 After completing a bachelor's degree and PhD in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, Kariņš moved to Latvia in 1997 and founded a frozen food business.He helped found the New Era Party in 2002, which in 2011 merged with others to form the Unity Party (renamed New Unity in 2018).After serving as a deputy in Latvia's parliament (the Saeima), as Minister of Economics, and also as a Member of the European Parliament throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Kariņš was selected by New Unity to be its prime ministerial candidate in the 2018 Latvian parliamentary election.