TX-22: Sri Preston Kulkarni (D)
PROFILE
About Kulkarni:
Sri Preston Kulkarni is a big Rockets fan, lover of languages, and lifelong public servant. He is also a national security expert who has spent his career overseas.
He was raised in a middle class family by an immigrant father and a mother whose Texas roots date back to Sam Houston. When his family moved to Houston, they lived in a two bedroom apartment with nine people.
When he was 18, his father was diagnosed with leukemia. He dropped out of the University of Texas and returned home. Working several jobs to put himself through school, he eventually graduated from UT.
He pursued a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard.
He was commissioned as a United States Foreign Service Officer by Secretary of State Colin Powell. In the Foreign Service, he served tours overseas in Iraq, Israel, Russia, Taiwan, and Jamaica. He speaks English, Spanish, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese—and is always looking for new languages to learn and new people to connect with. If elected, he would become the first person of Hindu faith and first Asian American member of Congress from Texas.
He is working to build the most grassroots campaign in the country and is campaigning in 27 different languages.