The Samosa Caucus, a group of Indian-Americans in the US Congress, is likely to gain new members next year following Suhas Subrahmanyam’s victory in the Virginia Democratic primary.
He won a party-wide election on Tuesday to choose a candidate to run in November’s general election in a Democratic-held district that includes several Washington suburbs.
Meanwhile, Indian-American Rajesh Mohan won the Republican primary in New Jersey last week for a seat in the House of Representatives, but is expected to face an uphill battle in a district that is heavily Democratic. There are currently five Indian-Americans in the House of Representatives, all Democrats, who refer to themselves as the “Samosa Caucus”: Ami Bera and Ro Khanna of California, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, and Shri Thanedar of Michigan.
Subrahmanyam, a state senator, beat 11 other candidates in an ugly race in which his main opponent faced sexual harassment allegations. Subrahmanyam was backed by retiring Assemblywoman Jennifer Wexton, who flipped her seat to the Democratic side in 2018 and was re-elected twice, making it a safe seat for her party in 2022 with 53% of the vote.
Subrahmanyam’s family hails from Bangalore. The 37-year-old lawyer was a technology adviser to President Obama, working on cybersecurity and modernizing government agencies. He was elected to the Virginia House of Representatives in 2019 and to the state Senate last year. He is also a volunteer medic and firefighter.
Mohan, who defeated three Republican rivals, will be running in a district held by Democrats. Andrew Kim, who is giving up his seat to run for Senate, switched from Republican Party in 2018 and won a second re-election bid in 2022 with 55% of the vote.
Three ratings for the race from Barotpedia show the Democrats are sure to win the seat. Mohan, a cardiologist, earned his medical degree from the University of Delhi College of Medicine. In New Jersey, Hoboken Mayor Ravinder Singh Bhalla lost the Democratic primary for a House seat to incumbent Rep. Rob Menendez.
Senator Bob Menendez, father of a current congressman on trial on corruption charges, undeterred and waged a nasty campaign against the turbaned Sikh, alleging that he made deals with nearby mayors and used disparaging images of him in TV ads. Suseela Jayapal, sister of influential Rep. Pramila Jayapal, lost a primary for Oregon’s Democratic congressional seat.
Pramila Jayapal is president of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of left-leaning Democrats. She represents a district in Washington state, but her sister, Susheela Jayapal, is a county commissioner in neighboring Oregon, where she was one of the left-wing candidates who faced ideological backlash in the Democratic primary. (Arul Lewis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in or followed at @arulouis.)
This post was last updated on June 20, 2024 at 8:26 am
