US midterm elections: Indian-origin candidates showing strength

The midterm elections, which will determine who will control Congress for the last two years of US President Donald Trump's term, concluded on Tuesday. Elections were held across the country for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 37 seats in the 100-member Senate. In addition, voting was also held for the posts of governor in 36 states. The fact that a large number of candidates of Indian origin are competing for key posts in these elections has become significant.

Indian-origin Democratic leader Suhas Subramaniam won a landslide victory in these elections. He contested from the 10th Congressional District of Virginia and was re-elected to the House of Representatives with more than 61 percent of the vote. His opponent, Republican candidate Dave Beckwith, received only 36 percent of the vote. Suhas previously served as a technology policy advisor in the White House when Barack Obama was president.

Indian-origin businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for the Republican governorship of Ohio, is currently trailing. President Trump has endorsed Vivek, who hails from Kerala. According to the latest data, he is trailing his opponent, Democratic candidate Amy Acton, by nearly 2,00,000 votes. On the other hand, Pia Dandia, who is running as a Democratic candidate from Florida's 22nd Congressional District, continues to lead. A former high school principal, she is leading Republican candidate Casey Askar by nearly 11,000 votes. In

California's 17th District, which includes parts of Silicon Valley, there is an interesting fight between two Indian-origin leaders. Here, Republican leader Ritesh Tandon is running against Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna. Also in Washington's 7th District, another Indian-origin Republican leader, Nirav Seth, is running against sitting Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. The results for both seats are yet to be announced.

Along with them, several other Indian-origin candidates, including sitting Congresswoman Amy Bera (California), Amish Shah (Arizona), Pooja Sethi (Texas), and Sandeep Srivastava (Texas), are also running for various seats. Nithya Raman is running for mayor of Los Angeles. if she wins, the two largest cities in America, New York and Los Angeles, will have only Indian-origin mayors. Although the results have been announced in some places, there is a lot of interest as the fate of several key Indian-origin candidates remains to be seen.