Kamal Ghorui
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi lost the Democratic primary for Illinois Senate to Lt Gov Juliana Stratton but conceded gracefully as he joked that, unlike Donald Trump, he was not going to question the outcome. In his concession speech, he said it was not the result he expected but he is an immigrant with 29 letters in his name and thanked everyone who supported him. “I thank the many local Democratic leaders and county chairs across the state who had the courage to defy the party establishment and endorse the candidate with 29 letters in his name. In the classic Chicago story, I’m the guy nobody sent to be their senator… this campaign may be over, but my gratitude and friendship will be forever,” he said, adding that his donors enabled him to compete against very wealthy interests, which was a veiled jibe at Gov JB Pritzker. His full name is Subramanian Raja Krishnamoorthi. Krishnamoorthi currently represents Illinois’ 8th Congressional District and has a year left for that job. ” I will have almost a year remaining in the best job I’ve ever had, representing the good people of Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, and I pledge to you tonight that I will continue to do that job to the best of my ability to fight for the kind of country we all still believe in,” he said. Krishnamoorthi could have become the first Indian-origin senator from Illinois and the second Indian-American senator after Kamala Harris. “Only in America can an immigrant with twenty-nine letters in his name go from public housing and food stamps to the halls of Congress. I will continue to fight for our country, the greatest on Earth, to make the United States of America the kind of country we all still believe in,” Krishnamoorthi also posted on X.
‘An Indian-American did everything right’
As Krishnamoorthi’s loss dealt a blow to the Indian-American community, the question as to why he lost the closely watched primary was raised by the community. “Raja Krishnamoorthi — Princeton, Harvard Law, 4 terms in Congress, $30M raised — is losing the Illinois Senate primary tonight. An Indian American did everything right and it still wasn’t enough. Why?” Indian American Advocacy Council co-founder Sidharth wrote. Raja Krishnamoorthi has served as a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives since 2017. Born in New Delhi in 1973, he moved to the United States as an infant and grew up in Illinois. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and worked as a lawyer, public servant, and business leader before entering politics. In his closely guarded private life, Krishnamoorthi is married to Priya Krishnamoorthi, who is a physician and they are parents to three children.
