BY MIKE WARREN

EDITOR

STEVENS POINT – The Republican Party has its first candidate for the United States Senate, as the countdown officially begins toward the 2024 election in Wisconsin.

Rejani Raveendran announced her candidacy Aug. 8, during a meeting of the Portage County Republican Party in Stevens Point.

“I never wanted to be a politician,” Raveendran told the near-capacity crowd, gathered in the Portage County Republican Party office, 1001 Brilowski Road, Suite B. “I never wanted to get involved in politics. But the way our country is going right now, it makes me feel like I do not want to sit back and witness the destruction of this beloved nation of ours, and do nothing and complain. No, that is not the way to go,” she told supporters. “What we can do we should do.”

If elected, Raveendran, 40, said one of her top priorities would be to secure the southern U.S. border and fix the country’s immigration system – a system she says is broken.

“If elected, I will work to fix the immigration system through an immigrant’s perspective, and eliminate illegal immigration,” she said.    

Raveendran came to America from India in 2011 and became a U.S. citizen in 2015.

Among her many other goals, Raveendran said she would work to stop wasteful spending and reduce the deficit.

“A regular person like me does not want to hear the statistics,” she said. “What is the statistics of unemployment? What is the statistics of the recession? A regular person does not care because we don’t have millions to care about to get the tax benefit. We care about how we can make it tomorrow. We pick up our fight every single day,” Raveendran continued. “So, if elected as your Senator I will work to stop wasteful spending and work to reduce the deficit. Don’t you think we have to take care of our own home before we become the universal donors to other nations?”

Raveendran said she would also work to implement term limits for members of Congress and the Senate. She told the Gazette afterwards she had three terms in mind for senators and five terms for congressmen.

Raveendran is the current chair of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College Republicans. She is a single mother of three children and resides in Stevens Point.