Former Obama adviser might be one of the most powerful House Democrats no one has heard of

One House Democrat has been quietly making a splash in Washington despite his low profile as a member of powerful committees.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) has been representing Illinois’s 8th Congressional District, which includes many northwestern Chicago suburbs, since 2017. Now, he’s set to co-host a dinner Wednesday as a campaign event for President Joe Biden that is expected to raise $1 million. Krishnamoorthi is seemingly good at fundraising too.

Krishnamoorthi has raised more than $4.5 million for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He’s also given $250,000 to the Biden Victory Fund. 

Krishnamoorthi also has a large amount of money in his campaign funds, currently sitting at $16 million. His fundraising for his race is on par with big-name House Democrats like Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

He first got introduced to politics when he met then-Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama when the pair were working in the state. He worked on Obama’s unsuccessful race for the House in 2000. Later, he became Obama’s policy director on his campaign for U.S. Senate in 2004. It doesn’t seem like the fundraising is all to follow in Obama’s footsteps of being an Illinois Democrat to living in the White House.

“Take back the House, keep the White House,” Krishnamoorthi told Punchbowl when asked about all the fundraising activity. “That’s why I am doing everything I can. We’ll do more as we go along. And we gotta see Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. Period.”

In the 118th Congress, which has had record-high levels of unproductiveness, Krishnamoorthi has risen above with bipartisan efforts. 

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As ranking member of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, he was one of the key members in the House who worked on the smooth passage of the TikTok ban bill. He worked alongside Rep. Mike Gallagher, the former chairman of the committee who was succeeded by Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI).

“I think the work speaks for itself,” Krishnamoorthi said. “It’s been one of the most bipartisan, productive committees in all of Congress at this point. … Mike Gallagher’s leadership is going to be missed, but John Moolenaar is going to bring the same bipartisan approach to the committee.”