Nine desis contested this election and out of them six – all of them Democrats – have won the race to the US House of Representatives, increasing their number from five in the current House.
Donald Trump has already started his victory speech and the Republicans have already won the United States Senate, but Indian Americans too have quite a bit to celebrate in this election season in America.
Nine desis contested this election and out of them seven – all of them Democrats – have won the race to the US House of Representatives, increasing their number from five in the current House.
This is the most number of US Representatives the community has ever had in the US Congress.
The Telegraph Online looks at these Indian Americans who have made the community proud this year.
- Shri Thanedar
Shri Thanedar has won the contest for the thirteenth Congressional District of Michigan with 80,462 votes, defeating his Republican rival Martell Bivings who got 39,385 votes, according to The New York Times.
Thanedar, 69, was born in Karnataka and came to the US to pursue a doctorate in the year 1979. After dabbling with a career in business, he took the plunge in politics in 2018.
According to his website, he got elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in Congress in 2022. And he helped pass the “largest increase in per-pupil funding for Michigan Public Schools in state history”.
2. Ro Khanna
Ro Khanna has won the race from the seventeenth Congressional District of California winning 80, 112 votes as against Republican Anita Chen, who managed 36,837 votes.
Khanna, 48, is a lawyer who was born in the US. In 2016, Khanna is currently serving his third term representing California’s 17th District. This district covers part of the famed Silicon Valley, the home to global tech multinationals.
Khanna’s first brush with politics came when he was a student at the University of Chicago and campaigned for Barack Obama during his initial years.
Khanna, whose “grandfather participated in Gandhi’s independence movement in India, spending several years in jail for promoting human rights,” says that he is committed to public service because he believes in the American Dream that inspired his family.
3. Suhas Subramanyam
The 38-year-old Suhas Subramanyam has won a close contest from the tenth Congressional District of Virginia winning 207,131 votes as against Republican Mike Clancy, who got 190, 227 votes.
Suhas’s mother relocated from Bengaluru to the US to unite with his father.
Suhas first got involved in public work when he organised volunteers to help people affected by hurricane Katrina.
A lawyer, he had earlier served as a White House technology policy adviser to President Barack Obama.
“I am honoured and humbled that the people of Virginia’s 10th District put their trust in me to take on the toughest fights and deliver results in Congress. This district is my home. I got married here, my wife Miranda and I are raising our daughters here, and the issues our community faces are personal to our family. It is an honour to continue serving this district in Washington,” Subramanyam said.
4. Pramila Jaypal
Another veteran Democrat, Pramila Jaypal, has won the race from the seventh Congressional District of Washington with 244,150 votes as against Dan Alexander, who got 42, 958 votes.
Jayapal, 59, was first elected in 2016.
Jayapal was born in Chennai and grew up in India, Indonesia and Singapore. She came to the US at the age of 16 to attend college at Georgetown University. She came back to India and stayed for two years in the late 1990s and this led her to write a book, ‘Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland’.
She is known for being vocal about immigration rights.
5 . Raja Krishnamoorthi
Raja Krishnamoorthi, 51, has won the race from the eighth Congressional District of Illinois getting 163,721 votes as against Republican Mark Rice, who got 127,136 votes.
Krishanamoorthy is a lawyer who was first elected to the Congress in 2016.
“While the battles for control of the White House and Congress remain close, I am honoured that the people of Illinois’ 8th District have extended my contract to represent them in Congress,” Krishnamoorthi said.
“My parents came to this country with little more than a dream for their family’s future and the faith that they could achieve it here in America,” Krishnamoorthi concluded.
“Despite some hard times, we did.”
6. Dr Ami Bera
A physician by profession, Dr Bera, 59, is a Gujarati and the senior-most Indian-American Congressman representing the sixth Congressional District of California since 2013. He was re-elected for the seventh consecutive term.
He has 132,712 votes as against his rival Christine Bish 128,606 votes when 63 per cent of the votes were counted.
7. Dr Amish Shah
In Arizona, Shah from the Democratic Party was slightly ahead of his Republican Party’s incumbent David Schweikett from the first Congressional District of Arizona.
He has 132,712 votes as against his rival’s 128,606 votes when 63 per cent of the votes were counted.
source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited) / six to seven edited