In three months, the nation will be heading to the polls to vote on congressional, gubernatorial, and local candidates. For the first time, we will have the chance to vote for more South Asian American candidates than we have ever had before. No longer will it just be Dalip Singh Saund and Bobby Jindal that have roamed the Congressional halls, there is a good chance that there will be another Desi to join the ranks. I like to call it the Obama-effect; all of a sudden there are younger, more diverse faces that are taking the electoral chance and running for office.
We’ve always blogged about candidates during election season here at Sepia Mutiny. But this year, in the vein of creating voter guides, we’d like to the candidate profiles on each candidate using the same criteria for each candidate. The 2010 Candidate Profile will have questions that we submit to all of the candidates and we will blog their response. Hopefully, we will also be able to get the candidates to respond to questions posted in the comment thread.
These are the candidates that I know that are potentially going to be on the ballots on November 2, 2010.
- Reshma Saujani (D) – New York, 14th Congressional District: Primary is on September 14th.
- Surya Yalamanchili (D) – Ohio, 2nd Congressional District: He won his Democratic primary.
- Manan Trivedi (D) – Pennsylvania, 6th Congressional District: He won his Democratic primary.
- Raj Goyle (D) – Kansas, 4th Congressional District. Primary is August 3rd.
- Ami Bera (D) – California, 3rd Congressional District. He won his Democratic primary.
- Ravi Sangisetty (D) – Louisiana, 3rd Congressional District. He won his Democratic primary.
- Vijay Kumar (R) – Tennessee, 5th Congressional District. Primary on August 5th.
- Nimrata “Nikki” Haley (R) – South Carolina Governor: She won her Republican primary in the runoff on June 22nd.
- Kamala Harris (D) – CA Attorney General: She won the Democratic primary.
- Sumi Kailasapathy (D) – First Ward Democrat for Ann Arbor City Council.
- Aaruni Thakur – Fullerton School Board Member in CA.
- Nimish Patel – Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board Member in CA.
It’s a long list, but I’d like to know if there are there other candidates that we are missing. Is there anyone running for a local race, such as city council, county or state races? Anyone else we should keep on our radar? Link to them in the comments.
Also, do you have a particular question you would like for us to ask all the candidates? Write it up in the comments and we will take it into consideration as well.
I assume you don’t want to include Vijay Kumar in your list? 😀
Oops…sorry! Saw his name in the list upon careful scanning the second time. Please feel free to delete both these comments.
Jody Venkatesan is running for State Senate in Maryland, I just saw signs around town today. http://www.venkatesan4senate.com/
Interestingly, not a single mention of him being Indian anywhere on his site, though with a name like Venkatesan, its pretty obvious. I’ve noticed the candidates with more Desi sounding names talk about how religiously Christian they are WAY more than brown candidates with ambiguous sounding names.
Though I see on J. Venkatsen’s site now a link to his current Facebook status, which is “The Republican Indian Committee (RIC) is proud to endorse one of our own…”
Didn’t you just us about Mahmood Sabri in the previous post?
This is a pretty racist post, by any standards.
Hey fellow white folks, lets list the whites we will have a chance to vote into office in November!
Hi,
Arvin Vohra is running in District 15 for the House of Delegates in Maryland. Feel free to check out his website at http://www.VoteVohra.com. I’m his campaign strategist – if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at VoteVohra@gmail.com.
Best, Tanuja
Two great candidates to add to the list:
Zeeshan “Z.J.” Hafeez. Zeeshan is running for the Florida House of Representatives District 67 – check out his website for more information (http://www.votezj.com/index.htm).
Saqib Ali. Saqib is running for State Senate in Maryland (www.ali4senate.com).
Thanks for compiling this list!
The list of American-Indians running for congressional, gubernatorial, and local position seems to be increasing every year. I am personally interested in Nikki Haley’s performance in upcoming elections.
Thanks for the post!
Shanti Narra is a democratic town councilwoman in North Brunswick, NJ. She was elected last Nov.
Taz, Jay Goyal is up for reelection. Ohio House of Representatives, 73rd District. He was once the youngest Indian-American elected official in the nation. Probably still true!
Kamal Jain, running for Massachusetts State Auditor.
Stop adding more names! You’re taking the fun out of being an under-represented minority!
One more. Aruna Miller for District 15 Delegate in Maryland.
Hmmm looks like a brown vs. brown showdown between her and Arvin Vohra?
Also, wow, lots of SA American candidates in Maryland!! So proud!
Sahib “Cy” Mann is going to be defending his appointment as director of the Santa Clara Valley Water Board in November.
Sorry, suede.
Hello,
Hello
Aruna Miller (D) – District 15, for the House of Delegates in Maryland : Primary is on September 14th. Check out her website at http://www.arunamiller.com/
Regards, Gopal
Three cheers for Democrats in Montgomery County, Maryland!
Hello,
Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin just became the mayor of Teaneck, NJ. This is the first time that Teaneck has had a Muslim mayor. The NYTimes wrote an article about him:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/nyregion/08towns.html.
I don’t know if many of the bloggers here have heard about South Asians for Opportunity (SAFO). They endorse progressive South Asians who are running for office. These are the people who they have endorsed: http://www.gosafo.com/SAFOCandidates.html. I think that Sepia Mutiny should put up a permanent link to their website, since they want to empower the South Asian community. But I don’t know who I should contact on this site.