Indian-American Pramila Jayapal wins Congressional seat for third consecutive term

Washington, November 4 

Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal has been re-elected for the US House of Representatives for the third consecutive term.

Chennai-born Jayapal, 55, from the Democratic Party, defeated Republican Craig Keller by a massive 70 percentage points in the Seventh Congressional District of Washington State.

With nearly 80 per cent of the votes counted, Jayapal who, over the last four years has emerged as one of the top progressive lawmakers in the US Congress, received 344,541 votes as against just 61,940 for Keller.

Jayapal, who has been critical of India’s policies on Jammu and Kashmir and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), was the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the US House of Representatives in 2016.

On Tuesday, Jayapal was the second Indian-American to have been declared elected to the House of Representatives. Raja Krishnamoorthi, also from the Democratic Party, romped home easily from Illinois.

Two other Indian-American Congressmen, Dr Ami Bera and Ro Khanna, were leading in their respective Congressional districts in California, as per early trends. The outgoing US House of Representatives has four Indian-American members.

Emergency Room physician Dr Hiral Tipirneni from the Democratic Party was leading against Republican incumbent David Schweikert from the sixth Congressional District of Arizona, when the last report came in. If elected, she would be the second-ever Indian-American woman to be elected to the House of Representatives.

Sri Preston Kulkarni from the Democratic Party was giving a tough fight to Republican’s Troy Nehls from the 22nd Congressional District of Texas. He was trailing by five percentage points when reports last came in.

Republican Manga Anantatmula lost to Democratic incumbent Gerry Connolly in the 11th Congressional District of Virginia. PTI