Indian-American political action committee raises $10 million for Democratic presidential campaign

Washington, October 20

A leading Indian-American advocacy and political action committee has announced that it has raised $10 million over the past three months to fund for election campaigns of its endorsed Democratic candidates, including presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Senator Kamala Harris.

$10 million is the highest amount raised by any Indian-American political action committee so far. This fundraising strength reflects trends being seen across the country, said IMPACT executive director Neil Makhija.

The considerable “war chest” will be spent to support turnout efforts in the Asian-American and Indian-American community and to elect IMPACT’s 2020 slate of candidates, including Biden and Harris, as well as Indian-American candidates running up and down ballots in states across the country, a media release said on Monday.

There’s a level of enthusiasm and excitement about this year’s election among the Indian-American voters that is palpable and unrivalled in the previous cycles, Makhija said.

“With an Indian-American (Harris) on the presidential ticket for the first time in history and a record number of Indian-American candidates running for office, the Indian-American voters are poised to exert a considerable amount of influence in this year’s election, and IMPACT will help mobilise and harness this emerging power,” he said.

Born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, 55-year-old Harris scripted history in August by becoming the first-ever Indian-origin, Black and African-American to be a vice-presidential candidate of a major political party.

An estimated 1.4 million Indian-American voters will cast their ballots in the November 3 presidential election. Nearly 5,00,000 Indian-Americans are expected to vote in the battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

In a statement, IMPACT said it would invest in the presidential, statewide and congressional races in battleground states across the country. Investments include committee contributions, paid advertising, targeted turnout operations and infrastructure building, it added.

In addition to Biden and Harris, IMPACT has endorsed Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal along with Congressmen Ro Khanna, Dr Ami Bera and Raja Krishnamoorthi in their re-election bid. It has endorsed Sara Gideon for the US Senate from Maine and Sri Preston Kulkarni and Dr Hiral Tipirneni for the House of Representatives.

Among others endorsed by IMPACT this election season at the state level are Nika Kulkarni for Kentucky House, Nina Ahmed for Pennsylvania Audit General, Nikil Saval for Pennsylvania State Senate, Kesha Ram for Vermont State Senate, Vandana Slatter for Washington State Senate, Padma Kuppa for Michigan State House and Ranjeev Puri for Michigan State House.

The political action committee has also endorsed Pavan Parikh for Hamilton County Court of Pleas in Ohio, Jeremy Cooney and Kevin Thomas for New York Senate, Jenifer Rajkumar for New York State Assembly, Ronnie Chatterji for North Carolina Treasures, Jay Chaudhuri for North Carolina State Senate, Amish Shah for Arizona State House, and Ravi Sandill for Judge, 127th District Court in Texas. PTI