Congressman from Illinois, Raja Krishnamoorthi is in his fourth term. He serves as 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 shared his vision for the future and talked about his political journey.
Amar and Deepika Sawhney hosted the congressman in their home where several members of the Indian American community were present. He 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 serves as 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 member of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs. 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 talked about his family’s journey as a quintessential one of immigrants making it in the US with lots of hard work. He talked about his father losing his job during an economic downturn and the family having to live in low cost housing and using food stamps. Later they were able to turn their life around and Raja became a lawyer.
When he decided to run for office, one of the major challenges was his last name which people could not pronounce at all. He overcame it through smart marketing with a “Call me Raja†ad which worked tremendously well for him. He answered several questions from the audience. There were some on the economy and de-dollarization. “I am concerned about the debt. However the good news is so far people are still willing to buy our debt for they believe in the US. The best thing we can do is to improve educational and skill training opportunities for many of the underprivileged people and make them employable in high skilled jobs. That will increase our income and reduce the debtâ€, said Raja.
He strongly encouraged everyone to participate in democracy by voting, supporting Indian Americans running for office or running for office themselves. “If we do not participate, you will not have a seat at the table and you will be on the menuâ€.
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