4 Indian-Americans win state, local elections in US

Four Indian Americans, including a Muslim woman and a former White House techlogy policy visor, have won state and local elections held in United States on Tuesday.

Indian-American Ghazala Hashmi, a former community college professor, created history by becoming first Muslim woman to be elected to Virginia State Senate, while Suhas Subramanyam, who served as White House techlogy policy viser to former president Barack Obama, has been elected to Virginia State House of Representative.

In her maiden attempt, Hashmi, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican State Senator Glen Sturtevant for Virginia''s 10th Senate District, drawing national attention.

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"This victory is t mine alone. It belongs to all of you who believed that we needed to make progressive change here in Virginia, for all of you who felt that you haven''t h a voice and believed in me to be yours in General Assembly," she said after her historic victory.

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who was first woman presidential candidate, congratulated Hashmi. "I also want to shout out @Hashmi4Va, first Muslim woman elected to VA State Senate. As she said yesterday, her victory ''belongs to all of you who believed that we needed to make progressive change here in Virginia, for all of you who felt that you haven''t h a voice''," Clinton said in a tweet.

Hashmi, who h moved to US from India as a young girl with her family 50 years ago, responded, saying, "I am deeply houred by your words, Secretary Clinton. You broke so many glass ceilings for women in public service."

Hashmi was raised in a small town in Georgia and saw firsthand how community-building and open dialogue can bridge cultural and socioecomic divisions, uniting people from all walks of life. She earned a BA in English from Georgia Sourn University and a PhD from Emory University.

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She and her husband, Azhar, moved to Richmond area in 1991. Hashmi has spent past 25 years as a leing educator in Virginia''s college and university system. She currently serves as founding director of Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Reylds Community College.

"After flipping Senate, I''ll have Democrats by my side to fight to protect Virginians from climate crisis and senseless gun violence, and work to expand our access to affordable health care and funding for public education. I can''t wait to work toger in state Senate," Hashmi said.

Subramanyam, meanwhile, entered Virginia State House of Representatives from Indian-American-dominated district of Loudon and Prince William.

"My promise to people of Loudoun and Prince William: I will always listen to you, work tirelessly for you, and do everything I can to empower you. campaign is over, but my work for you has just begun," he said.

His mor, a native of Bengaluru in India, h immigrated to United States in 1979. She landed in Dulles airport to start a new life and went on to become a physician and raise a family.

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Subramanyam served on Capitol Hill as a healthcare and veterans policy aide, and spent time as a techlogy and regulatory attorney. Former US president Barack Obama h named him his White House techlogy policy viser.

In this capacity, he led a task force on techlogy policy that Obama charged with dressing some of country''s most challenging techlogy issues, including job creation and displacement in techlogy sector, regulating emerging techlogy, and dressing cybersecurity and IT modernisation in public sector.

In California, Indian-American Ma Raju won his election to remain San Francisco''s Public Defender.

Raju attended Columbia University as an undergruate where he researched Critical Race ory under Professor Kendall Thomas. After an influential fellowship at Oxford Center for African Studies, he relocated to Berkeley in 90s to pursue his Masters in South Asian Studies and later his JD at Berkeley School of Law, where he interned in San Francisco Public Defender''s Office.

In rth Carolina, incumbent Dimple Ajmera won a convincing re-election to Charlotte City Council. A former Certified Public Accountant, Ajmera immigrated to US from India along with her parents when she was 16. At that time, she spoke English. Proving her tenacity, she went on to gruate from University of Sourn California (USC) and later became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

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