India Post News Service
WASHINGTON DC: IMPACT, a leading Indian American advocacy, and political action committee, has applauded this year’s historic election for Indian American candidates and voters. The election featured a record number of Indian American candidates running in key state and federal races across the country, as well as the first Indian American to be on a presidential ticket, in vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
IMPACT raised a groundbreaking $10 million to support turnout efforts in the Asian American and Indian American community and to elect IMPACT’s 2020 slate of candidates. The funds were invested in the presidential, statewide, and congressional races in battleground states, including nearly $2 million apiece in Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas.
Neil Mahija, Executive Director IMPACT in his observation said that “this year’s election represented a giant leap forward for Indian Americans’ role in U.S. politics. The Indian American voters and candidates demonstrated the burgeoning power and influence of this important voting bloc in decisive fashion, which will help make the difference in key states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.”
“ Each and every Indian American candidate deserves to be recognized for their effort, and in particular I want to congratulate Kesha Ram for being the first woman of color elected to the Vermont State Senate, NikilSaval for being the first Indian American elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, and Jenifer Rajkumar for being the first South Asian woman elected to New York state office.”
Fast Facts: Asian Americans are thefastest-growing racial or ethnic voting bloc in the country. There are projected to be2 million Indian American voters in this year’s election. Indian Americans register and vote at higher rates. This year, there will be nearly in the battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The number of Indian Americans in Congress has grown five-fold in just the past eight years.
IMPACT-endorsed candidates elected :
Jenifer Rajkumar (NY, State Assembly District 38), 67-26
Nima Kulkarni (KY State House, HD-40)
Kesha Ram (VT, State Senate)
NikilSaval (PA, State Senate)
Jeremy Cooney (NY, State Senate, SD-56), 47-46
Pramila Jayapal (WA-07, U.S. House), 85-15
Ro Khanna (CA-17, U.S. House), 74-26
Ami Bera (CA-07, U.S. House), 61-39
Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08, U.S. House), 71-29
Vandana Slatter (WA, State House District 48), 73-27
Padma Kuppa (MI, State House 41), 55-45
Jay Chaudhuri (NC, State Senate), 58-36
Ravi Sandill (TX, 127th District Court Judge), 54-46
Amish Shah (U.S., State House AZ-24), 37-36
