Sitting members Ami Bera (California 7 th District), Ro Khannna (California 17 th district), Pramila Jayapal (Washington 7 th District), and Raja Krishnamoorthi (Illinois 8 th district) all retained their seats, Bera for a fourth term and others for a second term.
In fact, Jayapal polled 83 per cent of the votes cast in her district, Khanna bagged 72 per cent, and Krishnamoorthi bagged 65 per cent, attesting to the Democratic credentials of their districts. Bera, whose previous three victories were all narrow and involved recounts, sailed through relatively comfortably this time, polling almost 53 per cent votes to his opponent’s 47 per cent.
Tulsi Gabbard, the self-professed Hindu-American, also retained her seat in Hawaii.
But newbie aspirants elsewhere came up short: Two Indian-American women put up a decent fight in Arizona before losing to their Republican rivals: Physician Hiral Tipirneni polled 94,000 votes to Debbi Lesko’s 123,000 in Arizona’s 8 th district in a race that attracted national attention. Also in Arizona 6 th district, Anita Malik polled 95,000 votes to David Schweikert’s 123,000 votes.
In Texas, former State Department foreign service official Sri Preston Kulkarni 137,500 votes against five-term Republican incumbent Pete Olson’s 152,000 votes.
In other House results involving desis, Republican Bill Posey 217,000 votes defeated Sanjay Patel (D) 142,000 in Florida’s 8 th district; Republican Rick Crawford 138,000 votes defeated Chintan Desai (D) 57,500 votes in Arkansas 1 st district, and Jim Himes (D) 165,000 votes defeated Republican Harry Arora 106,000 votes in Connecticut 4 th district
However, scores of Indian-Americans who ran for state legislature and local offices such as school county boards tasted success as the “desi” community continued to make incremental inroads and progress in US public life.
According to PTI, Democratic Nima Kulkarni defeated Joshua Neubert from the GOP to make her maiden entry into the Kentucky Assembly from State District 40. Mujtaba Mohammed entered the North Carolina State Senate from the Senate District 38. Incumbent Jay Chaudhuri, an accomplished entrepreneur, was re-elected to North Carolina Senate from the State Senate District 15. And Republican Niraj Atani, 27, registered his third consecutive electoral victory from Ohio House 42nd District.
In Washington State, Manka Dhingra and Vandana Slatter were re-elected for the State Senate. Among others re-elected at the State level are Sabi Kumar in Tennessee and Ash Kalra (California).
Tuesday’s election also saw a surge of women and minorities (mostly from the Democratic Party) breaking through the white establishment that has long dominated US politics.
Among the stars of the day was Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who at 29, became the youngest EVER woman elected to Congress.
Democrats Sharice Davids (Kansas) and Deb Haaland (New Mexico) also became the first Native American women elected to Congress. And Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib (a Palestinian-American) and Ilhan Omar (a Somali-American) of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party became the first Muslim women in Congress.
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2yXrwX6
