Kumar says restoring democracy means rejecting super PAC, corporate PAC, and special interest money, no matter what. 

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BROOKLYN and QUEENS, NY — Vichal Kumar, a longtime public defender and Democratic candidate for New York's 7th Congressional District, today responded to the escalating dispute among his opponents over super PAC support and special interest donations ahead of the June 23 primary. Kumar accepts no PAC money, is backed by no super PAC, and has taken no money from special interests, including the real estate industry. 

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“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,” said Kumar.

 

“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. 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. 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 said. “And Valdez and Reynoso keep signaling to super PACs and outside money.” 

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Affordable housing has been an issue central to this race, and all four candidates have shared a stage agreeing NY-7 needs more of it. 

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“I will not take a dollar from real estate developers. 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.” 

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Kumar is the only candidate in the race who is not an incumbent. 

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“How can you fight the establishment if you are funded by it? I entered this race because I recognized our public systems are broken, and that they no longer answer to working people,” Kumar said. “Voters deserve transparency in knowing exactly who they are sending to Congress, and where their money comes from, because that is who the candidate will fight for.” Kumar, Reynoso, and Valdez are all participants in End Citizens United's Unrig Washington program, a public pledge built on three standards: banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks, refusing corporate PAC money, and cracking down on dark money and unlimited super PAC spending. 

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“Three of us in this race signed that same pledge. And the irony is that candidates who are supported by Bernie are doing the opposite of what he's fighting for, to abolish super PACs. At the end of the day, I am the only one committed to running a transparent campaign powered by the people, not special interests,” Kumar said. “The families of NY-7 will never have to wonder who I answer to. I answer to them, and only to them. No super PACs, no corporate PACs, no special interests, period.”