The USA is warming for its Presidential elections in November 2024. This year, it is a big challenge for the people of America. They will have to decide whether to elect or not–a first-ever Woman President with an Indian-African origin.
Data show that Indian Americans have historically held important government positions. A recent report by the San Francisco-based Indiaspora found that Indian Americans hold 4.4% of senior government positions. Observers point out that the youth of Indian origin in the US will play a critical role in this election.
The US has had the experience of many Indian-origin political leaders serving them over the last few decades. In 2024, it has become more prominent, with almost every state announcing a candidate of Indian origin. The candidacy of Indian American candidates reflects what America has always stood for no barrier to the rise of talent. This is visible not only in the growing voter rolls of Indian Americans but also in the increase in their taking leadership positions in US national politics.
A 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 68% of Indian American registered voters identified as Democrats and 29% identified as Republicans. Over the years, segments of the diaspora that support either party have voted for candidates who address the stateside matter more over other issues of international concern, including advocacy related to Indian politics. A Poll conducted by Carnegie in 2020 revealed that when it comes to voting for ideological reasons, Indian-origin voters in the US lean left: 47 per cent identify as liberals, 29 per cent as moderates, and 23 per cent as conservatives. One of the major reasons that has influenced Indian-origin youth to enter US Politics is their parent’s participation in the community. Almost every young political leader in the US of Indian origin has had a childhood and an ecosystem where they witnessed their parent(s) contribute immensely to health, education, environment, community development, and social service.
It has impacted their political participation and drive to be part of the policy-making process in the US government. Most professionals have excelled in medicine, finance, education, engineering, research and business. We have picked a few promising Indian-origin youth leaders who could strongly impact US and global politics in the next few years.
Kamala D. Harris is all set to create history in the USA, if, as and when she gets elected as President of the most powerful country and democracy in the world. Her win as US President would make her the first US woman to hold that post and the first Asian-African origin person to become US President.
Currently, she is the Vice President of the United States. She always fights for the people – from her barrier-breaking time as District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California to proudly serving as a United States Senator and Vice President. On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President – the first woman, Black American, and South Asian American to be elected to this position.
As Vice President, she has worked to unite people to advance opportunity, deliver for families, and protect fundamental freedoms across the country. She has led the fight for the freedom of women to make decisions about their bodies, the freedom to live safe from gun violence, the freedom to vote, and the freedom to drink clean water and breathe clean air.
While making history at home, she also represents the nation abroad – embarking on more than a dozen foreign trips, travelling to more than 19 countries, and meeting with more than 150 world leaders to strengthen critical global alliances.
The Vice President has been a trusted partner to President Joe Biden as they work together to deliver life-changing achievements for millions of Americans. Together, they have invested in the economy to create a record number of jobs and keep unemployment low. Their work has led to more small business creation in two years than any previous administration.
As President of the Senate, Vice President Harris set a new record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a Vice President in history – surpassing a record that had stood for nearly 200 years. And her votes have been consequential. This includes casting the decisive vote to secure passage of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment ever in tackling the climate crisis. She also presided over the unprecedented vote to confirm the first Black woman, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the Supreme Court while working alongside President Biden to achieve historic representation of women and people of colour among nominees at all federal government levels. Harris was born in Oakland, California. As the daughter of immigrants, she grew up surrounded by a diverse community and a loving extended family.
She and her sister, Maya, were inspired by their mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist and pioneer in her own right who came to the United States from India at 19 and then received her doctorate the same year Kamala was born.
Jenifer Rajkumar is a lawyer, professor, and government leader who made history as the first South Asian-American Woman ever elected to a state office in New York. A graduate of Stanford Law School and the University of Pennsylvania, Jenifer has worked nationwide to empower disenfranchised, vulnerable and excluded individuals at both the national and local levels. Jenifer’s parents immigrated to the United States with just $300 and a suitcase, settling in Queens, where they started. Jenifer is proud to be born and raised in New York, where the first generation of her family was born in the United States.
Jenifer’s legislative achievements are nationally recognized. She passed a milestone legislative package that gives domestic workers the full protection of the New York State Human Rights Law. She passed a landmark bill establishing New York State’s first-ever Asian American & Pacific Island (AAPI) Commission. As a strong advocate for public safety, Jenifer passed a bill to expand compensation for victims of crime, which the Governor signed into Law.
Jenifer also has the distinction of serving as Senior Advisor to the Transition Team of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Before her election to the State Legislature, she served as Director of Immigration Affairs for New York State. In this role, she built and led a first-in the-nation $31 million project to assist immigrants in obtaining legal services.
Jenifer also practised as a civil rights lawyer at a national law firm, where she litigated class action cases on behalf of workers, tenants and women. She was part of the legal team of Velez v. Novartis, ranked by the United Nations as one of the top 10 cases in the world advancing women’s equality. She also collaborated with the US Department of Justice on cases combating corporate fraud and excess.
She worked in Washington, DC, as a fellow at the National Women’s Law Center, advancing federal policy to advance women’s equality. Locally, Jenifer has also served as a Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) ‘s Lehman College, where she worked to uplift our city’s youth. Jenifer graduated from Stanford Law School with distinction for her pro bono legal work on behalf of vulnerable individuals. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania magna cum laude, phi beta kappa, where she received the Alice Paul Award for exemplary service to women and families and numerous other academic awards. In her career, she received the New York County Democratic Party’s Bella Abzug Award the WIN Young Women of Achievement Award. She was named a New York Metro Rising Star by Super Lawyers and a “40 Under 40” Rising Star by City & State.
However, her greatest award is the moments she has been able to help, serve and empower people in her community and around the country.
Vivek Ramaswamy ran in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. He declared his candidacy but withdrew from the January 15, 2024 race. Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Geetha and Ganapathy Ramaswamy, both immigrants from India. The Ramaswamys practiced the Hindu faith. After basic schooling, he attended Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in biology. Before becoming a politician, Vivek was known for his exploits as an American business leader and New York Times bestselling author of Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam, along with his second book, Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence, and Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn’t Vote For.
In 2022, he founded Strive, an Ohio-based asset management firm that competes with asset managers like BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard and others, who use the money of everyday citizens to advance environmental and social agendas that many citizens and capital owners disagree with. As a young political leader in the USA, Vivek is tackling the most pressing issues facing America today.
From reviving the national identity to unleashing our economy and declaring independence from communist China, Vivek’s vision is focused on national revival, not a national divorce. He wants to end the Weaponization of Government & Financial Markets, Pardon defendants of politicized prosecutions (Trump, Mackey, and peaceful January 6 protesters), hold Congress accountable for “hush money” fund: taxpayers should not subsidize sexual misconduct, publish the Jeffrey Epstein client list as he believes that the government should not use police power to shield select elites.
Vivek wants to rescind Biden’s ESG rule for retirement funds and get politics out of corporate America and capital markets. He also opposes CBDCs and fights all plans for digital currency. He believes it is a dangerous scheme for government control over bank accounts. Vivek wants to unleash the American Economy to achieve more than 5% GDP Growth. A big supporter of nuclear energy, he wants to put Americans back to work and dismantle Lyndon Johnson’s failed “Great Society.” A big supporter of incentivizing schools over hollow college degrees. Ramaswamy created an asset management fund in 2022 that he said would seek to “restore the voice of the everyday citizen in the economy by advancing a simple worldview in corporate American board rooms: Pursue excellence in your products and services to your customers over any other agenda, including social and political agendas.
Ro Khanna represents California’s 17th Congressional District in the heart of Silicon Valley and is serving his fourth term. His father is a chemical engineer, and his mother is a substitute school teacher. Khanna’s commitment to public service was inspired by his grandfather, who was active in Gandhi’s independence movement, worked with Lala Lajpat Rai in India, and spent several years in jail for promoting human rights.
Before serving in Congress, he taught economics at Stanford University and served as deputy assistant secretary of commerce in the Obama administration. Khanna graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago and received a law degree from Yale University.
He has written two books: Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Still Key to America’s Future and Dignity in a Digital Age. Since arriving in Congress, he has had five bills signed into Law.
He serves on the House Armed Services Committee as ranking member of the Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems (CITI), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, a member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and on the Oversight and Accountability committee, where he previously chaired the Environmental Subcommittee.
He is a leading progressive voice in the House, working to restore American manufacturing and technology leadership, improve the lives of working people, and advance US leadership on climate, human rights, and diplomacy worldwide. He believes our nation needs a new economic patriotism to create jobs in the industries of the future and unify Americans — from the South to the heartland to the coasts — around a shared purpose. He has worked across the aisle to deliver on legislation to invest in science and technology, create millions of good-paying tech jobs and revitalize American manufacturing and production. Khanna authored the Endless Frontier Act, which formed the basis for the sweeping CHIPS and Science Act signed into Law by President Biden.
As Chair of the House Oversight and Reform Environmental Subcommittee, Khanna brought the CEOs of six major fossil fuel companies before Congress to testify under oath about climate disinformation for the first time in history. He also held hearings to investigate the health harms associated with leaded aviation fuel, implement better wildfire preparation measures, and protect America’s food supply from the threats posed by climate change. During the Inflation Reduction Act negotiations, Khanna played a key role in ensuring that important climate provisions remained in the final deal.
Raja Krishnamoorthi was elected to Congress in 2016 and is now in his fourth term representing Illinois’ 8th District, which includes Chicago’s west and northwest suburbs as well as the 41st ward of the city. He assumed office on January 3, 2017. His current term ends on January 3, 2025. He served as a policy director on Barack Obama’s (D) US Senate campaign in 2004, and from 2007 to 2009, he was a deputy state treasurer.
He serves as a Ranking Member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, making him the first South Asian American in history to lead a Congressional Committee. He also serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability as a Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs member.
The Congressman is a Vice-Chair of the Equality Caucus and Co-Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Immigration Task Force. In addition, he is the founder and Chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus to End the Youth Vaping Epidemic and the bipartisan Solar Caucus. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in mechanical engineering and a certificate from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He then graduated with honours from Harvard Law School and clerked for a federal judge before practising Law in Chicago.
He pursued public service while practising Law and was appointed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan as a special assistant attorney general to help start the state’s Public Integrity Unit, which was created to root out corruption in Illinois. Krishnamoorthi was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, a law firm, from 2000 to 2007 and President of Sivananthan Laboratories, a research and development company, from 2010 to 2017.
As an Illinois Housing Development Authority member, the Congressman chaired the Audit Committee, helping to provide thousands of low and moderate-income families across the state with affordable housing. Congressman Krishnamoorthi also served as Illinois Deputy Treasurer, overseeing the state’s technology venture capital fund and helping make programs such as the state’s unclaimed property program leaner and more efficient. After his time in the Illinois Treasurer’s Office, Representative Krishnamoorthi returned to the private sector, serving as President of research-oriented small businesses developing technology in the national security and renewable energy industries. Representative Krishnamoorthi also served as the Vice-Chair of the Illinois Innovation Council and co-founded InSPIRE, a non-profit that provides inner-city students and veterans with training in solar technology.
Raj Mukherji, the senator of New Jersey, is the son of Indian immigrants and a resident of Jersey City, where he served as Deputy Mayor from 2012-2013 and as the Housing Advisory Chairman since 2008.
The son of immigrants, Senator Mukherji supported himself through high school, college, and grad school as an emancipated minor when economic circumstances forced his parents to return to India. He is a lawyer, former healthcare and information technology CEO, former municipal prosecutor, and political science professor. He is also a retired U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, having enlisted two weeks following the September 11 attacks.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State College, a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Juris Doctor from Seton Hall University School of Law, an Adjunct Professor of Law at Seton Hall University School of Law and has served as a municipal prosecutor for over six years. Raj has achieved a half-billion dollars in aggregated enterprise value across companies he founded and led as CEO or co-owner, creating hundreds of jobs.
He was elected to the Senate to represent the 32nd District in November 2023. He served in the Assembly, representing the 33rd District from 2014 to 2024. He was Deputy Speaker and Deputy Parliamentarian from 2022-2024, Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore from 2020-2021, and Majority Whip from 2018- 2019. After suffering a pituitary tumour, stroke, and other ailments, Raj’s father could no longer work as a result of his health but could not afford health coverage without employment. This experience shaped Raj’s perspective and interest in healthcare and inspired much of his subsequent advocacy in that field.
At 24, he was appointed the youngest Commissioner and Chairman in the history of the Jersey City Housing Authority, the state’s second-largest housing authority, where he earned acclaim for his oversight and reforms at the $90 million agency serving over 16,000 residents. At 27, he was appointed Deputy Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey’s second-largest city. At 28, Raj won a six-way Democratic primary election for Assembly by a 36-point margin in 2013 and his first general election by a 20-point margin. He was subsequently reelected to the Legislature five times.
Senator Mukherji is presently the only former Marine in the New Jersey Legislature. He was the first Indian-Bengali state lawmaker elected in American history and the second South Asian American legislator to serve in state history.