Magazine, The Immigrant Experience, ,
When Padma Kuppa was elected state representative for Troy and Clawson two years ago, she was the first immigrant from India and the first Hindu to serve in the Michigan Legislature.
The expected election of Kamala Harris as vice president will bring even more firsts to the second-highest elected office in the United States.
Harris is the first Black elected as vice president. The first woman. The first child of immigrants. The first person of South Asian descent. Her mother was born in India and her father was a Black man from Jamaica.
“I was happy to break a glass ceiling and I’m happy that Kamala Harris is breaking even more barriers,” Kuppa said. “She is a role model for women everywhere.”
Born in India, Kuppa came to the United States as a young child. She grew up on the East Coast but has been in Michigan for 22 years. Before her election to the state House, she worked as an engineer.
The Biden-Harris campaign invited Kuppa and several other Democratic Indian-American legislators from Washington state, Virginia and elsewhere to serve on a panel that made virtual campaign appearances.
