Desi Stars on Rise in US Politics

Raj Goyle

The November general elections this year will see a record number of Indian Americans running for Congress. Young, dynamic and raring to go, this breed of second generation desis are all determined to change the current state of affairs in their communities.

A slew of Democratic candidates are campaigning for congressional seats in New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Kansas, Ohio and California. Saujani, who is trying to dislodge longtime Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), and Louisiana's Ravi Sangisetty (D) still have to face party primaries, though Sangisetty, 27, remains unopposed so far.

The Louisiana primary is scheduled for Aug. 28 and the New York primary is set for Sept. 14. Those who have won their primaries are Dr. Manan Trivedi (D), 36, an Iraq war veteran, who is running from Pennsylvania's 6th District; Raj Goyle (D-KS), 35, a Kansas state representative who is running from the 4th District; Surya Yalamanchili (D), 28, an Ohio resident better known for his stint on Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" on NBC, who is running from the 2nd District; and Dr. Ami Bera (D), 45, a physician, who is running from California's 3rd District.

Trivedi, Goyle and Bera have been named in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Red to Blue Program that offers select candidates financial, communications, grassroots and strategic support.

Dr. Bera has secured approximately $1 million in campaign contributions, which is reportedly more than his Republican opponent, the eight-term incumbent Rep. Dan Lungren, who ended the first quarter of 2010 with a total of $650,000 in contributions. Bera has outraised his opponent in the last four consecutive fundraising quarters. He is one of only a few challengers in the country to outraise an incumbent opponent. Lungren has lost significant support in the 3rd Congressional District, with his share of the vote declining from 62% when he was first elected to 49% in 2008. The downward trajectory of Lungren's popularity, the strength of Dr. Bera's candidacy and the rapidly changing make up of the constituency has Ami Bera poised for success this November.

Surya Yalamanchili

The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), one of the nation's largest associations of hotel owners with more than 10,000 members who own 20,000 hotels, which is more than 40 percent of all of the hotels in the United States too has endorsed him.

For more than 15 years, Dr. Bera has served the Sacramento region as a physician and educator. Dr. Bera's distinguished medical career has allowed him to make a difference in political issues that affect many Americans, such as affordable health care.

Dr. Ami Bera

Raised in La Palma, Calif., Dr. Bera's parents emigrated from Gujarat, India more than 50 years ago. Similar to other AAHOA members, his parents eventually entered the hotel business. Benefiting from a strong family, stable community, and public schools, Ami was able to attend the University of California, Irvine (UCI) where he received his undergraduate and medical degrees, and where he met his future wife, Dr. Janine Bera.

Ami's career spans both the private and public sectors. After graduating from UCI Medical School, Ami joined the Mercy Medical Group (MMG) as an Internist and became Chief of Internal Medicine for MMG. Ami very quickly understood how a hospital should run, and he became the Medical Director for Care Management at the five-hospital Mercy Healthcare system in Sacramento. He even got into hotel business like his parents and was involved in it till he got busy with his Congressional campaign.

Daughter of an Indian mother and an African American father, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris won the Democratic primary for attorney general of California easily outdistancing her main rival, Facebook executive Chris Kelly, and five other candidates in the primary. Kelly had sunk more than $12 million into the campaign.

Kamala Harris

Harris will face Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley in the general election in November to replace Democrat Jerry Brown, who is running for governor. Harris, 45, was elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003, becoming the county's first female district attorney and the first colored woman elected district attorney in California. She was re-elected in 2007.

Harris is the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, a Tamil Brahmin and a renowned breast cancer specialist, and Donald Harris, an African American, who later became a Stanford economics professor. Harris was born in 1964. Her parents separated when Kamala was five.

Raised in Berkeley, Harris graduated from Howard University and received her law degree from Hastings College of the Law. She began her law enforcement career in 1990 as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County. Over eight years, she has handled hundreds of serious and violent felony cases, including homicide, rape and child sexual assaults.

An emerging Democrat young political leader, Raj Goyle had shocked the Kansas political establishment when he beat incumbent Republican State Rep. Bonnie Huy in 2006. Goyle retained the seat in the 2008 elections by 67 per cent of the votes.

Goyle is currently State Representative in Kansas. "I am running because too many Kansas families and businesses are struggling right now. We need strong, independent leadership to tackle these challenges," Goyle says.

Goyle grew up in Wichita, Kansas after his parents immigrated to the United States from India. "I was raised to believe in Kansas values of hard work, common sense, optimism and community. I am determined to bring those principles to Washington on behalf of the people of the 4th District."

Add reality-TV contestant Surya Yalamanchili to the list of South Asians running for Congress. Yalamanchili, 28, a former Procter & Gamble Co. brand manager perhaps known best for being fired by Donald Trump on season six of "The Apprentice," returned to Cincinnati after stints as a marketing director at LinkedIn and SocialMedia.com. He was one of the youngest brand managers in Proctor & Gamble's history, and gave up employment to run for office full-time on a threadbare campaign out of his condo.

The seat he seeks has been held by Republican Jeanne Schmidt since 2005 but not firmly. She's faced substantial challenges in her past three primaries and general elections in a once-safe Republican district. She's best known for dressing in American flag garb for a November 2005 debate as well as aiming this message at congressional colleague John Murtha: "Cowards cut and run. Marines never do."

"I've lived the American dream, a blessed life that began in Pennsylvania. I was raised by two loving parents who taught me about hard work, sacrifice, and the opportunities that arise from these values. While studying at Rutgers I continued to work in the Internet field, something I had done since high school. I first came to Cincinnati in 2001 to spend the summer at Procter & Gamble and immediately fell in love with the area and the company. Years later, I left P&G to follow my long-held dream of being a part of a Silicon Valley startup. After success in the private sector — including serving as one of the youngest executives at several leading corporations — I now feel compelled to serve the public by taking action to change the direction in which our country is headed," says Yalamanchili.

He won the Democratic Primary in a race that drew national attention in its closing days over allegations of race-baiting and conspiracies.

While the political establishment has already taken a dim view of his chances, Yalamanchili has already exceeded expectations in winning the party nomination, and has the networking ability you might expect from someone who worked at LinkedIn.

Primary care doctor and Berks County, Pennsylvania native, Dr. Manan Trivedi retired as a Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy. Trivedi's roots in the district are deep. He grew up in Fleetwood, Berks County and then went on to become an Iraq war veteran by serving as the Battalion Surgeon for a Marine Corps Infantry Battalion in the 5th Regiment. For his service, Lt. Commander Trivedi earned the Combat Action Ribbon, the Navy Commendation Medal and his unit was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

Dr. Manan Trivedi

After his tour of service, Trivedi returned home to the district and he now resides in Reading, where he works as a board-certified internal medicine doctor at Reading Hospital. "I was raised in this district by working-class parents and experienced what many families are going through now with the loss of their jobs and their pensions. But I also learned the importance of serving others and working hard for things that matter. These principles have guided my career, from the battlefield to the emergency room," says Trivedi.

"I am now prepared to serve my community in a new capacity: in the halls of Congress. We have some big challenges facing our nation. Our healthcare system is broken, we're engaged in two wars and our economy continues to struggle. I know how to get things done under extremely difficult situations and my direct experience with these challenges will give the working families in my district a strong and credible voice in Washington," Trivedi says.

Manan and his wife Surekha have been married for five years, after meeting in college. Trivedi's recent involvement in Democratic politics was as a Healthcare Advisor to the Obama for America Campaign.

Reshma Saujani

His parents, immigrants from India, worked at the old Red Cheek apple juice factory. His passion for community service began at a very early age. As a young boy, he won a national contest for launching a healthy eating initiative. In college, he received a community service award for his work with HIV/AIDS patients. As a physician, he treated the poor and uninsured in the inner city.After his service in Iraq, Trivedi received a Masters degree in Health Policy. He drew on his experience with combat medicine to become one of the early researchers to investigate the unique mental health issues affecting our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Trivedi went on to serve as health policy advisor to the Navy Surgeon General and was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.

The newest name to surface as a potential candidate in the fall 2010 election is that of Ravi Sangisetty, a 27-year-old attorney who grew up in Houma and graduated from Vandebilt Catholic in 1999.

A Democrat, Sangisetty is an associate in McGlinchey Stafford's New Orleans firm and practices in the commercial-litigation section. Prior to joining the firm, he clerked with U.S. District Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of Houma.

Sangisetty's parents emigrated from India and both later obtained doctorates. Sangisetty himself graduated from Princeton in 2003 and LSU Law School in 2006.

He is in the race for Louisiana's Third Congressional District. "I entered this race with this goal in mind: to hold the political process accountable to the people of South Louisiana. The problems we face as a unique region— whether coastal restoration, hurricane protection, education, health care, or the economy—are too urgent to allow the current state of politics to continue. So, in this campaign, my pledge is to raise the level of dialogue above unproductive partisan rhetoric and to propose real reforms that will make the federal government responsive to our voices and our needs," he says.

In New York, a 34-year-old legal scholar and hedge fund lawyer, Reshma Saujani wants to emulate the success of President Obama, whose campaign of bringing about "change" resonates in her effort in run up to the primary where she is challenging a nine-term incumbent Democrat Carolyn Maloney.

Her parents had to flee from Uganda when Idi Amin took over and start afresh in the US. Being an immigrant's daughter, she realized the importance of being politically active very early in life. Born and brought up in Illinois, Reshma went to Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and then Yale Law, before moving to New York in 2002. Her bid is for New York's 14th District Congressional seat, which covers most of the Upper East Side south to the East Village and part of the Lower East Side and western Queens.

Reshma may be a novice to the game of politics but she sure has proven her savvy at fundraising, considered a huge steppingstone towards fortifying one's candidacy. As founder of South Asians for Kerry, she raised over a million for John Kerry's campaign in 2004 and employed the same skills to great effect for HillPac in 2008. Her star power is quite evident at various fundraisers she's hosting to garner support with heavyweight Democratic donors in her favor. "I learned at a young age that if you don't participate in the political process, your rights can be taken away in a moment's notice. So I got involved in campaigns at a young age, I knocked on doors, raised money and registered voters. And now, in these challenging times, I'm running for Congress. I know I'm the underdog but I believe voters in our district are looking for new leadership and fresh ideas," she says.

[ BY LAVANYA GARIKINA ]