WASHINGTON (TIP): Having bagged the endorsement of former United States president Bill Clinton, Indian American Democratic Congressional candidate from California, Ami Bera appears to have moved closer to victory.

The independent Center for Politics at the University of Virginia moved his seat (California 7th Congressional District) from a “tossup” to a “Lean Democratic” which means that Bera has now greater chances of winning the seat by defeating the incumbent Dan Lungren of Republican Party.

“If there is one state where Republican House chances appear to be slipping, it’s in heavily Democratic California, which is why we’ve added Representatives Dan Lungren (R, CA-7 ) and Jeff Denham (R, CA-10 ) to Representative Brian Bilbray (R, CA-52 ) in the ‘leans Democratic’ column, meaning we believe all three incumbents are underdogs in their battles to return to Congress,” the Center for Politics said on Thursday.

This new ranking comes as a further boost to Bera’s campaign , which early this month was endorsed by Clinton and the popular daily newspaper Sacramento Bee from California. In the third quarter ending September 30, Bera added more than $731,000 to his campaign funds, and outraising his opponent Dan Lungren by more than $223,000.

Bera, whose parents migrated to the US from India over 50 years ago, has now successfully outraised Lungren for 12 out of the last 13 quarters and netted almost $2.7 million this cycle. Along with Bera, a record number of six Indian American candidates are in fray for the House of Representatives, the upper house of the US legislature.