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They came from Indian immigrant families or moved to America from India and built careers in technology, business, education and public service. Now four Indian-American professionals are taking that experience into the 2026 US congressional elections.
The 2026 US midterm elections are putting a new group of Indian-American professionals in the political spotlight. Ritesh Tandon, Nirav Sheth, Sandeep Dixit come from different professional and political backgrounds, but their stories share a common thread: Indian roots and careers built largely outside electoral politics.
Three of them, Tandon, Sheth and Dixit, built professional lives in the United States after coming from India. Their journeys span technology, entrepreneurship, the military, education, government and corporate America.
Ritesh Tandon: From India to Silicon Valley
Ritesh Tandon came to the United States from India as a student and went on to build a career in Silicon Valley. Tandon is the Republican candidate challenging Democratic incumbent Ro Khanna in California’s 17th Congressional District. He is the founder and CEO of Kricel Corporation and previously worked at Cisco, where he was involved in engineering and technical marketing, before working in strategic alliances at Jabra.
Tandon’s campaign biography describes his move to America as a search for the American Dream. His professional career subsequently took him into technology entrepreneurship and the Bay Area’s business ecosystem.
His campaign focuses on issues including the economy, regulation, healthcare, education and the cost of living. His candidacy is notable in particular because he is seeking to represent a district at the centre of the technology industry, the same environment in which he built his career after immigrating to the US.
More from BusinessNirav Sheth: From India to the US Marine Corps
Nirav Sheth was born and raised in India and moved to the United States in 2008 as a student of computer and electrical engineering. His journey in America subsequently took him from the US Marine Corps to law enforcement and entrepreneurship.
Sheth served four years as an aircraft mechanic and military police officer in the Marines. He later worked as a police officer in Lakewood, Washington, before becoming a business owner in Pierce County.
A Republican, Sheth is running for Washington’s 7th Congressional District against Democratic incumbent Pramila Jayapal. The 2026 general-election matchup lists Sheth and Jayapal as the Republican and Democratic candidates, respectively.
The race has an additional Indian-American dimension: Sheth and Jayapal are both candidates with Indian roots but represent opposite sides of the political spectrum.
Sandeep Dixit: From India to Ohio politics
Sandeep Dixit came to the United States from India about 36 years ago, arriving at the age of 21. Today, he is an engineer and small-business owner with decades of experience in technology.
Dixit is running as an independent in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District. His campaign describes him as an engineer, family man and small-business owner rather than a career politician.
His professional career has been closely associated with technology. Dixit has more than two decades of software-development experience and has been associated with Ohioedge, a technology company, since the 1990s.
His campaign is built around jobs, affordability, healthcare, the environment and technology. He is positioning his independent candidacy as an alternative to the two-party system, arguing that practical problem-solving, the kind he used as an engineer and business owner, can be applied to government as well.
For Dixit, the political journey comes after decades of building a professional life in America following his move from India.
