Ajit Pai, the son of immigrants from India, grew up in Parsons, a city of 10,000 in rural Kansas, before going to Harvard University and the University of Chicago for law school. His parents came to the United States with “about $10 in their pockets, a willingness to work very hard, and a belief in the American Dream.”

Appointed to serve on the Federal Communications Commission in 2012, Pai is one of the most outspoken proponents of free speech on the Internet in Washington. His campaign comes as the agency has assumed sweeping new regulatory authorities over the past several years.