Congressman Raja Krishnamurthy lost to Lieutenant Governor Julianna Stratton in the Democratic primary for Illinois Senate, but graciously accepted as he joked that unlike Donald Trump, he was not going to question the result. In his concession speech, he said it was not the result he expected but that 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 chairmen across the state who had the courage to challenge the party establishment and support the candidate with 29 letters in his name. In the classic Chicago story, I am the guy no one sent to be a senator… This campaign may be over, but my gratitude and friendship will last forever,” he said, adding that his donors enabled him to compete against the very wealthy interests that Governor J.B. There was a veiled satire on Pritzker. His full name is Subramaniam Raja Krishnamurthy. Krishnamurthy currently represents Illinois’s 8th Congressional District and has one year left in the position. He said, “I have about a year left in the best job I’ve ever had, representing the good people of Illinois’s 8th Congressional District, and I promise you tonight that I will continue to do that job to the best of my ability, fighting for the kind of country we all still believe in.” Krishnamurthy could have become the first Indian-origin senator from Illinois and the second Indian-American senator after Kamala Harris. Krishnamurthy also posted on
‘An Indian-American did everything right’
Since Krishnamurthy’s defeat came as a shock to the Indian-American community, the community raised questions as to why he lost in the primaries. “Raja Krishnamurthy – Princeton, Harvard Law, 4 terms in Congress, raised $30M – is losing the Illinois Senate primary tonight. An Indian American did everything right and it still wasn’t enough. Why?”. wrote Siddhartha, co-founder of the Indian American Advocacy Council. Raja Krishnamurthy 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 close personal life, Krishnamurthy is married to Priya Krishnamurthy, a physician, and they are the parents of three children.