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Shri Thanedar: “The name is Belgam. It's Belgam. It's a small town.”

Featuring: Shri Thanedar, Democratic | U.S. House Michigan, 13th Congressional District

How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey

Published November 12, 2025 | Video Starts at 03:09

I know a little bit about it and I know like some of the cast systems what I read, read from here. But southern India first. What part? What's the. What, what village? What's the name of southern India? The name is Belgam. It's Belgam. It's a small town. and we lived in a little place, 8, 900 square feet. We slept on the floor, we sat, ate on the floor. Wow. (03:09–03:13)

CLAIM

Asserts that Shri Thanedar is from a small town called Belgam in southern India.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Shri Thanedar

“One of the things that I invented was the whiteboard.”
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“Detroit has been over taxed $600 million.”
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“Even in the last 10 years, if you look at the census, we have lost 100,000 people.”
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“Child poverty rate in Detroit is 51%.”
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“46% of my constituents depend on the SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Program, and that's being cut.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 58:42-58:50
“I grew up in southern India.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 02:35-02:38
“I worked as a janitor when I was 14 years old.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 03:36-03:40
“I wanted to lift my family out of poverty.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 04:04-04:08
“I got graduated sooner than most kids would do.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 04:40-04:44
“I got an opportunity to come to America.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 04:47-04:51
“I had a bachelor's in chemistry and I also had a master's in chemistry.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 05:26-05:31
“The public education is free in India.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 05:31-05:34
“I graduated from college with zero loans because the government subsidized education.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 05:50-05:57
“This is back in 1978.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 06:10-06:13
“The economy in India was terrible at that time.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 06:59-07:03
“The bank [Bank of America] got impatient and decided to put a receivership on my business.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 07:08-35:20
“I worked in the India's atomic research nuclear research center.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 07:43-07:48
“My job was to make sure that the workers in the nuclear power plant don't get exposed to radiation more than what is allowed by…”
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“I got my visa approved [after resubmitting the same papers that were previously rejected].”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 14:19-14:25
“I had $20 in my pocket, you know, and actually 16, because I had a couple beers on the plane.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 14:51-14:59
“This is 1979.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 15:06-15:09
“I would teach undergraduate students chemistry. So that's how I got my tuition waived.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 15:52-15:59
“They would pay me $300 a month to teach the undergraduate students as a part-time job.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 16:01-16:09
“I would take $75 every month out of that, send it to India so my mother could put food on the table.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 16:09-16:17
“I didn't quite care for the caste system and I didn't really believe [in it].”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 19:34-19:40
“I kept having these big dreams coming to America.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 20:46-20:50
“After my PhD, I got a job. For about six years I worked as a chemist.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 20:54-21:01
“I invented new products, new kind of paints, new kind of paint additives that make the paint better.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 21:21-21:31
“That dry erase board. So that technology is something that me and my company developed.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 21:40-21:46
“I bought this little three person business for $75,000, you know, and then that business became, in 2010, the business was worth about $200…”
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“Dr. Craver, the owner, previous owner, she was expert in infrared spectroscopy.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 23:11-27:08
“Her annual revenues were only $150,000.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 23:57-24:02
“I came and worked at University of Michigan as a postdoctoral scholar.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 25:03-25:09
“In 1982, I came to Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was here for two years, 82 to 84, working in Ann Arbor, Michigan.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 25:11-25:23
“I worked in a counseling center called Ozone House.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 26:00-26:06
“I volunteered at Ozone House. And I would man the suicide hotline, and then I would do counseling for families and we would take care of…”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 26:16-26:30
“There are industries on the banks of the Detroit river that are leaching out chemicals, harmful chemicals in the water.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 31:06-31:16
“Our tap water is not safe. As we found out in Flint, Michigan. There is lead contamination that needs to be continuously monitored.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 31:17-31:28
“Many of the cannabis has mold and chemicals and harmful things that needs to be tested.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 31:29-31:36
“The crash like that is a time when US Government came in and saved the automakers, you know, big time.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 35:00-35:07
“This is a $200 million business and I owed them about $24 million.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 35:23-35:29
“In 2010, I lost everything.”
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“In 2010, in Ann Arbor's west side, I rented this space. The rent was only like $800 a month.”
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“In 1996, I lost my first wife.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 37:21-37:27
“One of the things that I do now in Congress is focus on mental health, mental illness.”
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“When I was in the Michigan State House, I worked on putting mental health counselors in every school.”
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“We had a ratio of one student to 750 students to one counselor.”
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“I did a lot of work in the Michigan State House increasing bed capacity in mental health hospitals.”
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“In six years, the business now has gone worth almost $40 million.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 42:39-42:46
“Michigan has a budget of $80 billion.”
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“All across Michigan, the answer was no. The only people that said yes was the people of Detroit.”
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“Detroit elected me for governor. People of Detroit wanted me to be the governor. And I beat Grayson Whitmer in Detroit.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 48:28-48:39
“Our utility costs are the highest, our auto insurance cost are the highest in the nation.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 52:29-52:36
“When I was in the Michigan State House, I worked on the appropriations... I was able to bring a lot of money for education for Detroit.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 55:40-55:50
“The two years that I was in Michigan, those two years were the highest education budget we ever had.”
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“One in three people in Detroit live at or below poverty level.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 58:22-58:29
“100,000 people left Detroit in the last 10 years.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 59:16-59:21
“We don't have enough jobs in Detroit.”
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“The cost of living in Detroit, one of the highest.”
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“$600 million of over taxation of people of Detroit.”
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“Our public transportation is awful. One of the worst public transportation in Detroit anywhere in the country.”
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“We need to lift up people in the neighborhood and we need to do more for that. And that has to start with building more housing. I would…”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:04:10-1:04:25
“There's about 17,000 low income housing needed today in Detroit.”
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“Detroit has, if you look at our west water system, sewage system, totally outdated.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:05:33-1:05:40
“We have children dying in a van because the mother is homeless and she can't get a place to live.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:05:45-1:05:52
“We are giving hundreds of millions of dollars of tax breaks so that the rich people can become even richer.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:05:52-1:06:02
“We have the money to give our young people maybe $100,000 to start their new businesses because capital is the key.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:06:06-1:06:15
“Get rid of this water lines that had lead contamination and our kids are drinking this lead tainted water.”
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“We have factories that are emitting harmful toxic chemicals in our neighborhood.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:06:36-1:06:45
“The cost to run for a state house is about 50 to $100,000.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:07:13-1:07:20
“The cost to run for a Congress position anywhere from a million to probably a million.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:07:21-1:07:29
“To run, become a president. Over a billion dollars.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:07:36-1:07:41
“This money's coming largely from the corporations. This money is largely coming from wealthy individuals who are giving.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:07:44-1:07:51
“Many of the rich people have given $8,000 each to the mayoral candidates.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:07:53-1:08:00
“Politicians say what they want to hear, but ultimately, who controls these politicians? These donors?”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:08:51-1:09:00
“I did not depend on government business. So I had no connection with politicians.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:09:38-1:09:45
“In Congress, my colleagues are spending 20 to 40 hours a week not helping people. They're on the phone calling donors.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:10:03-1:10:15
“Politicians are ultimately beholden to the donor community, beholden to the corporate community.”
How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey | Uploaded November 12, 2025 | 1:10:56-1:11:03