Altogether 6 Indian Americans are now ‘Hillblazers’.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Philanthropist Frank Islam is among a group of five Indian Americans and three South Asian-origin donors who have now got the official tag of ‘Hillblazers’, contributing for the 2016 presidential campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Hillblazers—National Finance Committee members—are individuals who have helped raise $100,000 or more in primary election contributions since the launch of Clinton’s campaign ‘Hillary for America’, on April 12, 2015.
Apart from Islam, the other Indian Americans who feature on the list now are: Ankit N. Desai, Shefali Razdan Duggal, Raj Fernando, and Kamil and Talat Hasan.
There are also three Pakistani Americans in the updated list of ‘Hillblazers’: Shaista Mahmood, Asif Mahmood and Imaad Zuberi. The latter’s father is Pakistani and mother Indian.
The American Bazaar had earlier reported that Maryland Democrat Mahinder Tak and New York technology investor Deven J. Parekh were the first Indian Americans to raise more than $100,000 for Clinton’s presidential 2016 campaign.
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Tak, a retired radiation oncologist and US Army colonel, plans to raise around $325,000 for Clinton during the primary.
“America needs a woman now, she is the best candidate for Democrats,” Mahinder Tak told The American Bazaar on June 26, praising Clinton’s record in espousing the cause of children and women early on in her career.
Tak, a long-time supporter of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was a “HIllraiser” in the former first lady’s losing 2008 campaign. Those who collected at least $100,000 for the Clinton campaign in 2008 were dubbed Hillraisers. There were 11 Indian American Hillraisers.
Parekh, a Managing Director at the New York-based Insight Venture Partners, had raised at least $200,000 for the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama in 2012. He was one of the more than a dozen Indian American bundlers who raised at least $100,000 for the president in 2012. In that election cycle, the Wharton alumnus gave more than $161,000 in individual contributions to the Obama campaign and various Democratic Party organizations.
Parekh, who has backed US tech pioneers Twitter, Tumblr and Flipboard and Chinese Alibaba and JD.com at Insight, was ranked 57th in Forbes’ annual Midas List of “The World’s Smartest Tech Investors of 2015.”