Shekhar Sinha
Shekhar Sinha (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Texas House of Representatives to represent District 121. He lost in the Democratic primary on March 5, 2024.
Sinha completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Shekhar Sinha earned a bachelor's degree from Patna University in 1976, a graduate degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1989, and a graduate degree from Indiana University in 2009. His career experience includes volunteering for the Democratic Party and serving as a precinct coordinator. Sinha also worked in the Information Technology industry and served in the Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineers and the Indian Police Service. Sinha has been affiliated with the Bexar County Democrats and Northeast Bexar County Democrats.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 121
Marc LaHood defeated Laurel Jordan Swift in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 121 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Marc LaHood (R) | 52.5 | 51,013 |
 | Laurel Jordan Swift (D)  | 47.5 | 46,104 | |
| Total votes: 97,117 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 121
Laurel Jordan Swift defeated Shekhar Sinha in the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 121 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Laurel Jordan Swift | 72.9 | 6,066 |
 | Shekhar Sinha | 27.1 | 2,257 | |
| Total votes: 8,323 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 121
Marc LaHood defeated incumbent Steve Allison and Michael Champion in the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 121 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Marc LaHood | 53.4 | 11,813 |
| Steve Allison | 39.5 | 8,723 | ||
 | Michael Champion | 7.1 | 1,573 | |
| Total votes: 22,109 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Sinha in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Shekhar Sinha completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Sinha's responses.
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Earlier, I had competed and served in two prestigious services in India. As a Special Class Railway Apprentice, I earned bachelor’s degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering, and then served briefly in the Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineers. Later, I served briefly in the Indian Police Service. I also have a Bachelor's degree in Science from Patna Unversity, India.
After graduating from Penn State, I worked in the IT industry for 3 decades in management and technical positions. On the way, I got an MBA and an MS from Indiana University, as a part time student while working full time at Grainger, IL.
- Women's reproductive rights should be protected by codifying Roe v Wade into law.
- Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children in America. Many adults have also lost their lives in frequent mass shootings. I support common sense gun safety reforms proposed by President Biden.
- As advised by the non-partisan group Represent.US, I support making voting easier, ending gerrymandering, and giving a 50$ tax voucher to each voter to donate to political campaigns and ending the influence of mega donors.
2. This CNBC survey ranked Texas last for Life, Health and Inclusion. Texas has the highest percentage of residents without health insurance. Yet, Republicans have opposed expanding Medicaid even though Federal government will bear most of the cost. I will work to expand such programs to alleviate poverty.
3. This CNBC survey ranked our electrical grid as the third worst in the country. Our deregulated electricity market is dominated by special interests. I will press for the Texas electricity grid to also join the national grid and be reliable like El Paso’s, which didn’t have outages during the February 21 freeze.The power outages during that week caused the death of over 200 Texans.
4. Our public universities need to be affordable. Yet, their average tuition fees doubled in the 15 years since 2003, while state appropriations declined by 26%. I will work to reverse this trend.
There is a lot of strife and conflict in the world, which can be resolved through non-violence and peaceful means that Mahatma Gandhi preached and practiced.
I believe that someone elected to this office should perform these functions with honesty, integrity and the achievement of common good as the objective.
"Show the way of love to the world, that can stop this storm of hatred,
1. The infrastructure needs to grow to accommodate the population growth expected in an environmentally sound way. This would include expanding roads, affordable housing, mass transit, high speed rail, securing water supply, expanding energy grid and so on.
2. The future of our public schools and over 90% of Texas kids attending them are at stake with the governor pushing for vouchers, which I oppose as they will benefit private schools at the expense of public schools. Our teachers’ pay lags the national average. According to a recent CNBC survey about the best states to do business, Texas dropped to No. 35 for Education and its per student spending is among the lowest.
3. Women’s reproductive rights should be protected by codifying Roe v Wade. Period.
4. Another factor that led this CNBC survey to rank Texas last for Life, Health and Inclusion is that the state has the highest percentage of residents without health insurance. Yet, Republicans have opposed expanding Medicaid even though Federal government will bear most of the cost. There is need to expand these federal programs to alleviate poverty.
5. Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children in America. Many adults have also lost their lives in frequent mass shootings. There is need to adopt common sense gun safety, as proposed by President Biden.
6. Our public universities need to be affordable. Yet, their average tuition fee doubled in the 15 years since 2003.
7. Voting rights have been eroded in Texas. As advised by the non-partisan group Represent.US, there is need to make voting and voter registration easier, end gerrymandering, and campaign finance reforms.
8. Tackling climate change and protecting the environment through win-win solutions will be a challenge.
“I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American.”
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
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
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on December 20, 2023
