South Asian American candidates endorsed by Indian American Impact, a leading community organization, made waves in Texas and California in the March 5 primaries with several wins and historic firsts.
In California assembly primaries, two Indian American candidates, Tara Sreekrishnan in AD-26 and Darshana Patel in AD-76, will both advance to the general election.
Seeking to represent a district with nearly 19,000 South Asian residents, Patel was first elected to the Poway School Board in 2016 and serves as the president of the San Diego County School Boards Association.
READ: Indian American Impact endorses 15 candidates (February 9, 2024)
Home to more than 73,000 South Asians, Sreekrishnan’s AD-26 boasts the second-highest concentration of South Asians in the state. If elected in November, Sreekrishnan would be the only Asian American woman to represent the Bay Area and the first woman to represent this district in fifteen years.
Sreekrishnan is an elected member of the Santa Clara County Board of Education and a legislative director in the California State Senate.
The current top vote-getter in her race, Indian American urban planner Nithya Raman in LA City Council District 4 will likely either win her election outright or advance to a general election in November. In 2020, Nithya Raman made history as the first South Asian elected to the LA City Council.
In addition to co-founding a group called SELAH that supports unhoused individuals on a neighborhood and encampment level, Raman has spearheaded initiatives to transform the district’s approach to homelessness. In her first year on the city council, her district saw the first reduction in the Homeless Count since 2016.
READ: Indian American Impact endorses 7 more ‘trailblazing’ candidates (August 25, 2023)
With more than 900,000 South Asians residing in California, these victories reflect the growing influence of South Asian Americans in American politics, according to Indian American Impact.
Since…
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