“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,” Obama said in the endorsement released by Krishnamoorthi’s campaign on Thursday.
“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,” Obama said.
Krishnamoorthi, 42, had served Obama as issues director in the President’s successful US Senate campaign in 2004.
Krishnamoorthi is in the fray for this year’s open-seat race in the 8th Congressional District of Illinois that includes west and northwest Chicago suburbs. He won the primary in March in the contest to replace Rep Tammy Duckworth in Congress. His win brightened the chance of yet another person of Indian-origin to be elected to the US House of Representatives in the November general elections.
Krishnamoorthi said he was “honoured and humbled” to have the support of Obama in his race for Congress.
“It only seems like on Wednesday 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.