PRESIDENT OBAMA ENDORSES RAJA FOR CONGRESS

SCHAUMBURG, IL. (June 2, 2016) — President Barack Obama is endorsing Raja Krishnamoorthi in this year’s open-seat race in the 8th Congressional District of Illinois that includes west and northwest Chicago suburbs.

“As the son of immigrants who worked their way into the middle-class, Raja understands both the challenges facing America’s working families and the opportunities their work makes possible,” President Obama said. “I know he’ll fight hard in Congress to create more good jobs, empower more Americans to start businesses, and help working families afford to put their children through college.”

Krishnamoorthi served Obama as issues director in the President’s successful U.S. Senate campaign in 2004 when Raja helped shape policy proposals that Obama embarked on in federal office.

“I am honored and humbled to have the support of President Obama in my race for Congress,” Krishnamoorthi said of the endorsement. “It only seems like yesterday that the two of us ate dinner in my childhood home in Peoria before the beginning of his historic rise to the U.S. Senate and the White House. A few gray hairs later, that dinner table conversation continues as we are focused on standing up for the middle class and working to make sure that we come together as a country instead of casting stones and insults at our fellow Americans.”

Raja grew up in Peoria, Illinois where he graduated as a valedictorian of Richwoods High School. After college and law school, he served as a founding prosecutor in Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s anti-corruption unit and as Deputy Treasurer of Illinois.

A lifelong progressive, Raja is running for Congress to stand up for middle class families and fight against attempts by House Republicans to cut Social Security and Medicare that are benefits his parents and millions of other Americans rely on.