Raj Shah was born in 1984 in Connecticut to parents who moved from Mumbai to the United States in the 1970s. He attended Brien McMahon High School and graduated from Cornell University in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in government. His early interest in politics led him to volunteer for U.
S. Representative Chris Shays and intern for U.S.
Senator Joe Lieberman and others in Washington, D.C., including an internship in the White House in 2005.