Aftab Karma Singh Pureval
The eldest child of first-generation immigrants, Aftab’s full name reflects the winding path of history and culture that led his family from Tibet, to India, to the American heartland.
“Karma” is Aftab’s Tibetan name, meaning “Destiny.”
Born in a mountainside tent, Aftab’s Tibetan mother fled Communist Chinese occupation as a child before growing up in a Southern Indian refugee camp. As a student, she met Aftab’s Punjabi father, whose last name, “Pureval,” harkens to the farming village his family hails from. In honor of his faith, Aftab’s father passed on the traditional male Sikh name “Singh,” meaning “Lion.”
Seeking a future free from oppression or stigma, Aftab’s parents looked to the endless opportunities of a life in America. Beginning their family in the sleepy suburb of Beavercreek, Ohio, they bestowed names imbued with each of their histories and cultures. With the hope of their new American life, they named their son after the old Persian word for “sunshine”: Aftab.
Raised on student government and school athletics, Aftab enrolled at The Ohio State University, where he studied political science before earning his law degree from the University of Cincinnati. In law school, Aftab worked with the UC Domestic Violence Clinic, representing survivors of abuse who couldn’t afford an attorney in the Warren County Domestic Relations Court.
After graduating from UC in 2008, Aftab worked as a lawyer in D.C. before returning to Cincinnati in 2012 to work at the Department of Justice and Procter & Gamble.
In law school, Aftab worked with the UC Domestic Violence Clinic, representing survivors of abuse who couldn’t afford An Attorney.
After graduating from UC in 2008, Aftab worked as a lawyer in D.C. before returning to Cincinnati in 2012 to work at the Department of Justice and Procter & Gamble.
Aftab began his political career in 2015 in his race for Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, campaigning for an office nobody had ever heard of, with a name nobody could pronounce, in a race no Democrat had won in over a century.
Flipping 100 years of Democratic shutout, Aftab immediately modernized the Clerk of Courts. On his very first day, he fired the existing leadership for their nepotism and patronage that wasted taxpayer dollars. Under his leadership, the office revamped its website, cut garbage fees for public records, and digitized its services.
Aftab not only led the Clerk of Courts into the 21st century, he reformed the office to make hardworking public service a life with dignity. Aftab guaranteed his employees a livable wage, raising the minimum annual salary of his office by $9,000. He became the first countywide executive to offer paid family leave - not maternity, not paternity, but holistic time off, including sick leave to care for elderly family. And, he supported his employees’ fight to unionize, securing their protections against any future attack.
Even after revolutionizing the office, Aftab still saved taxpayers nearly $1 million by eliminating waste and abuse.
Since day one in office, Aftab has fought for working families, labor, and making public service work for the people - not the powerful.
Aftab now lives in Cincinnati with his wife, Whitney, a doctor of internal medicine at Bethesda North Hospital, alongside their two boys, Bodhi and Rami.