Chicago, Oct 4 (IANS) Jennifer Davis was still in college when she and her husband started a technology company, and decades later, the business had hundreds of employees, substantial operations in India and had given the Wisconsin farm girl an intimate view of immigration, entrepreneurship, and the Indian American experience. Now, the Republican and first-time political candidate wants to take that experience to Congress.
Davis is running for Illinois’ 8th Congressional District seat being vacated by Indian American Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, who has represented it in the Congress for a decade.
In an exclusive interview with IANS, Davis laid out an unusual political biography: the sixth of nine children, a mother of 10, a technology entrepreneur, a longtime employer in India and a political newcomer who says the Congress needs lawmakers who understand artificial intelligence, data centres, blockchain, and the rapidly changing technology economy.
She also spoke about H-1B visas and immigration, President Donald Trump, government debt, online threats to families, and the Indian American community that has become an important part of the district.
Davis grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. Her parents also owned an auto repair business, where she got her first paid job. She later went to university to study education, Russian history, and English.
Politics existed at home, but across party lines.
“My dad was a Democrat, my mom was a Republican,” she said, recalling a period when such political differences within a family seemed less consequential.
Her original plan was to teach. Instead, she and her husband started a technology company while she was still in college.
By graduation, the business was established enough that teaching no longer made financial sense. Davis remained in the company for her career.
The business expanded to India in 2002, initially opening an office in Kolkata and later moving its operations to Hyderabad.
Her husband had initially gone to India looking for consultants. Davis recalled that he soon reached a different conclusion.
“I know what the problem is, that we were trying to buy labour, but instead we need to invest in people,” she quoted him as telling her.
They established their own operation. By the time the company was sold to private equity in 2019, Davis said it had about 240 employees. She estimates that 300 to 400 people worked for the business over its history.
Davis remained in an operating role until January 2023 and then served as a board member until April 2025.
Her relationship with India, she said, consequently developed long before she entered politics.
“I really fell in love with the culture when we started to go to India,” she said.
Indians made up the majority of employees in her business, she said. Davis described personally helping Indian employees and their families move to the United States, meeting them at airports, and helping them find familiar grocery stores and settle into their communities.
“When we ask a lot of questions, and we become curious, we become — it doesn’t seem foreign anymore,” she said. “And you become a friend instead of a foe or an adversary. And we don’t have to focus on what makes us different. We can focus on what makes us the same.”
Davis’ personal story is also defined by a large family. She and her husband have 10 children, seven biological and three adopted, and seven grandchildren.
Her youngest child is now 19. Davis said that gave her the time to contemplate something she had never seriously considered before — running for public office.
The decision began taking shape in January 2025.
Eight of her 10 children have left Illinois, she said, and their departure sharpened her concerns about taxes, politics and the opportunities available to the next generation.
“You have two choices when you complain about something: you either need to be quiet or do something about it,” Davis said.
The opening created by Krishnamoorthi’s departure presented that opportunity.
Davis said a congressional seat also suited her professional background because of the growing importance of immigration and technologies including AI, data centres, and blockchain.
“We have people in Congress that don’t have those skills, and Congress is supposed to represent the people,” she said. 261004_0925
Her first campaign priority, she said, is economic.
Davis talks about affordability but argues it cannot be separated from government debt and the role government plays in either encouraging or obstructing opportunity.
Her second major emphasis is technology.
She has written a white paper proposing what she calls a “Digital Dome”, based on the argument that while America has formidable military defences, ordinary families remain vulnerable to threats entering their homes through digital devices.
“Our bedrooms and our, you know, our phones are being invaded every single day by predators,” Davis said.
She said parents and grandparents often lack the expertise or tools to respond, creating a responsibility for government.
Davis also contends that too few members of Congress possess substantial technology experience, something she believes becomes increasingly consequential as lawmakers confront AI and other emerging technologies. 261004_0925
Perhaps more striking for a Republican seeking a Democratic-held seat is Davis’ assessment of the man she hopes to succeed.
“Raja’s represented me for the last decade, and I feel like he’s represented the district very well,” she said.
After deciding to run, Davis said she met mayors across the district and asked what Krishnamoorthi had done that they appreciated and what they wished he had done differently.
“Regardless of what the letter is behind his name, if he did a good job serving the people, then that’s what I should, you know, that’s the thing I should emulate,” she said.
Davis acknowledged that she has not studied Krishnamoorthi’s voting record in detail. But based on conversations with local officials, she said, “I think that he, they were happy with his performance.”
Krishnamoorthi’s Indian heritage also makes the transition particularly significant in a district with an established Indian American population.
Davis argues that her decades of professional and personal engagement with Indians give her an understanding of some of the community’s concerns.
Immigration is near the top.
“What’s going on right now with the H-1Bs is really hard and not really fair,” she said.
She also raised the difficulty international students can face in moving from education to employment in the United States.
“There is not a good transition from a student visa to the work permits,” Davis said.
“We have to create a really strong pathway to citizenship for people who want to create an American dream.”
Davis said Indian Americans have demonstrated how immigrants can become deeply invested in the country, and identified education, immigration and political representation among issues particularly important to the community.
“That’s why Raja was so important to them because they felt like one of their own was there representing them,” she said.
“I’m obviously not Indian, but I hope because of my background that I will, you know, serve them well and, you know, be able to represent them.”
Davis also rejects the idea that being the Republican candidate requires automatic agreement with Trump.
“Everybody always asks me, like, ‘Are you gonna be a rubber stamp for Trump?'” she said.
Davis compared political agreement to marriage, saying that after decades with her husband she still does not agree with him on everything.
“To me, I think that the things that he does well, we should support, and the things that we disagree with, we should disagree with,” she said.
“But we have to have a country where we can have civil discourse about the things we agree, agree and disagree on.”
She said she was “very, very happy that the border is closed”, while adding: “I am very dissatisfied with what’s gone on with immigration as a whole.”
Davis was also cautious in assessing Trump’s actions involving Iran.
“I don’t know if what Trump did was right or wrong,” she said, arguing that the full consequences could only be judged over time.
“Was Trump’s timing right, how he did it right, all of these things? I don’t think any of us know, and history will only tell whether it was right.”
If she reaches Congress, Davis already has an idea of where she wants to work.
Small business is her first choice.
“Indian Americans are such entrepreneurs, and that’s another reason why they’re near and dear to my heart, because I love the entrepreneur,” she said.
Her company had about 3,500 customers, she said, almost all entrepreneurs.
Energy and commerce is another preferred assignment, particularly because of AI, data centres, technology and the pressure they place on America’s energy infrastructure.
Davis said financial services would be her third choice, citing her experience with blockchain and cryptocurrency.
For now, her days are consumed by campaigning.
Davis said she has personally knocked on thousands of doors and made thousands of calls. Her campaign set a goal of holding 100 small meet-and-greet events.
She is also undertaking what she calls the “Ride the Line Bike Tour”, cycling along the boundaries of the district to make a point about gerrymandering.
Davis said she is riding 211 miles around the district “to demonstrate to people what gerrymandering looks like and how it really is stealing the vote of the people.”
The race pits Davis against Democrat Melissa Bean for an open seat that Krishnamoorthi has represented since 2017. Bean previously served in the US House from 2005 to 2011, representing an earlier configuration of Illinois’ 8th Congressional District.
Krishnamoorthi’s departure leaves open a seat with a substantial Asian American and Indian American presence. For Davis, the contest is also an attempt to translate a career spent building a technology company, working with India and navigating immigration and entrepreneurship into a first term in elected office.
–IANS
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