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Burt Thakur first Indian American elected to Frisco City Council
Thakur said he never used attack ads, knocked on thousands of doors, and believed fully in his campaign’s strength.
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Pranavi Sharma - Fri, 13, Jun 2025
- 02:28 EDT
- 71
Burt Thakur / Facebook
Burt Thakur, a 42-year-old Indian American engineer and U.S. Navy veteran, has won a seat on the Frisco City Council, defeating an incumbent in a closely watched race on June 7. Thakur’s victory marks the first time an Indian American has been elected to public office in Frisco, a city where Indian Americans make up about 15 percent of the population.
In an interview with CBS Texas, Thakur said he was confident in his campaign’s groundwork. “I 100 percent expected to win,” he told CBS. “I mean, our campaign did so much work. We knocked on thousands of doors. I think one of the coolest things about the campaign was I had never sent out an attack ad.”
Born in New Delhi and raised by his grandparents, Thakur moved to the U.S. in the late 1980s. He later attended Valley Forge Military Academy and served in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear reactor operator for six years. After his military service, he worked in the energy and infrastructure sector, managing power plants and overseeing critical infrastructure projects.
Thakur became a familiar name in 2020 after appearing on Jeopardy! and sharing an emotional story about learning English by watching the show with his grandfather. “The one thing that a lot of people got anchored to was that my story was the quintessential American dream,” he told CBS. “And as somebody who immigrated here, I learned how to speak English by watching Alex Trebek.”
Now, five years later, Thakur has added a new chapter to that story with his entry into local government.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, I’m confident that my win energized the Indian American community for sure,” he said. “I think it not just energized the Indian community, but a lot of our community got energized. I think we had some of the highest turnouts in Frisco races in the last couple of years, but specifically for the Indian community.”
As a newly elected official, Thakur wants the city to prioritize services for its residents. “Understanding that we are a city of almost 250,000 people and we don’t have an animal shelter,” he told CBS. “We don’t have a VA clinic. We have 8 to 10,000 kids here who have autism and severe learning disabilities, and parents don’t have relief... we have a large geriatric population that doesn’t have an adult or geriatric care facility.”
He added: “At the same time, driving down the road, I lose my cell phone signal.”
When asked about his political ambitions beyond the city council, Thakur was candid. “I don’t think my wife wants me to run for office right now,” he told CBS. “Can we have that conversation in like in the last year? Because maybe I’ll suck, you know, I don’t know.”
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