INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A candidate for Congress told News 8 no one else in his race has the combination of health care, business, and government experience he can bring to Washington.

Raju Chinthala is one of 10 Republicans running against Congresswoman Victoria Spartz in that party’s primary for the Fifth Congressional District, which stretches from Hamilton County to Kokomo and Gas City. Chinthala is a speech pathologist and hospitality entrepreneur, and has served as senior advisor for India at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

Chinthala said that resume gives him broad enough experience to tackle the issues that come up in Congress. He said he wants to turn the Fifth District into a model for constituent services. Chinthala said he worked in nursing homes all over the district in his time as a speech pathologist, so that gives him a ground-level view of the issues each part of the district faces.

Chinthala, who came to the United States from India in 1994, said politicians have used immigration as a way to fire up voters rather than actually fix the issue. He said he wants to abolish the lottery system for H-1B visas, which are used for specialty occupations, Department of Defense cooperative research, and development projects. He also wants to speed up the process for getting a green card. As for people who are already in the country without proper documentation, he said there should be some sort of solution to allow them to pay taxes and work legally.

“Since 2001, no one has done anything,” Chinthala said. “We can’t keep people like that for 25, 30 years, not knowing what is their future. Would I go to some other country and do the same thing?”

Chinthala said the best way for Congress to fix the nation’s ills, from mental health and lack of health care access to poverty, is to focus on job creation and education. On the topic of abortion, Chinthala said he supports pro-life legislation, but believes the question of how to regulate abortion services should be left up to the states.

All INdiana Politics airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on WISH-TV.