Raja Krishnamoorthi

In 1973, Krishnamoorthi was born into a Tamil-speaking Hindu family in New Delhi, India. His family moved to Buffalo, New York when he was three months old, so that his father could attend graduate school. They lived in public housing and used food stamps. In 1980, the Krishnamoorthi family moved to Peoria, Illinois. His father became a professor at Bradley University.

Krishnamoorthi attended Princeton University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He then received a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

Krishnamoorthi and Barack Obama in 2002

After graduating from Harvard, Krishnamoorthi served as a law clerk for Joan B. Gottschall, and worked as a staffer on Barack Obama's 2000 election campaign for the United States House of Representatives. Krishnamoorthi served as an issues director for Obama's 2004 election to the United States Senate, and aided in the development of Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address.

Krishnamoorthi served as a partner at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis and as a special assistant attorney general under Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. He served as deputy state treasurer for Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias from 2007 to 2009. He was the president of Sivananthan Laboratories and Episolar Inc., which develops and sells technology for military and civilian customers, until resigning all his business positions before entering Congress to eliminate any conflicts of interest.

In 2010, Krishnamoorthi ran for the Democratic Party nomination for Illinois Comptroller. He lost the primary election to David E. Miller by less than 1% of the vote. He ran for the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in Illinois's 8th congressional district in the 2012 elections. Tammy Duckworth defeated Krishnamoorthi in the primary election, 66%–34%.

With Duckworth running for the U.S. Senate in 2016, Krishnamoorthi again declared his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives. He won the March 2016 primary election with 57% of the vote, while Michael Noland earned 29% and Deb Bullwinkel received 13%. In November 2016, Krishnamoorthi defeated Republican Pete DiCianni in the general election, capturing 58.1% of the vote after a campaign in which he vowed to fight for middle-class families in Congress.

Krishnamoorthi was sworn into office on January 3, 2017, stating, "I will continue to focus on the middle class and our commitment to ensure that hard work is rewarded."

While Krishnamoorthi attended President Donald Trump's January 2017 Inauguration, he said he did so in part "because I want President Trump to look at the crowd and Congress and see on day one that he will be strongly opposed if he continues to pursue policies that hurt working families." The day before the inauguration, Krishnamoorthi was included in a list featured in The Guardian of "The up-and-coming leaders of the Trump resistance in Washington."

The day after the inauguration, Krishnamoorthi told a crowd of more than 250,000 at the Chicago Women's March, "Today's march was about people from every walk of life coming together to declare their support for the rights of women and all Americans. Women's rights are human rights. A loud chorus of voices including mine will speak up for the rights of women and all Americans to make a better life in this country."

Later that week, Krishnamoorthi delivered a speech on the House floor in opposition to a Trump administration decision to block an Obama administration policy that would have reduced mortgage costs for lower and middle-income families by hundreds of dollars per year. Krishnamoorthi closed his remarks by referencing President Trump's campaign slogan, saying, "the Trump administration's order to make mortgages more expensive will not strengthen our economy. It will not create jobs. And it will not make America great again. But it will make life harder for working families."

Job Training and Workforce Development

In June 2017, the House unanimously passed the Thompson-Krishnamoorthi Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, which would overhaul the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act and provide more flexibility to states. In November 2017, Krishnamoorthi and GT Thompson co-led a letter to the Senate education committee with 235 fellow members of the House urging them to take up the legislation.

Defense Of State And Local Tax (SALT) Deduction

During the tax reform debate in Congress, Krishnamoorthi spoke out numerous times against the proposed elimination of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction and its impact on working families in Illinois. In October 2017, he sent two letters about the proposed deduction, one to Illinois Governor Rauner alongside fellow Illinois members Foster and Gutierrez and one to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee, urging them to preserve the deduction.

Environmental Issues and Green Technology

Krishnamoorthi's first piece of legislation introduced as a member of Congress was H.Res.85, a resolution expressing the commitment of the House of Representatives to continue to support U.S. pledges made in the Paris Climate Agreement. In introducing the resolution, Krishnamoorthi cited the rising global temperatures and the need for the U.S. to address both the threats posed to the country and the economic potential of green technology.

Health care

During a January 2017 floor debate in the House of Representatives, Krishnamoorthi argued against repealing the Affordable Care Act. Citing his experience running small businesses, Krishnamoorthi said, "repealing without replacing the Affordable Care Act would devastate our economy and harm millions of middle-class families. Within the 8th District of Illinois, we could lose upwards of over $550 million from our economy and over 4,000 jobs. I know firsthand how important health coverage is to workers and to business. Without the protections of the Affordable Care Act, we will see fewer entrepreneurs take the risk of starting a business and fewer workers take the risk of working for a start-up."

In September 2017, Krishnamoorthi co-led a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services with Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings. The letter requested documents and information related to the decision to schedule outages of HealthCare.gov during the 2017 open enrollment period.

Presidential Pardons

In July 2017, Krishnamoorthi introduced the Presidential Pardon Transparency Act, which would require that all Presidential pardons be disclosed to the public within three days of being granted. The legislation followed reports that the President was consulting senior aides and The White House Counsel as to his ability to pardon associates, family members, and himself.

Russian Interference

In November 2017, Krishnamoorthi introduced the Keeping Russian Entanglements Minimal and Limiting Intelligence Networks (KREMLIN) Act, which would require the Director of National Intelligence to produce a National Intelligence Estimate on Putin's regime and its political intentions in the wake of Russia's attempts to sabotage Western democratic elections, including the United States.

Trump Administration Security Clearance Issues

In October 2017, Krishnamoorthi questioned the director of the National Background Investigations Bureau about the number of mistakes made in Senior Presidential Advisor Jared Kushner's security clearance during a hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In response to repeated questioning about whether the Director could recall "if there has ever been an applicant having to submit four addenda detailing over 100 errors and omissions being able to maintain their security clearance once those errors have been identified", Director Phalen said that he had never seen that level of mistakes.

Immigration and Trump Administration's Travel Ban

On January 28, 2017, President Trump's executive order placing restrictions on people entering the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries caused 18 travelers arriving at O'Hare International Airport to be detained and questioned by federal officers, including a family of legal permanent residents and their 18-month-old baby, who held U.S. citizenship. Krishnamoorthi arrived at O'Hare within hours to speak to immigration officials but was told they were unavailable. While joining a protest at the airport Krishnamoorthi said of the detentions, "They applied legally, they've been vetted and they've been here, in many cases, for decades, and they were detained by their own country at the airport. So many of our businesses rely on green card holders. How are we supposed to attract these people if they think they'll be detained at the airport if they go abroad for a wedding, or just to show their baby to relatives?"

In a WGN Radio interview the next morning, Krishnamoorthi denounced Trump's immigration initiative, calling it the "worst executive order you could draw up to unify the country."

On November 16, Krishnamoorthi co-led a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, alongside Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Adriano Espaillat of New York, and 60 Democratic cosigners, about the postal services delays that caused hundreds of DACA renewal applications to arrive after the October 5 deadline. The Department later reversed its position and announced that it would allow those affected to resend their applications.

Accountability In Federal Contracting

In his capacity as a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Krishnamoorthi has raised concerns over the Whitefish Energy contract with the Puerto Rican government to rebuild the island's electrical grid and the no-audit clauses in its contract. In October, Krishnamoorthi wrote to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Oversight and Government Reform urging them to convene hearings on the contract and the full scope of anti-auditing language in all government contracts.

Foreign Policy

Krishnamoorthi sided with President Trump on tariffs when he criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for attacking Trump during the 2018 G7 Summit.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Education and the Workforce
  • Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training
  • Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on Health Care, Benefits and Administrative Rules (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Information Technology

Source:

Caucus memberships

• New Democrat Coalition
• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus

Krishnamoorthi's wife, Priya, is a doctor. They live with their two sons, Vijay and Vikram, and daughter Sonia in Schaumburg, Illinois.

In January 2017, Krishnamoorthi, a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, and his elder son attended the Cubs' official White House commemoration of their World Series victory.