Raja Krishnamoorthi wins Democratic nomination in Chicago

CHICAGO (Diya TV) — Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Indian-American businessman from the Chicago suburbs of Schaumburg, has won the Democratic party’s nomination for his 8th District congressional race, beating out a suburban mayor and a state legislator.

His overwhelming victory came Tuesday, with 59 percent of precincts reporting, Krishnamoorthi had already wrapped up nearly 60 percent of the vote, far ahead of state Sen. Michael Noland, whom had collected 28 percent of the vote, and Deborah Bullwinkel, who had just 12 percent.

Krishnamoorthi still has his work cut out for him; to represent the state’s 8th Congressional District, he will need to defeat Republican Peter DiCianni, former mayor of Elmhurst and current DuPage County board member. DiCianna ran unopposed in the GOP primary, seeking to fill the seat vacated by Tammy Duckworth, who just won a Democratic nomination of her own for her Senate race. Krishnamoorthi said his radar is finely tuned into his opponent DiCianni, but noted the GOP ticket in the fall general election likely would be topped by Donald Trump — whose policies are “completely at odds with what the people of the 8th District want.”

“Instead of buildings walls, we should be building bridges,” Krishnamoorthi said in reference to Trump’s promise to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

DiCianni disagrees with Krishnamoorthi’s sentiment — he carries the endorsements of 26 mayors, and is hoping to win back the seat for the GOP, and said the voters in his race will pay just as much attention to what’s going on in their backyard, as they will the national stage.

“Regardless of who wins for president, the race will be between him and I,” DiCianni said.

This his second race for the same seat, Krishnamoorthi has enjoyed more than healthy fundraising and support during his second go-around — his lead in fundraising over his two opponents is fairly substantial, reporting a total of nearly $1.7 million in campaign contributions through Feb. 24. That amount equates to nearly four times the funds raised by his democratic opponents Noland and Bullwinkel.

Krishnamoorthi, 42, was born in New Delhi, but came to the U.S. as an infant and grew up in Peoria, IL. He graduated with an engineering degree from Princeton University, and a law degree from Harvard. Previously, he served Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and worked as a deputy state treasurer. Currently, he works as president of Sivananthan Labs and Episola Inc.

He recalled the past elections he lost to Tammy Duckworth, as mentioned previously, her exit from the legislature put Krishnamoorthi in a position for another run.

“We won over a lot of folks who cast votes for Tammy Duckworth four years ago because we maintained a civil and respectful contest last time,” he said.