3 Indian Americans to Run in Virginia’s Special Election to Replace Suhas Subramayam in State Senate
- Delegate Kannan Srinivasan, mental health advocate Puja Khanna, and IT professional and small business owner Sreedhar Nagireddi, have launched campaigns for the 32nd Senate District.
Three Indian Americans running for office in Virginia’s special election races, vying to replace State Sen. Suhas Subramanyam, who recently won a seat in the U.S. Congress. Congress. Delegate Kannan Srinivasan, mental health advocate Puja Khanna, and IT professional and small business owner Sreedhar Nagireddi, have launched campaigns for the 32nd Senate District.
The Democratic primary will be held on Nov. 16. According to the Virginia Mercury, “State law requires that a date for a special election to fill a vacancy be set within 30 days of the vacancy or receipt of notification of the latter, whichever comes first.”
A 25-year Loudoun resident, Kannan Srinivasan represents House District 26. If elected to the 32nd District, a special election would need to be held to fill his seat in the House of Delegates. He told Virginia Scope that it’s imperative to win this special election. “With women’s reproductive rights, common-sense gun regulations, healthcare, and our democracy under increasing Republican attacks, we have to win this special election,” he told the independent newspaper. “This seat is the last thing protecting a Democratic majority in the Virginia Senate, so it is absolutely critical that MAGA extremists do not win and take Loudoun families backwards,” he added.
A popular choice to replace Subramanyam, Kanan has the endorsement of political heavyweights like Sens. Mark Warner and Time Kaine, as well as Subramanyam, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, Loudoun County Chair Phyllis Randall, State Senator Russet Perry “and the majority of Loudoun County Democratic leaders,” per Blue Virginia.
Sreedhar Nagireddi is an Ashburn-based IT professional and small business owner. His website describes him as an “active leader in the Loudoun County Democratic Committee, Democratic Party of Virginia, AAPI of Loudoun, and Democratic Asian Americans of Virginia. He ran unsuccessfully for Dulles Board of Supervisors in 2019. On his website, Nagireddi says he’s “dedicated to building a better Loudoun and Virginia for all, together,” and looks forward “to continuing Senator Subramanyam and Senator Bell’s legacy in SD-32 and working tirelessly for all Virginians.” He plans “to fight for the voices of District 32 to be heard all across Loudoun and the Commonwealth. on topics such as bettering infrastructure, education for all, clean energy, medicare for all, affordable housing, standing up to gun violence, and women’s reproductive rights.”
Nagireddi was appointed by Governor Northam as commissioner of the 2020 Virginia State Census and served as the At-Large Board Member of the Loudoun Transit Advisory Board. The son of two school teachers from India, he has lived in the Ashburn SD-32 area of Northern Virginia with his wife, Swapna, and their two children, Esha and Aneesh, since 2009, following their immigration to the United States a decade earlier.
Puja Khanna has lived in Virginia for two decades and made Loudoun a home since 2011 with her family of five. As an immigrant, she is well aware of the challenges of striving for and living the American Dream without what she terms “the inherent privileges afforded to some who were born with it.” Last year, she ran unsuccessfully for the Dulles District supervisor seat.
She told 7News that women’s reproductive rights are my top priority. “That’s a personal issue to me, being a mom of two young girls, that’s an issue that comes forward, and I’m going to be a strong advocate to make sure that it’s protected,” she said. “Guns are another issue that I want to take care of in terms [of] making sure that we have stronger background checks and more red flag laws, banning assault weapons from civilian use,” she added.
She is a certified Mental Health Instructor who started a Teen Mental Health Program during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and run mental health awareness programs with the Loudoun County Public Library system. Aware of the work-life balance demands in an IT business, Khanna started her own holistic health business in 2018 that goes by the name of “Mindfulness with Puja.”
(Top photo: Virginia Delegate Kannan Srinivasan with Congressman-elect Suhas Subramanyam. Kannan is among the candidates running in a special election to replace Subramanyam’s seat in District 32.)