CHICAGO (TIP): Raja Krishnamoorthi’s bid for US Congress contesting from the 8th Congressional District of Illinois got one of the biggest boosts with the US President Barack Obama endorsing his candidacy.
Raja, a Democratic nominee, is in this year’s open-seat race in the constituency which includes west and northwest Chicago suburbs. He has already elicited support from a number of Federal, State and local level leasers besides massive support from Indians, Pakistanis and Bangaldeshi voters in the area.
If elected, he will become the 2nd India-born Congressman after Dalip Singh Saund, D-California, who served in the House of Representatives 1957-1963. Two other Indian-Americans in Congress include former Representative and later Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal, who was born in Louisiana, and current incumbent Rep. Ami Bera, D-California, who is running for re-election. “I’m elated to have the President’s support,” Krishnamoorthi told the media. “He’s put working families front and center as President and that is what I intend to do if elected.” “As the son of immigrants who worked their way into the middle-class, Raja understands both the challenges facing America’s working families and the opportunities their work makes possible,” President Obama said. “I know he’ll fight hard in Congress to create more good jobs, empower more Americans to start businesses, and help working families afford to put their children through college.”
Raja served Obama as issues director in the President’s successful U.S. Senate campaign in 2004 when Raja helped shape policy proposals that Obama embarked on in federal office.
“I am honored and humbled to have the support of President Obama in my race for Congress,” Raja said of the endorsement. “It only seems like yesterday that the two of us ate dinner in my childhood home in Peoria before the beginning of his historic rise to the US Senate and the White House. A few gray hairs later, that dinner table conversation continues as we are focused on standing up for the middle class and working to make sure that we come together as a country instead of casting stones and insults at our fellow Americans.”
Raja grew up in Peoria, Illinois where he graduated as a valedictorian of Richwoods High School. After college and law school, he served as a founding prosecutor in Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s anti-corruption unit and as Deputy Treasurer of Illinois.
A lifelong progressive, Raja is running for Congress to stand up for middle class families and fight against attempts by House Republicans to cut Social Security and Medicare that are benefits his parents and millions of other Americans rely on.
Raja Krishnamoorthi currently serves as president of Sivananthan Labs and Episolar, Inc., small businesses that sell products in the national security and renewable energy industries. He is a co-founder of InSPIRE, a non-profit organization that provides training to Illinois students and veterans in solar technology.