Barve is the first Indian American to become a state legislator.
AB Wire
Veteran Indian American Democratic state legislator, Kumar Barve, 57, has suffered a humiliating defeat in the party’s primary election for a seat in the US House of Representatives.
Barve, who was the House Majority Leader from 2003-2014, and who won seven terms as a Delegate, and now Chairman of Maryland House Environment and Transportation Committee, received just two per cent of the total votes polled in a 9-person Democratic primary race for a seat in the US House of Representatives, last night.
The primary election was won by Jamie Raskin who received 33 per cent of the votes. He was followed by David Trone with 28 per cent of the votes.
Barve made history at the age of 32, when he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates and became the first Indian American ever to serve as a state legislator. If elected, he would have been the fourth Indian American to be elected to the US House of Representatives, following Dilip Singh Saund, Bobby Jindal and Ami Bera.
The Washington Post reported last week that back when Maryland lawmakers staged an annual satiric review called the “Legislative Follies,†Del. Barve did his part by donning a turban to become “Kumar the Magnificent†— modeled after the soothsaying Johnny Carson character who could divine answers even before he knew the questions.
Barve, 57, a seven-term delegate who represents Rockville and Gaithersburg, looks for opportunities to bring a lighter touch to his politics. In a campaign filled with solemn and earnest discussions of jobs, immigration, redistricting and climate change, he stands out as serious about the work — but less so about himself, said the report.
Early in the campaign, the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Republican presidential candidates prompted him to produce a video about the struggles of his immigrant grandfather.
Shankar Laxman Gokhale, a scientist for General Electric, lost his U.S. citizenship in 1923, when the Supreme Court ruled that Indian-born immigrants were not considered white. Gokhale won a five-year legal fight to regain citizenship, but only because he had been naturalized before the ban. It would be 1946 before restrictions on South Asians were lifted.
Barve, after graduating Paint Branch High School and Georgetown University, worked for a series of NASA and defense contractors. He entered politics through the Maryland chapter of the abortion rights advocacy group NARAL, which was looking for a treasurer, and made his first run for the House of Delegates in 1990.
His record is not unblemished. He was arrested by Gaithersburg police for driving under the influence in November 2007, pleaded guilty and received probation and a fine.