As the 2026 midterm elections approach, US lawmaker Pramila Jayapal is seeking a sixth term to represent Washington ’s 7th Congressional District. The first Indian American woman ever elected to the US House of Representatives , Jayapal won Washington’s August primary with 84.7% votes. A member of the Democratic Party, she will be competing against Republican nominee Nirav Sheth. As the two Indian-born candidates compete against each other, Jayapal has centred her campaign on immigration policy, healthcare reform and workers’ rights.
She introduced the Housing Is a Human Right Act which aims to help people who lack proper housing facilities. Jayapal has emerged as a leading advocate of Medicare for All, a proposal to establish a publicly funded healthcare system in the US. Apart from healthcare, she has also laid a lot of emphasis on affordable housing and combating homelessness.
In July 2026, she and Senator Edward Markey reintroduced the Health Over Wealth Act, which proposes greater scrutiny of investment firms that own healthcare providers.
Arguing that “Medicare for All means freedom for all”, she wants healthcare to be treated as a right rather than a privilege.
She has supported a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, protections for immigrant families and reforms to the detention system. Jayapal has scrutinised federal immigration enforcement practices and called for greater accountability from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). she criticized the Trump administration’s tariffs, arguing that they raise costs for American consumers and hurt businesses, including farmers and companies that rely on imported goods While expressing her stance on the economy. House Democratic leaders and other lawmakers publicly rejected the characterization. Jayapal later clarified that she was criticising the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s government and not Israel’s existence as a nation. She later apologised. Jayapal later issued a statement condemning Hamas’ use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon. Her remarks drew a strong response from the Indian government.
Immigration policy has been central to Jayapal’s career, which is shaped by her own experience of moving to the US at the age of 16 and waiting 17 years to become a US citizen. In October 2026, she criticised the Trump administration for suspending Microsoft from the employment-based permanent labour certification process, arguing that it could affect skilled workers, families and the US technology sector. In September 2026, she called the tariffs excessive and criticized the administration’s trade approach for straining relations with trade partners like Canada. Later, in December 2023, she again was subjected to criticism after she made remarks on reports of sexual violence by Hamas during the October 7 attacks on Israel. Beyond the Israel-Palestine conflict, Jayapal criticised India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, expressing concern that around 130 million names had been removed from voter lists.
In July 2023, Jayapal garnered criticism after describing Israel as a “racist state” while addressing pro-Palestinian protesters at a conference. Democratic lawmakers Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Ritchie Torres and Debbie Dingell condemned Jayapal, arguing that sexual violence should be condemned “loudly, forcefully and without exceptions”. She said the exercise could threaten voting rights and compared it to what she described as efforts by the Trump administration to undermine voting rights in the US. India’s Ambassador to the US, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, called them “unacceptable interference” in the country’s internal affairs, while the Ministry of External Affairs described them as “unwarranted and uninformed. The Election Commission of India has said the revision aims to remove duplicate, deceased and ineligible names.
She has called for an end to the conflict, citing its rising financial costs for American taxpayers and its impact on household expenses. She expressed her concerns over rising gas prices and the wider economic burden on American families. Because it was launched without congressional approval, jayapal has opposed the US war with Iran , arguing that the military action was unconstitutional.
She has also criticised the Trump administration for failing to provide a clear path out of the war, stating that “he’s costing you and your family real money”.
