Washington, DC: Indian-origin American politician Sara Gideon has won the Democratic primary for the US Senate seat from the state of Maine and will face incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins in the November elections.
Gideon, 48, is currently the Speaker of the Maine State Assembly. She had long been the favourite to challenge Mr Collins, the sole remaining New England Republican in Congress.
After entrepreneur Rik Mehta, she is the second Indian-American to have won a Senate primary race this election season. Both Gideon and Mehta are the first Indian-Americans to win the primaries in their respective states.
Daughter of Indian-American father and Armenian mother, Gideon has already attracted the attention of the entire Democratic Party from across the nation and has raised a massive $23 million, which is a Maine record.
Democrats are pinning a lot of hope on her to get them a majority in the Senate.
“Thank you, Maine, for choosing me as your candidate to take on Senator Collins in November,” Gideon said soon after her massive electoral victory.
Gideon’s father immigrated from India and worked as a pediatrician in Rhode Island, where Gideon, the youngest of four children, grew up. She moved to Maine after meeting her husband Ben Gideon, a personal injury trial lawyer.
