What do you consider the biggest threat to freedom today?
It might not be what you think.
“The biggest danger for democracy is not actually the people destroying it; it’s actually the people who feel hopeless and apathetic and aren’t able to fight back,” said 25-year-old Ashwin Ramaswami, a Johns Creek native running to represent Georgia’s District 48 in the State Senate. “I think what we’ve seen time and time again with our history is that once people are awakened and are able to actually fight for what is right, they always win.”
After graduating from Chattahoochee High School, Ramaswami studied at Stanford University and Georgetown Law School. He’s now back in his hometown seeking to represent District 48, which includes portions of the South Forsyth community, with a focus on his experience in technology and election integrity efforts.
Running for “The World Community”
Ramaswami’s South Asian culture was responsible for instilling many of the values that have sustained him in his political journey. When he was younger, Ramaswami was a student in the Chinmaya Mission, a Hindu organization dedicated to teaching religious and cultural values that utilize space at South Forsyth Middle School.
He explains how learning his ancestral language, Tamil, and reading ancient epics and philosophy gave him “a foundation in terms of thinking about life and how to lead it.”
Growing up in Johns Creek while honoring his South Asian heritage allowed Ramaswami to witness all the unique connections between his family’s country of origin and their chosen home.
“I think [my experience] just illustrates the whole dichotomy of the immigrant experience, because everyone’s connected,” he said. “I’ll just normally go to school, and every Sunday I’ll go to South Forsyth Middle School, and everyone takes their shoes off, just like, a very different atmosphere. But it’s still a school, right? So it’s a juxtaposition of the different cultures. And I think it’s really beautiful how that happens.”
The Chinmaya Mission was where Ramaswami first learned the Sanskrit concept of Seva.
Seva is essentially the value of giving and serving others selflessly. Hindu literature emphasizes this concept of Seva and service to encourage giving back to the community without attachment or expectation of reward.
“That’s something that is always on my mind,” Ramaswami said. “I always felt like there’s so much I’ve gotten from this community. How can I pay it forward to the next generation?”
Values like these have inspired him to approach his political journey with a unique perspective.
“Being an immigrant or second generation immigrant…you’re very much able to kind of take two cultures and really take the best of both,” Ramaswami said.
His multicultural experience comes as a tremendous benefit to running for office in District 48, which has seen explosive growth and a large influx of immigration in the past decades.
“You have people from across the globe here, but the same principles of being able to listen to other folks even if they disagree [still apply],” Ramaswami said. “The thing I’ve learned the most from my heritage and background is that you are the best at what you do if you completely understand the viewpoint of those who disagree with you and you’re willing to engage and talk with them.”
Ramaswami credits his upbringing in the area he seeks to represent for teaching him that all perspectives are essential to the democratic process.
“Ultimately, you know you can’t please everyone, but at least you can talk to everyone and make sure that you’re doing what’s best for the entire community, as opposed to what’s best for just one particular group of partisans,” he said.
“When Academics and the Real World Collide”
Ramaswami attended Chattahoochee High School and dual-enrolled in classes at Georgia Tech. He then committed to Stanford for his undergraduate degree in Computer Science.
After graduating, he had the opportunity to work with several big companies, but Ramaswami had other things on his mind, fueled by the spirit of Seva.
“I just started to think with that mindset of, ‘how do you give back to the community?’” Ramaswami said. “There were far, far, many more problems in the government that technology was creating, and maybe someone’s skill with that technology could help address those problems.”
During the 2020 elections, while Ramaswami was still pursuing his undergraduate degree, he worked with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a federal agency tasked with protecting election security.
“We worked with states across the country to secure their elections, and we protected schools, hospitals and election systems from cyber attacks,” Ramaswami said. “It helped me realize that it doesn’t matter how young you are, if you have the talent, the government needs you.”
This very experience is what led him to “get more involved in law policy,” and continue his education at Georgetown Law School.
During an exercise at Georgetown, Ramaswami observed different depositions from a Congressional Committee investigating election integrity and noticed that one of the State Senators in the deposition was Senator Sean Still from Johns Creek, who currently represents District 48.
On Aug. 14, 2023, Still was indicted for allegedly violating Georgia’s RICO Act, impersonating a public officer, forgery, false statements and other charges related to election interference. He is currently running for re-election while awaiting trial.
“That’s when academics and the real world collide, when it’s hard to realize that something like this is not just an academic exercise,” Ramaswami said.
Whether it was the spirit of Seva or simply a powerful coincidence, Ramaswami knew what his next move had to be.
“That’s when you start to realize that because of your own background, you can actually make a huge difference,” he said.
“Investing in our Future”
As a young voter and part of Gen Z himself, Ramaswami is focused on creating tangible solutions for problems he observes in the Johns Creek community. His plan as District 48’s State Senator would center around preserving people’s constitutional freedoms, investing in the education system, and keeping the region safe.
“My platform is all about looking to the future and investing in our future,” said Ramaswami. “[From an education perspective, this looks like] investing in our education system to ensure every student has the opportunities they need to succeed, whether it’s by investing in things like mental health resources, paying teachers more, or investing in our community colleges.”
The first step to investing in such opportunities, Ramaswami says, “includes keeping us safe, whether that’s by supporting our first responder police, [implementing] resources to keep our communities safe, and enacting common sense gun safety to make sure school shootings don’t happen.”
These policies stand on his pillars of preserving and defending democracy. Throughout Ramaswami’s relentless work in election security and as a nonpartisan civil servant at CISA, he stands by the groundwork laid by the Constitutional principles.
His stance on healthcare affordability and reform is centered on providing access to all. He aspires to “lower costs and improve care for those who need it most by expanding Medicaid, lowering drug costs, expanding affordable childcare, and supporting people with disabilities.”
Looking to the future, Ramaswami is focused on the next decades of growth. With his youth and drive for change, he is more than ready to make a difference in the Johns Creek community.
“The advantage of being young is that you’re thinking about the next two, three, four decades in this community — not just about the next one or two years,” he said.
