List of American politicians of Armenian descent

This article is the list of Armenian American politicians, officeholders and party chairpersons.

Between 1962 and 1991, George Deukmejian served as a State Assemblyman, Senator, State Attorney General and Governor of California.

Bold indicates incumbent officeholders.

Note: persons are classified by chronological order

Federal government

Cabinet officials

Name	Position	Took office	Left office	President(s)		Ref
Thomas Corwin[a]	Secretary of the Treasury	23 July 1850	6 March 1853		Millard Fillmore
Paul Ignatius	Secretary of the Navy	1 September 1967	24 January 1969		Lyndon B. Johnson	[5]
Robert Mardian	Assistant Attorney General for the Internal Security Division	7 November 1970	March 1972		Richard Nixon	[6][7]
Harry R. Kamian	Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources	7 September 2021	30 June 2023[b]		Joe Biden	[8][9]
Jeff Marootian	Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy	September 2022			Joe Biden	[10][11]

Executive Office of the President

• Ken Khachigian, White House Director of Speechwriting, Reagan Administration
• Aram Bakshian, White House Director of Speechwriting, Reagan Administration (1981–83)^[12][13]
• Ike Hajinazarian, White House Regional Communications Director, Biden Administration (2021)^[14][15]
• Jeff Marootian,^[10] Special Assistant to the President for Climate and Science Agency Personnel, Biden Administration (2021–22)^[16][17]
• Jirair Ratevosian, Acting Chief of Staff of John N. Nkengasong, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy in 2022–23^[18][19][20]

Members of Congress

Name	Party		State	Years	Ref
Senate
Thomas Corwin[a]		Whig	Ohio	1845–50
House of Representatives
Thomas Corwin[a]		Whig	Ohio	1830–40 1859–61
Steven Derounian		Republican	New York	1953–65	[21][22]
Adam Benjamin Jr.		Democratic	Indiana	1977–82	[21]
Chip Pashayan		Republican	California	1979–91	[21][23]
Anna Eshoo		Democratic	California	1993–2025	[21][24]
John E. Sweeney		Republican	New York	1999–2007	[21][25]
Jackie Speier		Democratic	California	2008–23	[21][26]
Anthony Brindisi		Democratic	New York	2019–21	[27][28]

Federal Judicial

Name	Position	Dates	Ref
Dickran Tevrizian	Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California	1985–2005	[29]
Samuel Der-Yeghiayan	Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois	2003–2018	[30][31]

State government

Governors

Name	State	Party		Years	Ref
Thomas Corwin[a]	Ohio		Whig	1840–42
George Deukmejian	California		Republican	1983–91	[32]

Other state officials

Name	Party		Position	Years	Ref
George Deukmejian		Republican	California Attorney General	1979–83	[32]
Julia Tashjian		Democratic	Secretary of the State of Connecticut	1983–91	[33][21]
Brad Avakian		Democratic	Oregon Commissioner of Labor	2008–19	[34]
Rachel Kaprielian		Democratic	Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development	2014–15	[35]
Peter Koutoujian		Democratic	Middlesex County Sheriff, Massachusetts	2011–	[36]

State Judicial

Name	Position	Years	Ref
Steven Derounian	Justice of the New York Supreme Court	1969–81	[21][22]
Robert Philibosian	Los Angeles County District Attorney	1982–84	[37][38]
Armand Arabian	Justice of the Supreme Court of California	1990–96	[21]
Marvin R. Baxter	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California	1991–2015	[21]
Michael Amerian	Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court	2018–	[39]
Armenui Ashvanian	Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court	2018–	[39][40]
Zaven V. Sinanian	Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court	2002–
Kaye Tertzag	Judge of Wayne County Circuit Court	1987–2004

Legislature

Lower Name Party State Years Ref George Deukmejian Republican California 1962–1967 [32] Bob Moretti Democratic California 1965–1974 (speaker 1971–1974) [41][42] George Keverian Democratic Massachusetts 1967–1991 (speaker 1985–1991) [33][23] Chuck Haytaian Republican New Jersey 1982–1996 (speaker 1992–1996) [33][21] Jackie Speier Democratic California 1986–1996 [21] Chuck Poochigian Republican California 1994–1998 [43][21] Howard Kaloogian Republican California 1994–2000 [21][44] Rachel Kaprielian Democratic Massachusetts 1995–2008 [35] Peter Koutoujian Democratic Massachusetts 1997–2011 [36] Joe Simitian Democratic California 2000–2004 [21] Ruth Munson Republican Illinois 2002–2009 [45][46] Greg Aghazarian Republican California 2002–2008 [21] Brad Avakian Democratic Oregon 2003–2007 [34] Paul Krekorian Democratic California 2006–2010 [21] Katcho Achadjian Republican California 2010–2016 [47] King Banaian Republican Minnesota 2011–2013 [47] Sara Gideon Democratic Maine 2012–2020 (speaker 2016–2020) [48] Adrin Nazarian Democratic California 2012–2022 [47] Gary Azarian Republican New Hampshire 2012– [47] Charlene Takesian Republican New Hampshire 2012–2016 [47] Katherine Kazarian Democratic Rhode Island 2013– [49] John Janigian Republican New Hampshire 2016– Lorig Charkoudian Democratic Maryland 2019– [50] Mari Manoogian Democratic Michigan 2019–2022 [51]

Upper Name Party State Years Ref Walter J. Karabian Democratic California 1966–1974 (majority leader 1971–1974) [21][52] George Deukmejian Republican California 1967–1979 [32] Jackie Speier Democratic California 1998–2006 [21] Brad Avakian Democratic Oregon 2007–2008 [34] Chuck Poochigian Republican California 1998–2006 [21][43] Joe Simitian Democratic California 2004–2012 [21] Dick Harpootlian Democratic South Carolina 2018–2025 [53][54]

Municipal government

Mayors

Name City Years Ref Robert Sabonjian Waukegan, Illinois 1957–77 1985–89 [55] Bozant Katzakian Lodi, California 1958–59 1962–64 [56][57] Sam Mardian Phoenix, Arizona 1960–64 [58] Peter Torigian Peabody, Massachusetts 1978–2001 [59][60] Ted Katzakian Lodi, California 1979–80 [56] Haig Paravonian Waukegan, Illinois 1989–93 [55] John Antaramian Kenosha, Wisconsin 1992–2008 2016–2024 [61] Bill Paparian Pasadena, California 1995–97 [62] Scott Avedisian Warwick, Rhode Island 2000–18 [63] Harry Tutunjian Troy, New York 2004–12 [64] Phil Katzakian Lodi, California 2009–10 2013–14 [56] Amy Shuklian Visalia, California 2011–13 [65] Marina Khubesrian South Pasadena, California 2013–14 2018–19 [66][67] Jack Hadjinian Montebello, California 2014–15 [68]

Mayors of Glendale, California[69] Name Years Larry Zarian 1986–87 1990–91 1993–94 1997–98 Rafi Manoukian 2002–03 2005–06 Bob Yousefian 2004–05 Ara Najarian 2007–08 2010–11 2015–16 2019–20 Zareh Sinanyan 2014–15 2018–19 Vartan Gharpetian 2017–18 Vrej Agajanian 2020–21 Ardy Kassakhian 2022–23 Elen Asatryan 2024-25

Other

• Paul Krekorian, Los Angeles City Council (2010—2022^[21]
• Nina Hachigian, Deputy Mayor of International Affairs for Los Angeles (2017–2022)^[70][71]
• Adrin Nazarian, Los Angeles City Council (2022-)

Foreign service

Ambassadors

See also: Ambassadors of the United States

Name	Position	Years	President(s)		Ref
Thomas Corwin[a]	Minister to Mexico	1861–64		Abraham Lincoln
Edward Djerejian
	Ambassador to Syria	1988–91		Ronald Reagan	[72]
	Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs	1991–93		George H. W. Bush
	Ambassador to Israel	1993–94		Bill Clinton
William A. Stanton
	Chargé d’affaires to Embassy Canberra, Australia	2005–06		George W. Bush	[73]
	Director of the American Institute in Taiwan Deputy Chief of Mission to Embassy Seoul, Korea	2009–12		Barack Obama
Nina Hachigian
	Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)	2014–17		Barack Obama	[70]
	Special Representative for Subnational Diplomacy	2022–		Joe Biden
Harry R. Kamian	Deputy Chief of Mission/Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.S. Mission to the OSCE	2017–2020[c]		Joe Biden	[8][9]
Michael E. Kavoukjian	United States ambassador to Norway	2025–		Donald Trump	[74][75]

Others

United States Foreign Service

• Leon Dominian, consul in Rome (1921), consul-general in Stuttgart (1930), first secretary of the U.S. legation at Montevideo, Uruguay^[76]
• Edward Alexander, deputy director for the Soviet Union and East Europe^[77][78]

Other political figures

• Barry Zorthian, diplomat and press spokesman during the Vietnam War^[79]
• Edward N. Costikyan, New York-based political personality^[80]
• Danny Tarkanian, Nevada-based politician and candidate
• Jeff Kurzon, New York City attorney and politician^[81]
• Terry Phillips, non-partisan candidate for California's 23rd congressional district in 2012^[82]
• Scott Ashjian
• David Krikorian
• Paul Paul
• Simon Marootian
• Ralph Moradian
• Haiganush R. Bedrosian
• Robert Hagopian, Saugus, Massachusetts Town 1974
• Jirair Ratevosian, candidate, acting chief of staff to the United States Global AIDS Coordinator (2022–23)^[83]

See also

• List of Armenian Americans
• List of Jewish American politicians