Political newcomer Darshan Rauniyar is running as U.S. representative for the 1st District (which includes Redmond), the seat vacated by , who’s taking a run at the governorship.
Rauniyar is an immigrant success story. Born and raised in Nepal, he attended college in the United States, worked in the high tech industry and then founded his own flash drive businesses.
“I’m an example of the American Dream, but I see that dream slipping away for a lot of middle class families," Rauniyar said. "I know how to create jobs; I want to work with corporations to bring manufacturing jobs back to America.”
Rauniyar, a Democrat from Bothell, said he stands out from the other candidates in the crowded field for Inslee’s seat, which includes former state lawmaker (another Democrat) and Republican , also of Redmond, who ran against Inslee in 2010.
“The Washington politicians talk about lowering taxes and cutting spending, but I don’t hear them talking about how to increase revenue. I am a businessman; I know how to create jobs and that is what we need; jobs," Rauniyar said.
High on the candidate’s agenda is closing tax loopholes and bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
“We need to...make the tax system equal for the corporations to small businesses to individuals,” Rauniyar said. “We also need fair trade laws, not free trade laws where companies like GE move jobs to other countries then make billions of dollars but don’t pay their fair share of taxes back here.”
He said he also wants to find a permanent revenue source for public schools, to enable American students to compete globally.
“We need to find a revenue source to fund education,” Rauniyar said. “This country used to have the best education system in the world, now we are behind. We need to look at Singapore and Norway and see how they’ve made their systems so successful and learn from those countries.”
In addition, Rauniyar said he wants a public option added to the Obama health care plan.
“We need health care for everyone; we need a public option so the working class can have affordable health care," he said. "That is what I want to do for this district, make it the model for the nation of how to create jobs and offer health care to everyone.”
