Bengaluru-Chennai roots, H-1B fight: Suhas Subramanyam wins second term in US Congress
Washington: Suhas Subramanyam, the son of Tamil physicians whose mother is from Bengaluru and father grew up in Chennai and Secunderabad, was re-elected on Tuesday (local time) to represent Virginia’s 10th Congressional District.
“The campaign is over, but the work is just beginning. I look forward to working with our community to deliver change in Washington,” Subramanyam posted on X.
“My mom’s from Bangalore. My dad’s from Chennai and Secunderabad, and we have ties in India. I still have family in India,” he said in an interview last year.
His mother arrived at Dulles Airport in 1979, a story he has tied to the Northern Virginia district he represents. “Dulles Airport here, and our district was their Ellis Island,” he told CNBC-TV18.
Born in Houston, Texas, in 1986, Subramanyam studied philosophy at Tulane University and earned a law degree from Northwestern University. He worked as an aide to Representative Suzanne Kosmas, clerked for Senator Dick Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he worked on the DREAM Act, and served as a White House technology policy adviser under President Barack Obama from 2015.
He has also worked as a lawyer, run a small technology business and volunteered as an emergency medical technician and firefighter, according to his campaign.
In 2019, he became the first Indian American, first South Asian and first Hindu elected to the Virginia General Assembly. He served in the House of Delegates from 2020 to 2024 and briefly in the Virginia Senate before winning the US House seat vacated by Jennifer Wexton in 2024.
In Congress, Subramanyam sits on the Oversight Committee, where he is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Military and Foreign Affairs and also serves on the cybersecurity and information technology panel, as well as on the Science, Space and Technology Committee and the Ethics Committee, according to his House website.
He has been a leading voice on issues watched closely by Indian Americans. He backs the Domestic Visa Renewal Modernization Act, part of a three-bill package that would let holders of H-1B, L, O and other visas renew them inside the United States.
When the Trump administration imposed a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions, he said: “This isn’t immigration policy. This is economic sabotage.” He co-signed an October 2025 letter to President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warning about the H-1B proclamation.
He has also criticised Trump’s tariffs on India. “Tariffs are a tax on the American people,” he told the Hindustan Times, adding, “I think Trump has handled the relationship with India poorly” and “India is a natural ally.”
“I think the majority of Indian Americans still are Democrats,” he said, warning that “putting tariffs on India will not help his standing with Indian Americans.”
Subramanyam has also introduced the Responsible Data Center Siting Act. “Congress must set reasonable guardrails around data centers,” he wrote on X.
He closed his campaign with a rally alongside Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.
Subramanyam and his wife, Miranda Pena Subramanyam, live with their two daughters in Loudoun County.
