Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday tapped Raj Shah, a young Indian-American who played a leading role in the Republican party’s anti-Clinton campaign during polls, as his deputy assistant and communication and research director.
Shah, whose parents immigrated to the US from Gujarat, has been appointed as deputy assistant to the President and deputy communication director and research director, as per an announcement made by the Presidential Transition Team. Shah, who is in his early 30s, is currently head of Opposition Research in the Republican National Committee.
In this position, he led a team of experts to carry out research against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate. Shah was behind all the anti-Clinton campaign during the presidential elections. The announcement of Shah’s appointment was made by incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
Religious diversity
Hindus and Jews have gained ground in the new US Congress.
However, a latest research suggests that the members of the legislative body remain overwhelmingly Christians despite significant change in the religious demographic profile of the country in less than five decades.
Number of members in US Congress
30 Jews
3 Hindus and Buddhism each
- They jointly share the third sport in terms of religious ranking of US Congress members.
- This is nearly the same percentage as in the 87th Congress (1961 to 1962, the earliest years for which comparable data are available), when 95 per cent of members were Christian.
- Among the 293 Republicans elected to serve in the 115th Congress, all but two identify as Christians; there are two Jewish Republicans — Lee Zeldin of New York and David Kustoff of Tennessee — who both serve in the House.
- Democrats in Congress also are overwhelmingly Christian (80 per cent), but there is more religious diversity on this side of the aisle.
- The 242 Democrats in Congress include 28 Jews, three Buddhists, three Hindus, two Muslims and one Unitarian Universalist as well as the only member of Congress to describe herself as religiously unaffiliated, Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona.
- Among the lawmakers who declined to state their religious affiliations include Indian-American Pramila Jayapal who has been for the first time been elected to the House of Representatives. Her mother is a Hindu.
