Indian American Omar Vaid running for Congress in New York

January 17, 2018

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NEW YORK – Indian American Omar Vaid is running for the 11th Congressional District seat which is currently being held by Rep. Dan Donovan (R-Staten Island, Southern Brooklyn), and has been gaining a lot of attention on social media, according to Voices of NY.

Being a Muslim-American, Vaid has spoken a lot about President Donald Trump’s travel ban throughout his campaign and is focusing on a number of issues including the improvement of transportation, education, Medicare, lowering prescription drug costs, affordable housing, climate change, gun laws, veteran’s benefits, women’s rights, worker’s rights and building strong unions, protecting social security, protecting net neutrality, unity and foreign policy, according to his website.

Vaid is the son of Gujarati parents and while growing up in Illinois and Florida, “he embraced his family’s rich cultural heritage as well as that of his schoolmates and friends,” according to his website.

Vaid received his bachelor’s degree in Business Management from the University of Central Florida and moved to Brooklyn in 2006 to start a career in the movie industry.

He then moved to Bay Ridge two years later and joined the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Local 52 in 2009, but ended up moving out of Bay Ridge due to transportation issues, according to his website.

Now, Vaid works with props and set decoration for New York productions, along with working on the TV shows “Luke Cage” and “The Get Down.”

According to his website, Vaid has also spent the “last decade directly working with teamsters, welders, electricians, carpenters, mechanics and manufacturers to make sets and scenes possible. He votes with his dollars and for this reason, buys largely from a network of local business owners and small suppliers and believes that ‘Made in America’ and strong allied trades are key to our future prosperity and the perseverance of the American Dream” and believes that “diversity is an asset and that all voices must be included.”

According to Ballotpedia, Vaid will be running against Michael DeCillis, Michael DeVito Jr., Zach Emig, Radhakrishna Mohan, Max Rose and Paul Sperling in the Democratic primary while Rep. Donovan will be challenged by former Rep. Michael Grimm in the Republican primary.