Indian-American Republican candidate Rik Mehta lost his New Jersey Senate election bid to Democratic incumbent Senator Cory Booker.
Mr. Mehta garnered 37.9% of the votes at 1,071,726, while Mr. Booker got 60.6% with 1,714,375 votes in the November 3 election.
In July, Mr. Mehta had become the first Indian-American to win the Republican primary for the Senate seat from New Jersey. Mr. Mehta, a former Food and Drug Administration official, had defeated his nearest rival Hirsh Singh, also an Indian-American, by a margin of 13,743 votes in the Republican primaries held in July.
This was for the first time that a New Jersey senatorial race had candidates of colour nominees from both the parties. Booker, an African-American, had won the Democratic primary with 89% of the votes.
