But it's not too late -- here's what we need to do to prevent a catastrophic failure and instead elect someone whose record aligns with our
Qasim Rashid at Let's Address This:
Deep blue Illinois is on the verge of electing a United States Senator who aligns far more closely with Trump, MAGA power brokers, and ICE infrastructure expansion than with the values of a deep-blue state. And he is betting his nearly $28 million—much of it raised from corporate PACs, billionaire tech executives, crypto interests, and Trump-aligned donors—that voters will not look closely enough to notice. We cannot let that happen. If you live in Illinois, you’ve no doubt been inundated with polished ads from Raja Krishnamoorthi presenting himself as a pragmatic progressive, the child of immigrants living the American dream. But campaigns are marketing exercises. Records are what matter. And the record tells a very different story. Electing Krishnamoorthi to the United States Senate would be catastrophic to our human rights and progressive values. Here’s what he hopes you don’t know about his record, and most importantly, how we elect someone far better. [...]
Follow the Money
Raja has raised nearly $28 million—including significant funding from Trump-aligned donors and billionaire tech executives. Reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times details how donors connected to Trumpworld and MAGA networks have contributed to his Senate campaign. That alone should raise questions in a state where Trump lost decisively. It doesn’t stop there. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz—Silicon Valley billionaires who donated millions to Trump—have also donated to Raja. His donors include Shyam Sankar, the billionaire CTO of Palantir, who gave more than $30,000 to Raja’s campaign. Palantir is not just another tech company. It is one of the central data-infrastructure contractors powering ICE’s surveillance apparatus — providing tools that enable mass data aggregation, predictive tracking, and enforcement targeting. Palantir executives have openly toured ICE facilities and Homeland Security leadership through expanded enforcement capabilities.
ICE: Performance vs. Record
You may have seen Raja recently post a video in front of the Broadview ICE facility suggesting he is “holding ICE accountable.” The optics are convenient. But just months before filming that video, Raja voted with MAGA Republicans to formally thank ICE—at a time when ICE detention deaths were reaching record levels and civil rights organizations were documenting systemic abuses inside facilities.
[...]
Silence on Genocide, Comfort with Autocrats
And yet, even worse, Raja has remained conspicuously silent on the genocide in Palestine, the moral crisis of our time. It should not shock you that AIPAC has invested absurd amounts of money into Raja Krishnamoorthi’s time in public office. It should also not surprise you that Raja has continued to maintain warm relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi is not only a close Netanyahu ally, he is himself widely known as the “Butcher of Gujarat” for his documented role in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom. [...]
The Alternative
So let’s talk about solutions. Raja is not alone in this race. While polling currently holds him atop a crowded field, two highly qualified Black women are also running in this race—Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton and Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly. Both of these leaders are far better choices than Raja. And one of them—Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton—is polling within the margin of error and is currently best positioned to defeat Raja.
Great column from Qasim Rashid: Illinois must NOT elect Raja Krishnamoorthi as its next Senator.
Juliana Stratton should be the next one. Even Robin Kelly is better than him.
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