MICHIGAN(TIP): Indian American Democrats Shri Thanedar and Suneel Gupta lose in Michigan primaries on August 7. Entrepreneur and scientist Shri Thanedar finished third for Michigan governor, which was won by former legislative leader Gretchen Whitmer.
Thanedar, from Ann Harbor, polled 199,574 votes, while Whitmer received 586,074 votes.
Abdul El-Sayed, who was endorsed by former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, was second with 340,560 votes.
Suneel Gupta, brother of physician and television personality Sanjay Gupta fell short by more than 5,000 votes in Michigan’s 11th congressional district. Gupta received 19,149 votes. The eventual nominee Haley Stevens received 24,232 votes.
Thanedar, who grew up in Belgaum, in the south Indian state of Karnataka, self-financed his campaign to the tune of $11 million.
His website says Thanedar purchased or sold eight different businesses—many of them chemical testing analytics firms.
The controversial businessman had toyed with the idea of running in the Republican primary before filing papers to run as a Democrat, according to reports. Ultimately, he ran as a progressive.
Gupta, whose mom was the first female engineer hired by Ford half a century ago, ran on a progressive platform, including education, environment, healthcare and jobs creation.
“Taking this country back from Donald Trump—that’s job one,” Gupta, who holds a law degree from Northwestern Law School and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, said in one of his campaign ads.
He founded Rise, a healthcare technology company he set up, with the help of his brother Sanjay Gupta.