Raja Singh running for New York’s Nassau County Legislature endorsed by Indian-American IMPACT

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As elections are around the corner Nov. 2, and early voting has begun, the leading Indian-American political action committee, IMPACT, endorsed Democrat Raja Singh, 37, the District 17 candidate for Nassau County Legislature October 20, 2021. Singh, an attorney, is running against long time incumbent Republican Rose Walker.

District 17 is a very diverse district, and “Singh is an attorney with a passion to serve his community,” said IMPACT in its endorsement. “If elected, he’ll invest in infrastructure, protect the environment, and work to keep property taxes low,” it added.

District 17 includes parts of Hicksville, where Singh has lived for more than a decade, Bethpage, Old Bethpage, Farmingdale, Plainedge, North Massapequa, Massapequa, and Seaford, patch.com reported.

“Honored, grateful, blessed to have this endorsement from @iaimpact and supporting the candidates who they believe will help our communities move forward and get our fair share of equity in government as well as helping anyone and everyone who we are elected to represent,” Singh messaged on Instagram @rajafornassau.

An identical twin (his brother’s name is Rana) and an attorney by training, as well as a business owner, Raja Singh says in his campaign website that he is the son of immigrants, raised in Queens, and attended Queens College.

His father, Singh said, was an attorney in India, who migrated to the U.S. for an opportunity to live the American dream.

Singh moved to Hicksville as a young adult. He always wanted to be a lawyer and serve the community. After graduating from Law School and passing both the New York and New Jersey Bar exams, Singh and his twin brother who also became a lawyer, opened up their own firm in the heart of Hicksville.
In the 13 plus years he has lived there, Singh says he saw the demographics change and more South Asian faces “like my own”.

Despite the growing diversity, Singh says, he did not see representation in government reflect that change.

“Small/minority and women business including myself were not getting opportunities that they should have from their local government. The people within the community were limited in their access to their elected official. There was a significant lack of transparency and trust if the local government was in fact doing what was best or even the right thing for the district they represented,” Singh observes.
Hence his decision to run.

“We need leadership on the local level for this district that actually reflects who lives here, that actually understands the people and communities that live here, that sees and can appreciate the changes that have happened, that can openly communicate with the younger generation like myself and even younger, that can energetically be a factor of progress and change,” according to Singh.

In an interview with Patch.com, Singh said since he has lived here from 2006, the county “sadly … looks the same, hasn’t had any upgrades, community development, revitalization.” Its growing diversity has not been appreciated, he said. Many storefronts were closed and “There is too much secrecy in government,” he said, calling for term limits for candidates.

Property taxes was the most pressing issue on his agenda, he indicated. He also pointed to his “public work in community relations helping students and young adults become entrepreneurs, building bridges between people who would never otherwise talk to each other and realizing we are all more similar than different.”