Washington, Aug 5 (PTI) Two Indian-Americans will face off in Washington state’s seventh district as five-term member Pramila Jayapal will take on Republican Nirav Sheth in the November elections to the US Congress.
Jayapal, the sitting member, won 83.3 per cent of the votes in the overwhelmingly Democratic district in the all-party primary on Tuesday, where former police officer-turned businessman Sheth finished a distant second with 10.8 per cent of the votes.
The Associated Press called the race with 53 per cent of the votes being counted.
Washington state has open primaries, where the top two finishers advance to the general election regardless of party.
The 60-year-old Democratic lawmaker has the distinction of being the first South Asian American woman to be elected to the House in 2016.
Born in Chennai on September 21, 1965, Jayapal came to the United States to study at Georgetown University when she was 16 years old.
Backed by Bernie Sanders, Jayapal rose in the ranks of the Democratic Party to become a powerful progressive leader on Capitol Hill.
She is a Chair Emerita of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which represents nearly 50 per cent of the entire Democratic caucus, according to Jayapal’s congressional biography.
The 40-year-old Sheth, who was born and raised in Ahmedabad, came to the US as a student of computer and electrical engineering in 2008 and went on to join the US Marines as an aircraft mechanic in 2011, according to his campaign website.
He later joined the police service in Lakewood, Washington state, for a brief period and had to quit due to injuries suffered during military service.
Sheth took the political plunge in 2023, contesting the elections for the first time after being fed up with break-ins at several of his businesses in Washington state.
“The reason for me running for the office is all this stupidity we’re dealing with because this administration is a complete failure,” Sheth told the Jason Rantz podcast in 2023.
It will be a tough fight for Sheth in the predominantly Democratic district that covers Seattle and surrounding areas where Jayapal has been winning since 2016. PTI SKU AMS
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