WASHINGTON: Indian American Democrats are in line to lead legislative chambers in two US states, Michigan and Arizona, after Tuesday’s elections, in which at least 30 Indian American candidates won state legislative seats.
In Los Angeles, city council member Nithya Raman held her lead over Mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday evening, though the race was still too early to call.
In Michigan, Ranjeev Puri, the House minority leader, won re-election in the 24th District with about 66 per cent of the vote, according to an unofficial results aggregator, as Democrats retook the state House and full control of state government.
Michigan Advance reported that “Puri will become the first Indian American and Sikh speaker of the Michigan House”. He still has to be elected speaker by the Democratic caucus.
“The people of Michigan spoke up tonight and said that they’ve had enough, and they delivered a House Democratic majority,” Puri said.
In Arizona, Senate Minority Leader Priya Sundareshan won re-election in the 18th District with about 66 per cent, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s unofficial count. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) said Democrats flipped both chambers, “creating a Democratic trifecta for the first time since the 1960s”.
What post Sundareshan will hold is not yet settled. The Center Square reported that she plans to run for Senate president, which requires a vote of the Democratic caucus, while a KTAR video caption describes her as “soon to be Senate Majority Leader”. She told The Center Square: “We are confident that we have the trifecta come January.”
In Los Angeles, Raman led Bass by about 52 per cent to 48 per cent, or about 405,000 votes to 379,000, with about two-thirds of the expected vote counted. Major networks said the race was too early to call and that Bass would need about 53 per cent of the roughly 394,000 remaining votes to catch up.
That is a lead of about 27,000 votes. Bass had led narrowly early on Wednesday before Raman pulled ahead.
In the same city, Marissa Roy was projected the winner of the city attorney runoff with about 66 per cent against John McKinney, according to a FOX 11 projection based on Los Angeles County returns.
Two newcomers in the South won seats that their supporters describe as historic. Jyot Singh won Georgia’s 97th House District with about 68 per cent, or about 13,800 votes to 6,500, according to the Georgia Secretary of State.
Indian American Impact, an advocacy group, calls him the “first Indian American and first Sikh American elected to the Georgia State Legislature”.
In Texas, Pooja Sethi won the open 47th House District with about 63 per cent, or about 57,500 votes to 33,300, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s count with all polling locations reporting.
On X, Sethi wrote that she is “the first Indian American woman and the first Asian American Democratic woman elected to the Texas Legislature”. Indian American Democrats also helped their party flip seats. Nabeela Syed, a state representative, won Illinois’ 26th Senate District from appointed Republican Darby Hills by about 57 per cent to 43 per cent.
It was one of the costliest Illinois legislative races, with Syed raising about $3.2 million to Hills’ $1.5 million by October, according to TransparencyUSA. Lisa Kaul unseated Republican Rob Rolison in New York’s 39th Senate District by about 55 per cent to 45 per cent, according to an unofficial aggregator and the Poughkeepsie Journal.
In Iowa, Nikhil Wagle led Republican Senator Scott Webster by about 150 votes out of about 32,000 in Senate District 47.
In Indiana, Ranjan Rohatgi helped Democrats flip the St. Joseph County Council, winning District B with about 57 per cent, ABC57 reported.
Indian American incumbents had a clean sweep. In Illinois, Ram Villivalam was re-elected to the state Senate with about 73 per cent, and Kevin Olickal was unopposed for the House, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Saba Haider won the open 84th House District with about 71 per cent, Patch reported.
Jay Chaudhuri won North Carolina’s 15th Senate District with about 75 per cent, according to the state Board of Elections.
Arvind Venkat in Pennsylvania (about 63 per cent), Anita Somani in Ohio (about 71 per cent), Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox in Connecticut (about 65 per cent), Jeremy Cooney in New York (about 67 per cent, a fourth term) and Renuka Mayadev in Wisconsin (about 90 per cent) also won.
Ash Kalra in California won about 73 per cent against Republican Himat Singh Bainiwal, according to county counts. Manka Dhingra in Washington won with about 92 per cent, King County figures show.
Megan Srinivas (Iowa), Nima Kulkarni (Kentucky), Reuben D’Silva (Nevada), Reena Szczepanski (New Mexico) and Vandana Slatter (Washington) were unopposed. In Vermont, Kesha Ram Hinsdale and newcomer Nikhil Goyal won seats in multi-member Senate districts, local papers reported. Krish Subrahmanian won Minnesota’s 49th Senate District with about 63 per cent, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State, and Amar Mukunda won Maryland’s 39th Senate District unopposed.
Two Indian American Republicans held their seats: Sabi “Doc” Kumar in Tennessee’s 66th House District with about 66 per cent, according to the Tennessee Secretary of State, and Anil Beephan in New York’s 105th Assembly District with about 54 per cent.
Darshana Patel led in California’s 76th Assembly District with about 59 per cent; no call had been made. Manoj Chourasia in New Hampshire’s Hillsborough-11 district appear to have won seats in multi-member districts.
In statewide races, Maryland Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller won re-election on Governor Wes Moore’s ticket, which took about 63 per cent. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, whose father immigrated from India, won a third term with about 55 per cent.
“In Wisconsin, we are in the midst of generational change with this election,” Kaul said, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
Two Indian American Republicans lost statewide: Vivek Ramaswamy, who took about 44 per cent against Democrat Amy Acton’s 52 per cent in the Ohio governor’s race, and Saritha Komatireddy, who took about 38 per cent against New York Attorney General Letitia James. Democrats Harjot Singh (New York Senate 2, about 46 per cent), Sandeep Srivastava (Texas House 66, about 45 per cent), Jyoti Mohan (Maryland House 42A, about 40 per cent) and Nisha Lodhavia (Delaware Senate 15, about 43 per cent) lost to Republicans.
Republicans Ashok Baddi (Michigan), Ajay Gupta (Illinois), Vinaya Singh and Bainiwal (both California) lost to Democrats. In a Democrat-against-Democrat contest in California’s 6th Assembly District, Jagtar Singh took about 15 per cent. At the local level, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill won with about 66 per cent; Wake County’s Mona Singh topped the at-large commission field, the News & Observer reported; and Harris County’s Silky Joshi-Malik won about 63 per cent for an education board seat, Community Impact reported.
Oakland council member Janani Ramachandran and Westchester County legislator Anant Nambiar were unopposed. Rohit Malhotra won a Fulton County Commission seat.
Mayoral candidates Jaskirat Sondh in Rancho Cucamonga and Santosh Sahoo in Milpitas finished third, and Jag Nagendra lost a Folsom council seat with about 40 per cent. Manisha Pathak trailed in early Fremont council returns.
Of the 41 Indian American state legislative candidates, 30 won, two led and nine lost. Indian American Democrats won 28 of 33 decided races, a win rate of about 85 per cent. Republicans won two of six, both incumbents.
Every Indian American state legislative incumbent who ran won re-election. Eight of the 30 winners were unopposed, and half, 15, are women. Illinois leads with four winners, followed by New York with three, and Washington and Vermont with two each.
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