On November 5, Americans will vote not only for president, but also for 34 seats in the Senate, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 11 governorships and thousands of state legislative positions. Among the new contenders is Ashwin Ramaswami, a young Indian-American Democrat who is challenging Republican Sen. Shawn Still in Georgia’s Senate District 48, a traditionally conservative seat.
Who is Ashwin Ramaswami?
- Ashwin Ramaswami was born to Indian immigrant parents from Tamil Nadu and grew up in Johns Creek. He is running for the Georgia Senate in District 48 and just meets the minimum age requirement of 25, which will be reached in May 2024.
- Ashwin Ramaswami studied computer science at Stanford University and then earned a law degree from Georgetown University, according to his election campaign website.
- He has a strong background in cybersecurity worked at CISAthe Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, where he helped secure local election systems from cyber attacks, and Schmidt Futures, where he conducted research into securing open source software, which contributed to a bill in Congress. He decided to leave his job at CISA after three years to run for office, after realizing that the bigger threat to democracy lies not only in cyber attacks, but also in political disinformation surrounding election integrity, he reported. NBC News.
- While in college, he taught classes on Hindu philosophy and raised $100,000 for Dharmic programs at Georgetown, supporting students of various faiths, including Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist.
- Ashwin Ramaswami’s campaign promises election security and integrity and positions him against Shawn Still’s alleged election-related activities in 2020. Shawn Still was among the fake voters who participated in Donald Trump’s fake voter conspiracy, which aimed to destroy electoral votes of Georgia to Donald Trump, even though he lost the state to Joe Biden. Mr. Ramaswami’s campaign has raised more than $700,000 in funding, considered a significant amount for a first-time candidate.