Indian-American Pramila Jayapal is Washington open primary winner

Aiming for a seat in the US Congress, Indian-American Pramila Jayapal emerged winner of the open primary for the seventh Congressional district in Washington State. If she goes on to win the general elections in November, she will become the first lady from the community to be elected to the US Congress.

“Thank you so much to the voters of the 7th Congressional District! You have fueled the flame of our movement with the clear belief that we together can and will reclaim our government to work for all of us!” Jayapal told her supporters at a victory speech.

The 50-year-old was born in India and has been raised in Indonesia and Singapore. She got a whopping 38.2% votes on Tuesday in the open primary elections. In the November, she would be facing any of the two opponents who managed more than 16% votes in the current one. A Georgetown University graduate, she has been working as an advocate of human rights for the past two decades, both nationally and internationally. Currently Seattle-based, she was named the “champion of change” by the White House in 2013.

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Jayapal is running from the seventh Congressional district in Washington State and is backed by former Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders. “Pramila just proved that candidates can run a strong progressive campaign funded by small-dollar donors and win big,” Sanders said. With his support, Jayapal’s votes sky-rocketed after April 13. He also helped her increase donations to USD 226,000 from 27,692 individual and employed volunteers to make 140,314 phone calls and knock on doors.

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Chennai-born Malayalee Pramila  though is not the only Indian-American competing for a place in the US House of Representatives. Ami Bera, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Ro Khanna from California, Chicago and Silicon Valley respectively are also in the race. And all of them have a strong chance of winning this time.

Feature Image Credit: Senate Democrats