Suraj Budathoki

Suraj K. Budathoki (born in Samrang, Bhutan) is an American politician, peace activist, and community organiser who serves as a Democratic member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, representing the Hillsborough 40th district. Elected on 5 November 2024, he became the first Bhutanese American to serve in a state legislature in the United States, building on the earlier milestone set by Bhuwan Pyakurel, who in 2019 became the first Bhutanese American elected to any public office at the municipal level.^[1]

Budathoki's political career has been shaped by his personal experience of displacement. Of Lhotshampa heritage, he was forced to leave Bhutan as a child during the ethnic cleansing of the early 1990s and spent nineteen years in a refugee camp in Nepal before being resettled in the United States in 2009. His advocacy work spans human rights, refugee integration, and cross-community dialogue, and he is the co-founder of Peace Initiative Bhutan (PIB), an organisation dedicated to fostering reconciliation between Bhutan and its diaspora.^[2]

Early Life and Refugee Experience

Budathoki was born in Samrang, a village in southern Bhutan, into a Lhotshampa family. The Lhotshampa are an ethnic Nepali-speaking minority group who had lived in southern Bhutan for generations before being targeted by government policies in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The imposition of the 1985 Citizenship Act and the enforcement of Driglam Namzha cultural conformity policies led to the forced expulsion of over 100,000 Lhotshampa from Bhutan.^[3]

As a child, Budathoki fled Bhutan with his family and was placed in one of the UNHCR-administered refugee camps in southeastern Nepal. He spent approximately nineteen years in the camps, growing up in conditions of prolonged displacement. Despite these circumstances, he pursued education and developed a strong commitment to human rights advocacy that would define his later career.^[4]

Resettlement and Citizenship

In 2009, Budathoki was resettled in the United States as part of the international resettlement programme that relocated approximately 90,000 Bhutanese refugees from Nepal to third countries, with the majority going to the United States. He settled in New Hampshire, where a small but growing Bhutanese community had begun to establish itself. He became a naturalised U.S. citizen in 2014, and has described the experience of gaining citizenship as the realisation of a long-held dream after decades of statelessness.^[5]

Activism and Community Work

Budathoki has been active in both refugee advocacy and broader human rights work. He is the co-founder of Peace Initiative Bhutan (PIB), an organisation committed to fostering dialogue and understanding between the Bhutanese government and the Bhutanese diaspora community. PIB works toward peaceful resolution of the issues stemming from the refugee crisis, including questions of citizenship, repatriation, and recognition of the injustices suffered by the Lhotshampa.^[6]

He has served as a delegate to Refugee Congress, a national advocacy organisation that amplifies the voices of refugees and asylum seekers in American policy discussions. Through this role, he has contributed to national conversations about refugee resettlement policy, integration support, and the civic participation of newcomer communities.^[7]

Bernie Sanders Campaign

Budathoki gained political experience through his involvement in Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential primary campaign in New Hampshire. He served as a zonal manager and constituency director for the campaign, with a particular focus on engaging immigrant and refugee communities who had been largely overlooked in previous election cycles. His work on the Sanders campaign helped register new voters within New Hampshire's growing refugee population and demonstrated the potential of these communities as a political constituency.^[8]

The experience on the Sanders campaign was formative for Budathoki's own political aspirations. It provided him with an understanding of electoral organising, constituency building, and the mechanics of New Hampshire's political system, knowledge he would later apply to his own candidacy.^[9]

Election to State Legislature

In 2024, Budathoki ran as a Democratic candidate for the New Hampshire House of Representatives in the Hillsborough 40th district. He won the general election on 5 November 2024 and assumed office on 4 December 2024, becoming the first Bhutanese American to serve in any state legislature in the United States. His victory was celebrated by refugee advocacy organisations and diaspora communities across the country as a symbol of the political maturation of the Bhutanese-American community.^[10]

Academic Career

In addition to his political and advocacy work, Budathoki is a doctoral student at Saybrook University, where his research focuses on themes related to peace, conflict resolution, and refugee experiences. His academic work complements his activism, grounding his advocacy in scholarly frameworks while drawing on his lived experience of displacement and resettlement.^[11]

References

1. "Suraj Budathoki Becomes First Bhutanese-American State Representative." The New Americans Magazine, 14 November 2024.
2. "Suraj Budathoki." Refugee Congress.
3. "Suraj Budathoki." Wikipedia.
4. "Suraj Budathoki: New U.S. citizen advocates for human rights." Union Leader, Forty Under 40.
5. "Suraj Budathoki." Wikipedia.
6. "Suraj Budathoki." Refugee Congress.
7. "Suraj Budathoki." Refugee Congress.
8. "New Hampshire — Part 2: Early State Mini-Series with Suraj Budathoki (Bernie Sanders Campaign)." Model Minority Podcast.
9. "How One Campaign Is Organizing An Often-Overlooked N.H. Voting Bloc: Immigrants and Refugees." New Hampshire Public Radio.
10. "Suraj Budathoki Becomes First Bhutanese-American State Representative." The New Americans Magazine, 2024.
11. "Suraj Budathoki." Wikipedia.