Both were unopposed in the May 20 primaries.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Two Indian-origin candidates have gotten free passes through the May 20 primary rounds of their respective races, and are now concentrating full-steam-ahead on the November 4 midterm elections.
Manan Trivedi, running for Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District, and Bikram Mohanty, running for Georgia’s 8th District in the State Senate, both ended up running unopposed on the Democratic side of their respective primaries, meaning that they automatically advance to the general race, which will be settled in November.
Trivedi (39) will now go up against Republican Ryan A. Costello, while Mohanty will have to best Republican C. Ellis Black to win his race for the State Senate.
Trivedi is a former Navy doctor who served in the Iraq War, and is in the midst of his third run for elected office. He ran previously in 2010 and 2012, but was unable to secure victory. Now, he and Costello are running for the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Jim Gerlach, who announced months ago that he would not be seeking re-election after his current term expires.
Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District is just outside of Philadelphia, and is where Trivedi has resided for some time. He has several key endorsements to his name, nearly all from within the state, and one from Democracy For America (DFA), a key liberal PAC that said Trivedi’s race was happening in one of the country’s “battleground districts.”
Mohanty, meanwhile, is also not a stranger to politics. He ran for Georgia State Senate in 2012 as well, but lost the race to Republican Tim Golden by a margin of 62% to 38%. Now, while it appears that Golden is not running to protect his seat, there is still stiff competition from the conservative side.
Although Mohanty may have gotten a bye in the primary rounds, Ellis had to defeat two other Republicans, John Page and Richard David Raines, to secure his party’s nomination. Ellis won 49% of the vote among the three candidates, and will put up a stiff fight to win the coveted State Senate seat.
The 2014 midterm elections will take place on Tuesday, November 4.