She was born in 1956 in Tehran, Iran.
Life
She first came to the United States when she was 17, in order to get an education at Stanford. There, she received her B.A. in Communications and French Literature and, later, her master's degree in Communications. She also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. At Stanford, she met and later married Jim Ameri, a real-estate investor. She permanently settled in the United States after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, and became a citizen several years later.
She is president of eTinium, Inc., a telecommunications consulting firm in Portland, Oregon. She has two teenage sons.
2004 Campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives
In 2004, she handily defeated moderate, small businessman Tim Phillips and conservative Jason Meshell by a 2-1 margin each to become the official nominee of the Republican Party for Oregon's 1st district seat in the House of Representatives and challenge three-term incumbent Democrat David Wu. Her attempt to become a member of Congress was a subject of admiration and discussion in Iran and around the world. It attracted interest because she was born in a country marked as part of the "Axis of Evil" by George W. Bush's administration and yet she won the nomination of Bush's own party.
Ameri's campaign gained a great deal of attention from political insiders in Washington, D.C. because of her fast-paced fundraising skills. The contest between her and Wu also received some national attention when, late in the campaign, Wu admitted that he had been disciplined for attempted sexual assault of a female classmate while he was a student at Stanford. Ameri heavily pushed the issue in the closing days of the campaign, which contributed to her loss in the election.
Post-Campaign Developments
Ameri was later appointed by George W. Bush as one of three public members of the United States' delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which meets annually in Geneva, Switzerland. Recently, Ameri has been invited to speak at events on Middle East issues nationwide, including a testimony before the United States Senate.
Life
She first came to the United States when she was 17, in order to get an education at Stanford. There, she received her B.A. in Communications and French Literature and, later, her master's degree in Communications. She also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. At Stanford, she met and later married Jim Ameri, a real-estate investor. She permanently settled in the United States after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, and became a citizen several years later.
She is president of eTinium, Inc., a telecommunications consulting firm in Portland, Oregon. She has two teenage sons.
2004 Campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives
In 2004, she handily defeated moderate, small businessman Tim Phillips and conservative Jason Meshell by a 2-1 margin each to become the official nominee of the Republican Party for Oregon's 1st district seat in the House of Representatives and challenge three-term incumbent Democrat David Wu. Her attempt to become a member of Congress was a subject of admiration and discussion in Iran and around the world. It attracted interest because she was born in a country marked as part of the "Axis of Evil" by George W. Bush's administration and yet she won the nomination of Bush's own party.
Ameri's campaign gained a great deal of attention from political insiders in Washington, D.C. because of her fast-paced fundraising skills. The contest between her and Wu also received some national attention when, late in the campaign, Wu admitted that he had been disciplined for attempted sexual assault of a female classmate while he was a student at Stanford. Ameri heavily pushed the issue in the closing days of the campaign, which contributed to her loss in the election.
Post-Campaign Developments
Ameri was later appointed by George W. Bush as one of three public members of the United States' delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which meets annually in Geneva, Switzerland. Recently, Ameri has been invited to speak at events on Middle East issues nationwide, including a testimony before the United States Senate.
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