As U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton targets to break the “highest glass ceiling” in the US, three Indian-Americans figure in a list of 19 women who could make history if elected to Congress in November.
In a Congress that has only 19 per cent women, over a dozen women from both sides of the aisle could end up breaking barriers if elected in the November polls, the popular Cosmopolitan magazine said as it released the list of the women.
The three Indian-American women who figure in the list are, Pramila Jayapal, who is running for House of Representatives from Washington state; Kamala Harris, who is seeking to enter the Senate from California; and Lathika Mary Thomas, who is running for the House on a Republican ticket from Florida.
Jayapal and Harris are from the Democratic party.
If elected, Harris would be the second woman of colour in Senate after Carul Mosley Braun in 1992 and the first Indian-American in the Senate. Harris, who has been endorsed by US President Barack Obama, is currently the California Attorney-General.
Jayapal, who earned an endorsement from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, would be the first Indian-American woman in Congress, if she wins the elections in November.
According to latest polls, both Jayapal and Harris are expected to win their respective elections.
Like Jayapal, Lathika Mary Thomas, if elected to the U.S. House of Representatives seat from Florida, would be the first Indian-American woman in the House..
Ami Bera from California is the only Indian-American Congressman in the current Congress. He is among the three Indian-Americans elected to the Congress ever.
Among other women politicians who figure in this list are Denise Gitsham, who if elected would be the first Republican Chinese-American in the Congress; Misty Snow, who could become the first openly transgender person in Congress and Tammy Duckworth, who could become the first Thai-American to be elected to the Senate.
