22 Facts About Harry Bhandari

Harry Bhandari is a Nepalese-born American politician and educator.

Harry Bhandari unsuccessfully ran in the 2024 US House of Representatives election in Maryland's 2nd congressional district, placing a distant second to Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski in the Democratic primary.

Harry Bhandari was born in Thapathana, Nepal, on October 1,1977, to father Ammar Bahadur and mother Kanti Kumari.

Harry Bhandari graduated from Prithvi Narayan Campus, earned his master's in English literature from Tribhuvan University, and later attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in 2021.

Harry Bhandari moved to the United States in 2005 to present a paper at George Mason University, and became a US citizen in 2011.

Harry Bhandari became a teacher for Baltimore County Public Schools in 2006 and later taught at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, and worked a faculty member for Baltimore City Community College.

Harry Bhandari briefly returned to Nepal following the April 2015 Nepal earthquake to assist earthquake victims.

Harry Bhandari first entered politics in 2008 as a volunteer for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Harry Bhandari later served as the secretary of the Young Democrats of America's minority caucus and on the board of directors for the District 6 Democratic and Civic Association Club.

Harry Bhandari unsuccessfully ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in 2014.

Harry Bhandari won election to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2018, during which he ran on a slate with Carl W Jackson and incumbent state delegate Eric Bromwell and defeated incumbent Republican state delegate Joe Cluster in the general election.

Harry Bhandari was sworn in on copies of Bhagavad Gita and Vedas on January 9,2019, and has served as a member of the Health and Government Operations Committee during his entire tenure.

Harry Bhandari has chaired the Maryland Legislative Asian-American and Pacific-Islander Caucus since 2023.

Harry Bhandari again applied to run as a delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, pledged to Biden, but was denied by the Maryland Democratic Party.

In January 2025, after state senator Kathy Klausmeier was elected Baltimore County Executive, Harry Bhandari told Maryland Matters that he would apply to fill the remainder of Klausmeier's term in the Maryland Senate.

In January 2024, ahead of US Representative Dutch Ruppersberger announcing that he would not run for re-election in 2024, Harry Bhandari filed to run for Maryland's 2nd congressional district in the 2024 election.

Harry Bhandari was defeated in the Democratic primary election, placing second behind Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski with 8.5 percent of the vote.

In June 2021, following the fatal shooting of Nepali student Sagar Ghimire in Woodlawn, Harry Bhandari promised to introduce legislation to strengthen the state's gun control laws during the 2022 legislative session.

Harry Bhandari introduced bills to create a task force on reducing emergency department wait times during that year's legislative session.

In May 2021, Harry Bhandari called on Congress to pass the For the People Act.

In 2024, Harry Bhandari introduced a bill that would require movie theaters to have limited screenings of movies with closed captioning and subtitle options.

In September 2018, following the fatal shooting of Brindra Giri in Towson, Maryland, Harry Bhandari helped Giri's family with funeral arrangements and with translating from Nepali to English.