[4] Dhingra, an Indian immigrant, founded the woman's advocacy organization API Chaya in 1996, and later worked under several elected officials at the state level.

She joined the King County Prosecuting Attorney's office in 2000 and led the department's expanding mental health and veterans courts.

[6] Dhingra was born in Bhopal, India to a Sikh family; her father worked for Union Carbide and her mother was a schoolteacher.

[7] She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, earning a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science in 1995,[2] before moving with her husband Harjit Singh to Redmond, Washington.

[8] She would later work in the offices of state Supreme Court justice Barbara Madsen and the Attorney General Christine Gregoire, while earning a degree from the University of Washington School of Law in 1999.

A few months after attending her first Democratic meeting,[10] she declared her candidacy for the special election created by the death of Republican Andy Hill.