What began as frustration over halted research projects and a broken healthcare system became a months-long campaign that reshaped how one Northwestern student sees politics, community and the power of young scientific voices. When 25-year-old PhD student Rohan Kota witnessed his roommate receive an email from the Department of Defense (DOD) to halt his scientific AI and robotic research immediately due to funding, it marked a turning point. Students working late hours in the night chasing breakthroughs in science and engineering had suddenly lost their means to do their work.
As funding disappeared and research projects were frozen, Kota began speaking at rallies to express his concerns with research funding cuts across Northwestern campus and Chicago, gaining inspiration from those around him to use his voice for young scientists.
“Everyone was super inspired,” he recalled. “They were urging me to consider running [for the 5th Congressional District representative seat]. So that kind of spurred it.”
But it wasn’t just the loss of funding that propelled Kota toward politics; it was personal. Kota’s father was diagnosed with leukemia and his stepmother, who had breast cancer, died two years ago.
“When she was in the hospital, my dad had to take a lot of time off work to take care of her,” Kota said, “and because of that he lost his job, and along with that, he lost his health insurance. You can imagine it’s just like a house of cards, everything falling down at once.”
Kota’s time at Northwestern has shaped more than just his research. It has refined how he thinks about leadership, innovation and the role of knowledge in policy making. As a PhD student working in robotics and artificial intelligence, he said that science and government should work more closely together.
“If I were a member of Congress, I would spend a lot of time visiting universities and figuring out what interesting research is being done,” Kota said. “[I’d want] to think about how we can invest in the things that will improve people’s lives.”
He sees a disconnect between those creating technology and those creating laws about it.
“Obviously the government already [invests in science],” he said. “But I think the people making the laws should also be really knowledgeable about what the right things to invest in are right now.”
Kota said that the understanding of this is especially critical as technology accelerates faster than public policy can keep up.
“There’s a lot of stuff happening around things like AI,” Kota explained. “And people like Mark Zuckerberg [has] testified in front of Congress. A lot of time they are just asked the most ridiculous questions … can’t really hold these people to account because they just don’t understand the technology.”
Between innovation and accountability, Kota said he envisions himself making the greatest impact.
“I’d be able to grill them more deeply on a lot of these [issues],” he said. “If I were a member of Congress, I would spend a lot of time, like, visiting universities and figuring out what interesting research is being done, and trying to think about how we can invest in the things that will improve people’s lives.”
Kota said alongside his passion for research funding, the healthcare system issue transcends party lines.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you’ve probably been affected by how expensive the healthcare system is, right?,” he said. “…Most Americans are pretty dismayed by how expensive the healthcare system is.”
Kota’s frustration with the system solidified his motivation to run for the 5th Congressional District seat. However, Kota has recently decided to step back from the running.
This was not because he was discouraged or lost momentum, but because he realized that he could not fully devote himself to the work at this particular moment in life, he said.
“Part of why I decided not to run is because I didn’t think I could give 100% to [both my PhD and the campaign]. I probably would have had to half-ass one or the other, if not both,” he said.
Before ending his campaign, Kota was running against U.S Representative Mike Quigley (D-5th). Kota said that because of the lack of options, politicians like Quigley did not get challenged very often. (Quigley has since said he plans to run for mayor of Chicago in 2027.)
“If you walk around Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Wrigleyville, which the 5th District encompasses, most of the people you see are under the age of 35 and yet, we have a representative that’s about to turn 70 in his next term,” Kota said. “And I think, of all places in the U.S., this is one of the districts that deserves to be represented by a younger candidate.”
On a day-to-day basis during the campaign, Kota would work 9-5 at school, and then after he would go around getting signatures, he said.
“I’d be taking meetings with a bunch of people and just going to some events, but yeah, in the early phases, most of your time is spent getting signatures.”
Marissa Ensing, Kota’s girlfriend and a Northwestern student studying sustainability, experienced his beginning stages of the campaign to where he is now.
Ensing said that he spent a lot of late nights working on various speeches for rallies, alongside building a website at the time. Despite his stepping back, there was a lot of hard work that led to significant impact.
“It’s been really awesome to see other young people that are starting to get engaged and get involved. Like, at one point when we were getting signatures, we ran into a couple, and they were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, our friend is also looking at running,’” she said. “And it was in the district one over and so that’s been really inspiring to see … how you have this whole wave of other young people that are also interested.”
Emily Kelly, a sophomore at DePaul University, worked on Kota’s campaign and helped him earn signatures during his active running.
Kelly said that to gather signatures, she had to ensure that people were registered to vote in Cook County.
While Kelly was out on the streets of Chicago earning signatures, she ran into the challenge of speaking to people who were not eligible to sign.
“I expected a lot more people to, you know, be registered to vote and be more politically engaged, especially in this city,” she said.
Running for office taught Kota as much about people as it did about politics. Beyond policy or process, Kota said it was the human reactions where he and Ensing would learn about what community members were passionate about, what they wanted changed and the conversations on street corners that shaped both their understandings of civic engagement.
“It’s definitely hard to stay positive these days with everything going on, but I’d say it’s important to try and stay engaged,” he said.
Gathering enough signatures to qualify for the ballot became one of the most time-consuming but eye-opening parts of his campaign. What surprised him most was not who signed, but who didn’t.
“As I was going around, I got a ton of signatures, which you need to get on the ballot,” he explained. “At first, I thought, oh, I’m a young person so a lot of young people would probably be super on board. But surprisingly, young people were the least likely to be receptive.”
The pattern, he said, was unexpected but telling.
“It was a lot of older people who were just like, ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll sign,’ because I think they know more about the process,” he said. “[Younger people] might be disillusioned too … like they just don’t really know what it takes to get on the ballot … whereas old people have been around the block.”
Kota’s background as the child of immigrants and his family’s experience with illness shape the way he understands policy, according to Ensing.
Moving forward, Kota plans to continue to be a voice for education and research funding across not only Chicago, but the U.S.
“This is my fourth year at Northwestern, but I think in a couple years, once I’m no longer in school and I have more freedom, I definitely want to try again,” he said. “A lot of the people that were on board said they’re willing to wait a couple years and just help me out. Hopefully this is something that can happen.”
Visit Kota’s website to learn more about his research and advocacy and to watch a video of his Evanston May Day Rally: https://www.rohankota.com/advocacy.html.
Header Image by Alex Carrasquillo
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