Pramila Jayapal set to become 1st South Asian US Senator

India-born Pramila Jayapal, who made a mark with her progressive agenda in the Washington State Senate, is on the cusp of becoming the first South Asian and Indian-American woman to be elected to the US Congress.

A recent poll indicated that Jayapal had a commanding lead in double digits against Brady Pineto Walkinshaw, who she defeated in the primaries by a substantial margin.

Endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, the former Democratic presidential aspirant, 51-year-old Jayapal is running from the seventh Congressional District of Washington State that encompasses Seattle and its neighbourhood.

Pitted against her own party colleague, Walkinshaw, a State legislature, Jayapal would replace Congressman Jim McDermott in the US House of Representatives. Like Kamala Harris, the two-term attorney general who is running for US Senate in California, Jayapal is likely to enter the US Congress in her maiden try.

“I’m running for Congress because now is the time for a bold progressive fighter,” Jayapal had said when she launched her campaign in January this year. She has been endorsed by as many as 21 sitting Congressman including Ami Bera, the only Indian-American in the current Congress, and every major women groups like NARAL, EMILY’s List and Planned Parenthood, and major labour unions.