Girish Altekar
Girish Altekar (Libertarian Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 37th Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Biography
Girish Altekar lives in Austin, Texas. Altekar earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from a university in India, an M.S. in computer and systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas, Austin. His career experience includes working in the technology industry and running his own business.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Texas' 37th Congressional District election, 2024
Texas' 37th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 Democratic primary)
Texas' 37th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 Republican primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Texas District 37
Incumbent Lloyd Doggett defeated Jenny Garcia Sharon and Girish Altekar in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 37 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Lloyd Doggett (D) | 74.2 | 252,980 |
 | Jenny Garcia Sharon (R) | 23.6 | 80,366 | |
 | Girish Altekar (L) | 2.2 | 7,511 | |
| Total votes: 340,857 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 37
Incumbent Lloyd Doggett defeated Christopher McNerney and Eduardo Romero in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 37 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Lloyd Doggett | 86.1 | 57,762 |
 | Christopher McNerney | 7.9 | 5,279 | |
| Eduardo Romero | 6.0 | 4,048 | ||
| Total votes: 67,089 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 37
Jenny Garcia Sharon advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 37 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jenny Garcia Sharon | 100.0 | 16,304 |
| Total votes: 16,304 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 37
Girish Altekar advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 37 on March 23, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Girish Altekar (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Altekar in this election.
2022
See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 49
Incumbent Gina Hinojosa defeated Katherine Griffin and David Roberson in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 49 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Gina Hinojosa (D) | 83.4 | 68,786 |
| Katherine Griffin (R) | 14.4 | 11,882 | ||
 | David Roberson (L) | 2.1 | 1,768 | |
| Total votes: 82,436 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 49
Incumbent Gina Hinojosa advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 49 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Gina Hinojosa | 100.0 | 21,566 |
| Total votes: 21,566 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 49
Katherine Griffin advanced from the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 49 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Katherine Griffin | 100.0 | 2,889 | |
| Total votes: 2,889 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Texas House of Representatives District 49
David Roberson advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas House of Representatives District 49 on March 12, 2022.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | David Roberson (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Girish Altekar (L)
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Girish Altekar did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign website
Altekar’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Licensure They negatively impact the most vulnerable who are willing to supply their skills and labor but cannot afford thousands of dollars required to get a license. Undeserved communities are the most impacted by the reduced supply of willing labor as they simply don't receive the services they need t the prices they can afford. Which services ought not to require licensure? Anything that you would trust your friend, neighbor, or partner to do, need not be licensed. If being licensed allows differentiated services and higher prices, that is great but willing buyers/seller should not be prevented from doing business. Think beauticians, cosmetologists, landscapers, house trades, hundreds of categories of work. Simplify Tax Filing I advocate for a code that allows tax filing on a postcard. No loopholes, no special interest tax breaks, no storing receipts in a shoe box, no spending hours on preparing taxes, no paying hundreds of dollars to tax accountants, no angst and no anxiety. On a past card, write your income, multiply it by the tax rate, send in your check if you haven't already pre-paid. The tax rates can be adjusted for fairness and progressivity. At the very least, we should allow taxpayers to choose between this and the current system. Americans can decide between the savings, if any, and the effort and aggravation of the month of April. Reform The Tort System I am far from a legal expert. But to the extent possible, I support legislative efforts to contain the epidemic of litigiousness that largely benefits only the lawyer class. Shareholder Lawsuits. It is crazy that we allow plaintiff attorneys to start a class action lawsuit with a handful of shareholders. It is crazy that most companies find it more expedient to settle these lawsuits than fight them. It is crazy shareholders receive postcards (which most ignore) in the mail requesting an opt in to receive the minimal settlement benefit while attorneys pockets millions in the settlement. At the very least, the benefits ought to automatically be mailed to them. The same applies to product/service related class action lawsuits. Plaintiff Lawsuits. Product/Service related lawsuits, where a wronged plaintiff seeks compensation, are certainly more reasonable. However, it is difficult to imagine how the average jury can figure out if Talc causes cancer much less how to value the compensation and punitive damages. The outrageous verdicts bankrupt companies that have provided Americans with products they have loved for decades. You can decide for yourself if a system that could potentially destroy companies such as 3M and Johnson & Johnson (example only, I have no interest or financial stake in these companies), serves a useful purpose. Suing Your Government. A person suing a local, state, or federal organization for damages is essentially suing the entire citizenry when they committed no crime. It is particularly aggregious that the Government officials on the other side of the table from them, have no real incentives to contest the lawsuit or minimize the damages. It is not their money and they suffer no negative career consequences. Qualified Immunity is just as bad, as it protects bad apples. A rational approach that doesn't provide a windfall to plaintiffs at taxpayers' expense is required. Frivolous Lawsuits. Strengthen the ability of defendants to claim trial expenses should the lawsuit be determined to be frivolous. War On Drugs There is no justification for prohibition. Adult Americans can decide what they wish to consume as long as they hold themselves responsible for all outcomes. The drug war hurts ordinary people. The profit in illegal drugs is corrupting. It increases violence from the smugglers, it increases the incentives to use lethal response, it corrupts police forces, politicians and the court system. It has militarized police across the US and many people, often from vulnerable communities, become victims of violence or even the justice system. Legalize the drugs. Legalization will eliminate the criminality price premium, thereby eliminating much of the violence of the trade. Focus can shift to treatment for those who want to be treated. Civil Forfeiture Abolish Civil Forfeiture. Civil Forfeiture is a pernicious tool that evolved out of the War on Drugs. We need to abolish it. Civil forfeiture allows the government (typically the police) to seize - and then keep or sell - any property that is allegedly involved in a crime or illegal activity. Owners need not ever be arrested or convicted of a crime for their cash, cars, or even real estate to be taken away permanently by the government. The government does not have to charge the property owner with crime. After property has been seized, the burden of proof shifts to the owner, who must prove that the property was not connected with illegal activity. This is not due process. There is no shortage of stories where vulnerable people have lost property to the police who use the proceeds to further advance their militarization. Labor Monopoly Unshackle business From Labor Monopolies. We don't want monopolies in the supply of goods and services. We also want to eliminate Government created monopolies in the supply of labor. Workers, like all Americans, have a right of free association. They can band together in unions, delegate negotiations of pay and work conditions to others and choose to withdraw their labor if these conditions are not met. I believe that employers have an equal right to hire others and train them for work. All laws preventing this should be repealed and government organizations such as the NLRB should be abolished. Recent labor agreements are inflationary. It is difficult to imagine how a skill that can be taught to a new worker in 3 months or less could be worth $150K-$200K in total compensation. We have to assume that political pressure is applied to get businesses to agree to such terms. Absent this pressure, there would be an enormous supply of labor to fulfill these jobs at much lower prices. We don't begrudge anyone any salary negotiated individually or collectively. But a non-market bargaining process is monopolistic, excludes others who might be willing to work for less, and, increases the prices consumers pay for goods and services. It causes a general wage/price inflation that will counteract any actions taken by the Federal Reserve to bring down prices. Contract Labor vs Full Time Employment Millions of Americans work in the Gig economy. They do so because it suits them. There are many others who would prefer to be independent contractors working from remote to the best bidders for their skills. To force them into full time employment is to reduce opportunities for American workers and denies them the freedom to work as they wish. Workers and Immigrants Separate Immigration From Work Permits Issuance. The US needs labor to work in its fields and factories. Legal immigration is difficult even for skilled workers and impossible for unskilled ones. We don't need wait to solve the larger immigration issues to prevent labor shortages. Fortunately, there are plenty of people world over who are ready and willing to work in the US at prevailing wages without going through the hassles of immigration. We should encourage this. School Choice Parents should control where their children study. Preparing their kids for adulthood is the most important job for all parents. Which school their kids go to has to be a part of their overall decision about educating their children. By not providing parents School Choice, we fail them in this primary duty. And we fail the kids by forcing them to go into an environment that doesn't meet their needs. Not to mention, we promote entrenched bureaucracies that have created among the highest costs per student in the world and yet fail to deliver the knowledge our kids need. Ideally of course, if parents want full control of their kids' education, they ought to pay for it just like they pay for their food and clothes; taxpayers should not be on the hook. However, if, as a society, we are going to fund our childrens' education to ensure equal opportunities for all, it makes sense to provide parents an educational voucher they can spend at any institution. I support vouchers, ESAs, homeschooling and other tools that increase parents' accredited choices in education. Entitlements, Debt and Spending. Our Entitlement and Debt obligations are out of control. Uncontrolled federal spending has pushed our debt/GDP levels into uncharted peacetime territory. With interest rates projected to be higher for longer (to tamp down inflation caused by among other things, the wage price spiral discussed previously), the debt service costs alone are expected to exceed $1T annually. Unsustainable Entitlement Trends. Social Security and Medicare are on track to be insolvent. They are already running annual deficits and rely on cashing some of those Trust Fund IOUs. Unfortunately, the IOUs are not securities that can be sold in a marketplace for cash. When redeemed, the government must raise cash which it can only do by either increasing social security and medicare taxes on those who are paying in, or, you guessed it, borrow the money. According to the Cato Institute, the unfunded deficits of debt and entitlements amount to somewhere north of $600,000 per man, woman and child in the US. No amount of taxation can fix this deficit. The only solution in the long term is to renege on the promises of social security, by delaying and reducing benefits. This is stuff of generational warfare between retirees and people paying into the system. Difficult decisions lie ahead and most certainly benefits will be reduced and delayed. But pay-go schemes like these are inherently dangerous in the long run and we need to phase them out. Privatizeing our entitlements for next generations while making whole on existing promises, may be the only solution available to us.[2] |
” |
| —Girish Altekar’s campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
2022
Girish Altekar did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ GirishAltekar.com, "About," accessed March 5, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ GirishAltekar.com, “Issues,” accessed March 5, 2024
