Illinois Primary Shows Rising Political Influence of Indian Americans

On Tuesday, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi is looking to take a major step toward becoming only the second Indian American elected to the Senate.

Listen · 7:25 min

Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi waves while wearing a sash that reads “Chicago St. Patrick’s Day” during a crowded outdoor parade.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi marches with other Illinois politicians in the annual Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Friday.Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

Reid J. Epstein

By Reid J. Epstein

Reporting from Chicago

March 16, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET

When Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois delivers his stump speech, he ticks through the standard Democratic paean about how the American dream is for everyone.

“It’s for everyone,” he says. “Regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of how you pray, regardless of the number of letters in your name — there are 29 in mine.”

The reference to Mr. Krishnamoorthi’s polysyllabic name (Raja is his middle name, his given first name is Subramanian) is just one of the five-term congressman’s regular allusions to his Indian American heritage. In his first television advertisement for the Illinois Senate race, Mr. Krishnamoorthi introduced himself by saying, “Call me Raja,” a slogan that evolved into a chant at some of his campaign stops.

While much of the focus of Tuesday’s Democratic primary for the open seat has been on the two candidates in the race fighting to become just the sixth Black woman to serve in the Senate, Mr. Krishnamoorthi is looking to take a major step toward becoming only the second Indian American elected to the chamber after Kamala Harris.

Mr. Krishnamoorthi’s campaign comes at a moment of growing influence for Indian Americans in politics and government. Six Indian Americans are in Congress — the most ever. Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, and Usha Vance, the vice president’s wife, have high profile roles in President Trump’s administration. Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York is among the most prominent Democrats in the country. And Representative Ro Khanna of California is seen as a likely Democratic candidate for president in 2028.

The Senate campaign in Illinois follows presidential runs from Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, all Indian American Republicans, and Ms. Harris became the first Indian American vice president and major party presidential nominee. Nirav Shah, a former top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a leading candidate in the Democratic primary for governor of Maine.

“The South Asian community has achieved a tremendous amount of success in health care and technology in a number of areas,” said Representative Ami Bera, a California Democrat first elected in 2012 who is the longest serving Indian American in Congress. “This is just a natural evolution of saying, OK, let’s get involved in politics and give back to this country.”

Indian American politicians have faced racist attacks as they have risen in the American political system. Mr. Trump himself lobbed racist attacks against Ms. Haley when she challenged him for the 2024 presidential nomination. Mr. Ramaswamy, who is now running to be governor of Ohio, in December warned fellow Republicans about the rise of bigotry on the political right. Mr. Krishnamoorthi said he has encountered racist attacks.

The South Asian population in the United States is about 6 million, according to the census, and about 337,000 in Illinois, according to the South Asian Policy and Research Institute in Chicago. In recent years, Indian American voters have tended to lean toward the Democratic Party, polls have shown.

Editors’ Picks

How Neighborly Do Home Additions Have to Be?

8 Songs We’re Talking About This Week

How Isaac Asimov Inspired a Star Romance Writer’s Swoony New Novel

In the last decade, the number of Indian American elected officials in the United States has jumped from about 50 to more than 300, according to Chintan Patel, the executive director of Indian American Impact, a group whose super PAC has spent more than $1 million on advertising to help Mr. Krishnamoorthi’s Senate campaign.

“We’ve seen incredible energy within that 10 years directly from the community as the South Asian diaspora becomes more politically engaged,” Mr. Patel said. “It’s volunteers rolling up their sleeves to help candidates and campaigns. It’s also looked like more donors stepping up and engaging in the political process and helping candidates from their community.”

While other Democratic Senate primaries this year are tests of campaign styles, ideological purity or candidate age, the race in Illinois is largely about identity. Mr. Krishnamoorthi faces two Black women, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Representative Robin Kelly, which has prompted concerns among the state’s Black political leaders about a splintered Black vote costing a rare chance for a Black woman to win a Senate seat.

The winner of the Democratic primary for Senate in Illinois will be a heavy favorite to win the general election in the deep-blue state. The seat is being vacated by Senator Richard Durbin, who declined to seek a sixth term.

Mr. Krishnamoorthi is buoyed with millions of dollars from a network of Democratic Indian American donors who have sought to build political power in Washington. He has spent years cultivating an Indian American donor base, which has helped turn him and other South Asian candidates into fund-raising juggernauts.

“This won’t be the last primary where the Indian American community stepped up to the plate and showed political power,” said Raghu Devaguptapu, a Democratic strategist who has worked on campaigns to elect four of the six Indian American members of Congress. “These Indian American candidates have the ability to put a big campaign together through immigrant networks.”

In an interview last week at a campaign stop in Chicago, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, who was born in India and raised in Peoria, Ill., after his family immigrated, said he has regularly faced racist taunts and, in recent years, calls to be deported. In the Senate campaign, he has used his family’s story to illustrate his antipathy toward President Trump’s deportation agenda.

Winning election to the Senate, he said, would serve as a declaration that Indian Americans are full participants in American politics at a moment of increasing online threats directed against them during the Trump era.

“You see what’s happened with people across the political spectrum as Indian Americans, whether it’s Vivek Ramaswamy or whether it is Democrats like me,” he said. “There’s a group of people who don’t want us to be here. Being in the United States Senate is an exclamation point on the idea that we belong.”

When he entered Congress, Mr. Krishnamoorthi convened Mr. Bera and the two other Indian Americans first elected in the 2016 election — Mr. Khanna and Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington State — to form what he coined the Samosa Caucus. The group later added Representative Shri Thanedar of Michigan and Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia.

Mr. Bera said the informal group had worked together on issues that have acute interest from Indian Americans, like expanding H1-B visas, the U.S.-India relationship.

In the interview, Mr. Krishnamoorthi declined to compare the significance of an Indian American man and a Black woman entering the Senate.

“All I can say is that this particular community that doesn’t have any representation has become very excited about the prospect of potentially having that representation,” he said. “It’s that old saying in Washington, if you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu, and I think a lot of South Asian Americans feel that they’re on a menu right now.”

Reid J. Epstein is a Times reporter covering campaigns and elections from Washington.

See more on: U.S. Politics, Democratic Party, Republican Party, Kamala Harris, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Bobby Jindal

More on the 2026 Midterm Elections

An Unyielding Gun Culture in Texas: Brandon Herrera built a large online fan base as a “guntuber.” He is now the Trump-endorsed presumptive Republican nominee in the state’s 23rd District, after the incumbent, Tony Gonzales, withdrew from the race.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5846422&forum_id=2Firm#49748296)

Some repulsive turdette named Litcy Kurisinkal has been spamming my phone. Tommy, how long of a pipe would you need? https://share.google/anQknSGFLObiPyXpC

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5846422&forum_id=2Firm#49748369)

so vile and disagusting

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5846422&forum_id=2Firm#49748388)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz7rNOAFkgE

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5846422&forum_id=2Firm#49748386)

Catholic Relief Services, Benin, West Africa

Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s Global March Against Child Labor in India

EDUCATION

Masters in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Masters in Mathematics, University of Delhi

Diploma in Human Rights Law, National Law School of India University

Bachelors in Mathematics, St.Teresa’s College, Mahatma Gandhi University

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5846422&forum_id=2Firm#49748391)