Three Indian-Americans of the opposition Democratic party have won their primaries ahead of the U.S. Congressional elections, scheduled for November this year. Results of these primaries showed Hiral Tipirneni, Anita Malik, and Sanjay Patel as the winners of their respective primaries.
Malik and Tipirneni are running for U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona’s 6th Congressional District and 8th Congressional District respectively. Malik defeated her co-party member Heather Ross to secure the party’s ticket for November election, where she will challenge Republican incumbent David Schweikert. While Tipirneni’s won uncontested, she will face Republican Debbie Lesko in the upcoming election, reported PTI.
Sanjay Patel, who was pitching for securing Democratic party’s ticket from Florida’s 8th congressional district, won the primary uncontested. He will be facing Republican incumbent Bill Posey in November, added the report. Primaries for these seats were organized on Aug.28.
Currently, the U.S. House of Representatives has four Indian-Americans: Ami Bera, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Pramila Jayapal, and Ro Khanna. All Democratic. All of them won their respective primaries to seek a re-election in November.
Tipirneni is an Indian-American physician and is a strong advocate of cancer research. She was born in Mumbai and migrated to the U.S. at age of 3 with her parents.
Malik, the daughter of Indian immigrants, has been working as a Chief Operating Officer of a content technology company. She took to Twitter to share the official statement from her party regarding her win.
Our official statement tonight. Grateful to be the nominee and grateful to @electgarrick and @HeatherforAZ for standing alongside us as we head to November. #AZ06 #DirtyMoneyDavid #AnitaNewRep pic.twitter.com/W9VLBMQIWG
— Anita Malik (@AnitaMalik) September 1, 2018
Patel, a British-born American, has been working as an animator and illustrator. He took to Twitter to call his run for November elections as “a people powered movement.”
A people-powered movement. Winning this thing door by door, not donor by donor. #MakingHistory #JoinUs #PatelYourFriends pic.twitter.com/lB4jTrQfnN
— Sanjay Patel (@votesanjaypatel) September 3, 2018
A record number of 20 Indian- Americans were in the race for U.S. Congressional elections this year.
A recent Pew Research Center report had stated that at least 12 percent of the country’s voting members of the Congress are either first-generation immigrants or the children of immigrant parents. Of these 12 percent members, five persons are of Indian origin.