Karishma Manzur Biography, Politician, Family, Background

Karishma Manzur is a Bangladeshi-American scientist and Democratic politician known for her 2026 U.S. Senate run in New Hampshire. Born in Bangladesh, she fled political violence as a child before settling in the United States. She built a PhD-backed career in neurological research before turning to grassroots politics. Her campaign leaned hard into rejecting corporate money.

Karishma Manzur — Bio/Wiki

Karishma Manzur Early Life and Background

Political tragedy in Bangladesh shaped Manzur’s early years. Her father, Major General Muhammad Abul Manzur, was a decorated commander in the country’s 1971 Liberation War. In 1981, he was accused of involvement in a failed uprising and killed while in military custody, an event that upended the family’s life almost overnight.

Facing threats and constant monitoring afterward, her mother, Rana Yasmeen Manzur, fled with Karishma and her siblings to the United States to start over. The family settled in New Hampshire, where money was tight and stability took years to rebuild. That early hardship left a lasting mark on how she views the government, and that’s a big part of why she eventually ran for office.

Karishma Manzur Education

Manzur attended Cambridge School of Weston before earning her bachelor’s degree at the University of Rochester in 1998. She then pursued a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, finishing in 2004, and later completed research training at the University of California, Berkeley.

Karishma Manzur’s Family

After her father’s death, her mother Rana became the family’s anchor almost overnight. She raised Karishma and her three siblings largely on her own after arriving in the United States, working to rebuild a stable home in a new country.

One of her siblings, a younger brother, went on to work in law enforcement, continuing a family thread of public service in a very different form. Details about the rest of her siblings remain largely private.

Manzur is married, though she keeps her husband’s identity out of the spotlight. The couple has two children, a daughter and a younger child still in high school, and family life stays mostly separate from her public campaigns.

Karishma Manzur Career

Two decades in biomedical research came before her turn to politics. Manzur focused on neurological conditions like epilepsy and depression, working across several research institutions before moving into nonprofit and civic work. She later served on the boards of NH Peace Action, NH Ranked Choice Voting, and NH Open Democracy Action, groups focused on ending war spending and getting big money out of politics.

In 2025, she launched a long-shot campaign for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, challenging four-term Congressman Chris Pappas in the Democratic primary. She ran without corporate PAC money, leaning entirely on small donors and grassroots volunteers. Comments calling for defunding ICE, made on New Hampshire television in January 2026, gave her campaign its first wave of national attention, and her sharp criticism of AIPAC-linked donations to her opponent became a defining theme of the race, and it’s part of what fueled her late polling surge.

Manzur lost the September 2026 Democratic primary to Pappas by a wide margin, though she pulled in roughly a third of the vote against a far better-funded opponent. She said afterward that any endorsement of Pappas would have to be earned rather than automatic. Her run left a mark on New Hampshire’s progressive movement, even without a primary win.

Karishma Manzur Public Profile