‘The immigrant with a 29-letter name’: Indian-born Raja Krishnamoorthi after primary defeat

Representative Raja Krishnamurti He lost the Democratic primary for Illinois Senate to Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, but graciously acknowledged it, joking that, unlike Donald Trump, he would not question the results. He said in his concession speech that this was not the result he expected, but he was an immigrant with 29 letters in his name and thanked everyone who supported him. “I’m grateful to the many local Democratic leaders and county chairs across the state who had the courage to challenge the party establishment and endorse this candidate with the 29 letters of his name. In the classic Chicago story, I was the guy no one sent to serve as senator… This race may be over, but my gratitude and friendship will live on forever,” he said, adding that his donors allowed him to run against very wealthy interests, a veiled dig at Gov. J.B. Pritzker. His full name is Subramanian Raja Krishnamoorthy. Krishnamoorthy currently represents Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, a position he has one year left on. “I’m going to have the best job I’ve ever had for almost a year, representing the good people of Illinois’ Eighth Congressional District, and I promise you tonight that I will continue to do this job to the best of my ability and fight for the country we still believe in,” he said. Krishnamoorthy could become the first Indian-American senator from Illinois and the second Indian-American senator after Kamala Harris. “Only in America can an immigrant with twenty-nine letters in his name make it from public housing and food stamps to the halls of Congress. I will continue to fight for our greatest country on earth to make the United States of America the kind of country we all still believe in,” Krishnamurthy also posted on X.

“An Indian-American does everything right.”

As Krishnamoorthy’s defeat dealt a heavy blow to the Indian-American community, it has raised questions about why he lost the high-profile primary. “Raja Krishnamoorthi—Princeton, Harvard Law, four terms in Congress, raising $30 million—will lose the Illinois Senate primary tonight. An Indian American who did all the right things, but still not enough. Why?” wrote Sidharth Haas, co-founder of the Indian American Advocacy Council. Raja Krishnamoorthi has served as a Democratic member of the U.S. 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. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, he worked as a lawyer, civil servant and business leader before entering politics. In his closely guarded private life, Krishnamurti is married to physician Priya Krishnamurti and they are the parents of three children.