Niraj Antani ends decade long career in Ohio General Assembly

Ohio’s first Indian American senator, Antani was the youngest Indian American elected to state or federal office in US history

By Arun Kumar

Niraj Antani, the first Indian American to serve in the Ohio Senate and the youngest Indian American elected to state or federal office in US history, has ended a decade-long career in the Ohio General Assembly.

Antani, 33, a Republican first elected as a State Representative in 2014 at age 23, served six years in the Ohio House before being elected to the Senate in 2020. He could not seek re-election to the Senate after an unsuccessful bid for the US Congress in 2024.

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“It has been the high honor and distinct privilege of my life to have served this past decade as a State Senator and State Representative for the community in which I was born and raised, for the state I love, in the nation I cherish,” he posted on X on Dec 31, his last day as a state senator.

“I’ll always be proud to have become the 1st Indian and Hindu American State Senator in Ohio history and the youngest Hindu and Indian American state or federal elected official in the nation, he wrote. “The greatness of America lies in this fact, that your destiny is not determined by theology or tribe, but by dogged persistence and unrelenting tenacity.”

“In 2014, I was just a 23 year old kid, a year and a half out of college, the son of immigrants, given this inconceivable opportunity to serve,” Antani recalled. “An amazing responsibility. Each day since, I have worked hard to give every Ohioan the ability to achieve their American Dream.”

“In 1971, the first Antani left India to immigrate to the United States. Just six years prior, the US had abolished immigration quotas, allowing him to come to here and obtain a green card,” he wrote. “He came with no secure prospect of a job and only a few hundred dollars in his pockets. Over the next decade, his six brothers would follow in this pursuit of the American Dream.”

“Just 43 years after the first Antani immigrated to the United States from India, an Antani became a Constitutionally vested elected officeholder in the nation’s 7th largest state,” he wrote. “I’ve spent nearly all of my adult life as a Member of the legislature. Being Ohio’s youngest State Representative and State Senator is not something you plan for.”

“I’ve been told I’m a young man in a hurry, and they like to remind me that politics is an old man’s game. But, politics is about our future; our future hopes, future dreams, future aspirations. Our elected leaders should fight for that. As Ohio’s youngest legislator, I hope I did,” Antani wrote.