Hyderabad-Born Aruna Miller Becomes First Indian-American To Be Elected As Maryland Lieutenant Governor

Hyderabad-born Aruna Miller became the 10th Lieutenant Governor of the US state of Maryland on Wednesday.

Hyderabad-born Aruna Miller became the 10th Lieutenant Governor of the US state of Maryland on Wednesday.

Source : Twitter/@arunamiller

New Delhi: Aruna Miller wrote history by becoming the first Indian-American to be elected as the Lieutenant Governor of the US state of Maryland. She was sworn in as the 10th lieutenant governor of the state on Wednesday.

Miller took her oath on the Bhagwat Gita and said that as a woman of colour, she spent most of her life trying to fit into a space that didn't have her in mind as an immigrant or a woman of colour.

She was a part of a historic Democratic ticket that stood victorious in November last year, which also gave Maryland its first Black governor, its first Black attorney general, and its first female comptroller, according to the Washington Post. 

Miller also won because of her popularity among Indian Americans in the state, where several Republicans and pro-Trump supporters came out to support her.

Miller has served two terms in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2010 to 2018. She also ran for congress but lost, according to the Post.

In the inauguration speech, the 58-year-old Miller, who had a career as a transportation engineer, credited her family for success who had immigrated to the United States from India. Her father, a mechanical engineer for IBM was the first to arrive in the US in the late 1960s as a student before he brought the rest of his family and she arrived in the country in 1972 as a 7-year-old.

She lived in upstate New York with her parents and two siblings, a brother and a sister. 

During the oath-taking ceremony, Miller recalled her unforgettable first day of school after she had arrived from India.

"None of them looked like me. And I couldn't speak a word of English, but I wanted to fit in. So when we went to the cafeteria, I had a plan. I was going to do exactly what everyone else was doing," Miller recounted.

"So I ate American food for the first time. I drank cold milk for the first time in my life. I was feeling pretty good. I thought okay, I think I went over all these classmates of mine. They're my friends now. I walked back to the classroom and proceeded to vomit all over the desk. I was mortified. My teacher called my mom who came to pick me up. And I told her I want to go back to grandma who raised me in India," Miller recalled.

Thanking her parents and siblings, Miller said, "To my mom and dad who took a leap of faith to come to this country because they believed in the promise of America, to my siblings, you were the best part of my childhood. And I thank you and I love you for always being there."

Miller spent 25 years working at the local Department of Transportation in Montgomery County, Maryland, to improve public safety and create equitable transportation access.

Miller became a US citizen in her 30s, and in 2000 she voted for the first time in the US presidential election. 

(With agency inputs)