In a historic first, two Indian-Americans will take the reins of legislative chambers in US states. State Representative Ranjeev Puri was elected Speaker of Michigan’s House of Representatives after the US midterm elections last week. State Senator Priya Sundareshan was chosen to lead Arizona’s Senate as its President. Both Puri and Sundareshan are Democrats. The Democratic Party defeated the Republican Party in midterm elections.
Born in 1984 to Sikh immigrants from Punjab, Puri started his political career by working on President Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. After graduating with an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, he worked in financial consulting. Puri was elected to the Michigan House in 2020 and soon took over as majority whip, responsible for securing votes and ensuring party discipline in 2023-24.
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Puri took over as his party’s leader in the House in January 2025. His legislative work has focused on gun control, promoting economic growth and major infrastructure investments in Michigan.
Speaking in a television interview after his election, Puri attributed the Democratic Party’s victory to widespread dissatisfaction with the Iran war and the impact of US President Trump’s tariffs that decimated the state’s agricultural sector.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking in a television interview after his election, Puri attributed the Democratic Party’s victory to widespread dissatisfaction with the Iran war and the impact of US President Trump’s tariffs that decimated the state’s agricultural sector.
{{/usCountry}}A similar set of factors propelled Priya Sundareshan and the Democratic Party to victory in Arizona, a crucial swing state. Sundareshan was first elected to the state’s upper House in 2022. She won a commanding victory to secure her third term. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona, Sundareshan’s career before politics focused on environmental protection.
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She taught natural resources law at the University of Arizona and worked on resource management with the Environmental Defense Fund. She took over as her party’s leader in the Arizona Senate in January 2025.
Indian-American Impact, a Democratic-aligned political advocacy organisation that supports candidates of South Asian origin, welcomed the elevations of the two amid rising anti-Indian sentiment.
“Congratulations to Ranjeev Puri on his reelection and on being elected Speaker-Elect by his colleagues. Ranjeev has made lowering costs central to his work, from health care to housing. At a time of rising hate targeting South Asians, he will also fight to protect our communities and all Michiganders, and to stop the Trump and MAGA agenda,” said Chintan Patel, executive director of Indian American Impact.
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He said Sundareshan will fight for public schools, Arizona’s water, and democracy, and to protect their communities and all Arizonans at a time of rising hate targeting Indian and South Asian Americans.
Indian Americans, including Pooja Sethi, who won a seat in the Texas House, and North Carolina state Senator Jay Chaudhuri, won state-level races. In New York, Lisa Kaul, an India-raised Rhodes scholar, flipped a Republican-held state Senate seat around Poughkeepsie. In Maryland, Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller was re-elected alongside Governor Wes Moore.