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Indian American Vichal Kumar vows independence from PACs and donors
Kumar criticized candidates backed by super PACs, arguing that politicians cannot effectively challenge the establishment while accepting its funding.
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Staff Reporter - Tue, 09, Jun 2026
- 04:17 EDT
- 61
Vichal Kumar / Courtesy photo
Indian American Democrat Vichal Kumar, a candidate for New York's 7th Congressional District, announced his decision not to accept funding from any PAC or super PAC in the run-up to his June 23 primary.
The announcement comes, according to Kumar, as a response to the escalating dispute among his opponents over super PAC support and special-interest donations ahead of the election. He argued that Kumar accepts no PAC money, is backed by no super PAC and has not taken any money from special-interest groups, including the real estate industry.
In a statement, Kumar said, "For weeks, the three best-funded candidates in this race have campaigned as the champions of clean money. We're not surprised that these candidates have flip-flopped on key pledges, including accepting special-interest money and red-boxing to steer super PAC money."
Kumar individually called out his electoral rivals, saying, "This week's reporting only confirms how politicians in the NY-7 race are failing working people. Claire Valdez vows to take on the billionaire class and to abolish ICE, yet she has accepted money from a billionaire artificial intelligence investor and from employees of the very immigration enforcement contractors she has promised to dismantle, while a super PAC spends on her behalf."
Calling out his Democratic rival, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, he said, "Antonio Reynoso mails voters a flyer promising no big real estate money, while his filings record roughly forty thousand dollars from the real estate industry."
He continued, "Julie Won has taken roughly ninety thousand dollars in real estate money, more than anyone in the field. They are asking voters to trust a clean-money message their own filings contradict."
Kumar, acknowledging that affordable housing is an issue central to this race and that all the candidates have made a push for it, noted, "I will not take a dollar from real estate developers."
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He continued, "I have spent twenty years as a public defender fighting to keep working families in their homes. You cannot fight for affordable housing for working-class Brooklyn and Queens if you are funded by the developers whose interests align against the people's."
Kumar criticized candidates backed by super PACs, arguing that politicians cannot effectively challenge the establishment while accepting its funding.
He emphasized that voters deserve transparency about who finances congressional campaigns and said he is the only candidate in the race committed to rejecting super PACs, corporate PACs and special-interest money.
Kumar, along with Reynoso and Valdez, has signed End Citizens United's Unrig Washington pledge, which calls for banning congressional stock trading, rejecting corporate PAC contributions and limiting dark money and super PAC influence. He said his campaign is powered solely by the people of NY-7 and that he answers only to them.
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