Maryland has become a melting pot of different ethnicities and cultures. Despite being only 45% minority in 2010, the state’s diversity has exploded recently, with the state becoming 51% non-White in 2022 due to the fast-growing Asian, Hispanic, and Black communities.

That same year, African American Wes Moore and Asian American Aruna Miller symbolized this growth by decisively winning the gubernatorial election by a landslide. Miller became the first Asian American elected official, a position referring to Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and State Comptroller roles. However, Miller’s journey to become the second most powerful official in Maryland was a long road that started in Southern India and stretched across America.

Miller was born on November 6, 1964, in Andhra Pradesh, India. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was seven, settling in New York. On her first day of school, she described that she could not speak a word of English and even became sick from eating American food and drinking cold milk. 

However, she worked hard to learn English and pursue her own American dream, eventually receiving her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1989 from the University of Missouri-Rolla (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology). Miller moved to Los Angeles, serving as a traffic engineer in the Department of Public Works for a year, before crossing coasts again to work in multiple departments in Montgomery County’s government in 1990. 

“It wasn’t just the first day of school where I felt I didn’t belong,” said Miller. “I would say I spent most of my life trying to fit into a space that didn’t have me in mind – as an immigrant growing up in a new country, or as a female engineer, or in a male-dominated field. As an Indian American legislator in a legislature that looked nothing like me,” as she reflected on her life during her Inauguration Day Speech.

Eventually, Miller went for state government, being elected to the Maryland House of Delegates as a representative for District 15 for eight years until 2019. 

Miller was the first Indian American elected to the Maryland Legislature. In her first term, she served on the Ways and Means Committee and its Revenue, Transportation, and Education Subcommittees. In her second term, Miller served on the Appropriations Committee, where she was chair of the Oversight of Personnel Subcommittee and vice chair of the Transportation and Environment Subcommittee and Capital Budget Subcommittee. 

Miller also proposed many important bills, including co-sponsoring legislation requiring schools to start after Labor Day, co-sponsoring a proposed fracking ban in the state, and introducing a paid family leave bill. 

She then ran to represent Maryland’s 6th Congressional District in 2018. Despite being outspent 13 times by David Trone, Miller only lost by 9 points, signaling her status as a strong candidate who could run a competitive race despite having a significant financial disadvantage. 

A few years later, politician Wes Moore selected Miller as his running mate in the Democratic primary for the 2022 Maryland governor election, winning in a crowded race. The two then defeated Republicans Dan Cox and Gordana Schifanelli in November. Miller was sworn in in 2023, becoming the lieutenant governor we know today. 

From being a traffic engineer in California to a delegate from Montgomery County, Miller has broken barriers and helped advance progress across America, which she is giving her best attempt at doing in Annapolis.