Texas Democratic primary: Indian-American finishes first in Texas 22nd district
An Indian-American has finished first in the Democratic primary in a congressional district in the US state of Texas but will have to face a fellow party leader in the 22 May runoff to earn the right to take on the Republican candidate. Of the five candidates, Sri Preston Kulkarni received 9,466 votes (32%), while his fellow Democrat Letitia Plummer got 7,230 votes (24.3%).
Kulkarni advances to runoff as per Texas election law
According to Texas election law, if a candidate doesn't get more than 50% of votes, there will be a runoff between the top two finishers. If 39-year-old Kulkarni emerges as a winner in the runoff, he will run against the incumbent Republican representative Pete Olson.
Sri Kulkarni raised more than $96k in campaign donations
If elected, Sri will become the first Indian-American Congressman from Texas. He is one of the nearly two-dozen Indian-Americans running for Congress this year. Sri, who raised over $96,000 in campaign donations, hopes the demographic diversity of the 22nd district, which is a majority-minority district, will favor him. He said that he was running because of the anti-American policies of the Trump administration.