Our Bureau
Johns Creek, GA
Ashwin Ramaswami has become the first Indian-American from Gen Z to run for a federal legislature in the US. Ramaswami’s parents, who are both IT professionals, immigrated to the US from Tamil Nadu in 1990.
“My parents both came to the US in the 1990s. They both came from Tamil Nadu. My mom is from Chennai, my dad is from Coimbatore. I’ve always grown up with Indian culture and also American culture growing up as well. I’m a Hindu. I’ve been very interested in Indian culture philosophy my whole life,” he said. Generation Z (also known as Zoomers) encompasses those born between 1997 and 2012.
Ramaswamy is a second-generation Indian-American built a career in software engineering, election security, and technology law and policy research. He is running in the Democratic party for State Senate in District 48 of Georgia, hoping to replace incumbent Republican Shawn Still, who was indicted with former President Donald Trump for the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
Ashwin Ramaswami graduated from Stanford in 2021, where he studied computer science and served as The Stanford Daily’s first chief technology officer. He currently attends Georgetown University Law Center.
“I’m running for (Georgia) State Senate in order to give back to my community. I want to make sure that everyone has the same opportunities that I had growing up,” Ramaswami, who is 24 year old, said. “I want to make sure we have a new voice, people who are young, who come from unconventional backgrounds in politics because it’s really important that we have people who represent us, not just people who can afford to do it,” he continued.
If elected, he would be the first Gen Z State Senator in Georgia and the only Georgia state legislator with both a computer science and a law degree. By doing so, he would also break barriers as the first Indian American in the Georgia State legislature.
