Two Indian Americans to run for Virginia legislature
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Arun Kumar- 0
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Suhas Subramanyam
Suhas Subramanyam to run for Senate, Kannan Srinivasan to vie for House in Loudon
Two Indian American Democratic candidates have announced their bids for the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates.
Suhas Subramanyam, of Ashburn, a two-term delegate who currently represents the 87th House district, announced March 2 that he will run in the 32nd Senate District.
Kannan Srinivasan, of Potomac Falls, announced Monday that he will run for the open 26th House District, which includes the South Riding and Brambleton areas, instead of the 27th District, where he had previously filed to run, local Loudon Times reported.
Read: 20 South Asians won 2021 elections from schools to state senate (November 25, 2021)
Subramanyam’s campaign, according to a press release would focus on “creating a robust economy that works for Loudoun families and businesses alike, protecting our freedoms like reproductive rights and voting rights from extremism, delivering a world-class education to our kids, and keeping our community safe and healthy.”
The redrawn 32nd District is much more geographically compact than the former boundaries of the 13th District and includes all of eastern Loudoun south of Route 7 and east of Evergreen Mills Road and Lenah Road.
Read: Meet Suhas Subramanyam, another Indian American who won in the Virginia elections (November 6, 2019)
Subramanyam, will face former Delegate Ibraheem Samirah, a Herndon Democrat who served one term representing the Sterling area and western Fairfax County before losing a primary in 2021, in a likely June primary for the Democratic nomination in a district where voters have favored Democratic candidates by more than 20-point margins in recent elections.
Loudoun County Supervisor Sylvia Glass said March 3 that she is endorsing Subramanyam.
Republican Greg Moulthrop, of Stone Ridge, previously announced that he is running in the 32nd Senate District. Moulthrop ran for the 87th House District seat in 2021, losing to Subramanyam by 17 percentage points.
A resident of Loudoun County, Subramanyam became the first Indian-American and South Asian to ever be elected to the Virginia General Assembly in 2019.
A technology and regulatory attorney, Subramanyam served as a White House advisor to President Barack Obama in 2015, where he led a task force on technology policy that addressed job creation, IT modernisation, and regulating emerging technology.
Prior to that, he earned his law degree with honors from Northwestern University School of Law, volunteering at the Center for Wrongful Convictions, where he was part of the legal team that freed a man who had spent 21 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
For his professional accomplishments and work in the community, he was named to the Loudoun Times-Mirror’s ’40 Under 40′.
Meanwhile, Srinivasan announcing his House run Monday stated, “My experience in both the public and private sectors will serve the residents of Loudoun and Virginians across the Commonwealth well. I will fight for our public schools, stand up for gun safety, and protect abortion rights.”
Srinivasan immigrated from India in 1993 and has been a Loudoun resident for almost 25 years, according to his campaign.
He most recently has worked as a director of finance at device warranty and insurance company Asurion and vice president for finance at celebrity chef José Andrés’s restaurant business, the José Andrés Group. Loudoun Now reported.
Srinivasan said his values come from experience, including being hit by a truck as a young man and being denied Medicaid assistance. He now serves as vice chair of the Virginia State Medicaid Board, and on the Loudoun Economic Development Advisory Commission.
In 2019, Srinivasan ran unsuccessfully against Republican Loudoun County Treasurer Roger Zurn.
He launched his House of Delegates camp aign with 20 Democratic endorsements, including Loudoun elected officials US Rep. Jennifer Wexton, state senators Jennifer Boysko and Barbara Favola and state delegates David Reid and Irene Shin.
Srinivasan is the only announced candidate in the newly configured district, which has no incumbent. The district lies west and south of Dulles Airport and stretches from the Dulles Greenway to the southeastern corner of Loudoun County.