A new Democratic congressional candidate in California, Rakhi Israni, has raised an unusually large $2 million in her campaign's first two weeks, with donor identities currently undisclosed. Public records reveal Israni has a personal history of donating to far-right Republican candidates and figures, including MAGA supporters and anti-abortion politicians, which contrasts with her current Democratic platform.
Her progressive opponents in the primary are sharply criticizing these past donations, calling them disqualifying and questioning her alignment with the district's Democratic values. Israni defends her donation history as broad political engagement rather than ideological endorsement, stating she opposes MAGA politics.
The main topics covered are the surprising campaign fundraising, the controversy over Israni's past donations to far-right figures, and the resulting political criticism from her Democratic primary opponents.
A new Democratic candidate in California’s 14th Congressional District primary raised eyebrows when she announced she raised $2 million in the first two weeks of her campaign. Rakhi Israni threw her hat into the race for Rep. Eric Swalwell’s seat in the strongly Democratic leaning district just a few weeks ago and quickly brought in the big cash from donors whose identities are, for now, unknown.
The $2 million in donations aren’t the only eyebrow-raising political donations Israni has been involved in.
Public filings on her own personal political giving reveal years of support for far-right Republicans. The list of those who have received her cash include MAGA candidates, the Republican head of the evangelical Zionist group Christians United for Israel, anti-abortion candidates, and even far-right pundit Laura Loomer, according to disclosures reviewed by The Intercept.
“Let me be unequivocal: I oppose Trump’s attacks on our democracy, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his assault on reproductive freedom, and the division he has fueled in this country,” Israni said in a statement to The Intercept. “I reject MAGA politics.”
Israni, a first-time political candidate with a history of Hindu nationalism advocacy, is challenging a clutch of progressive Democrats: state Sen. Aisha Wahab; progressive Democratic strategist Matt Ortega; BART board president Melissa Hernandez; and immigration attorney Abrar Qadir. Swalwell, who is leaving the seat to run for governor of California, has not yet endorsed a candidate in the primary.
With Israni’s past political donations coming to light, Ortega questioned how she came to donate to far-right figures.
“Why did Rakhi Israni give money to Laura Loomer? Was it that Laura Loomer calls herself a ‘proud Islamophobe’? Or perhaps it was Laura Loomer calling Islam ‘a cancer on humanity’ that won her support?” Ortega said in a statement. “There is no version of this story where Rakhi Israni giving money to Laura Loomer is acceptable. None. It’s disqualifying.”
Wahab, for her part, suggested Israni might be out of step with voters in the deep-blue district.
“Our district wants and deserves a real Democrat — pro-choice, pro-democracy, and firmly against extremism — not someone bankrolling MAGA-extremists and far-right allies, pretending to be something they’re not,” Wahab said in a statement to The Intercept. “People will look closely at who funds a campaign, a candidate’s record, and whether their record matches their rhetoric.”
In her statement, Israni said, “Over the course of my professional career, I have engaged broadly and, at times, supported individuals across the political spectrum. Those contributions were not ideological endorsements of every position a candidate has taken, nor do they reflect support for extreme rhetoric or divisive statements.”
Donating to the Far Right
Israni’s personal political donation history tracks with support for Hindu nationalism and pro-Israel candidates and includes donations to some of the most far-right and MAGA candidates that have run for Congress in recent years.
In 2022, she gave $4,200 to Republican Rich McCormick’s successful campaign for a Georgia House seat, according to Federal Election Commission data. McCormick was also endorsed by the Hindu American PAC, where Israni sits on the board. Last year, she donated $3,500 to a Republican candidate in California’s 13th Congressional District, months before the candidate hosted MAGA figure Matt Gaetz at a “Save California” rally.
Another far-right candidate Israni gave money to was New York Republican Robert Cornicelli, who ran in the 2022 GOP primary for the 2nd Congressional District in Long Island on a platform that included abolishing the Department of Education. Cornicelli is also president of Veterans for America First, also known as Veterans for Trump. He is vocal about what he calls “radical Islam” and last year self-published a book titled “What is White? A Manifesto on How Elites Erased Your Culture and Made You the Enemy.”
Israni contributed $260.73 to Laura Loomer’s 2020 Florida congressional primary run. Loomer is a controversial MAGA loyalist and informal Trump adviser who once celebrated the deaths of thousands of Muslim refugee families. She wrote “now it’s time to round up the Muslims before it’s too late” on X late last week. The Hindu American PAC gave Loomer $5,000 that same year, while Israni was on the board. In 2024, Loomer was widely criticized for bigoted remarks about Kamala Harris’s Indian heritage.
The Hindu American PAC, with Israni on the board, also gave $5,000 to Devin Nunes in 2020, a former Trump Cabinet member who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump the following year.
Other personal donations made by Israni to Republicans include $1,500 in 2022 to California Rep. Michelle Steel, who supported overturning Roe v. Wade, and $1,500 in 2024 to a failed campaign by Niraj Antani, an anti-abortion activist and self-proclaimed “pro-Trump conservative warrior.”
In 2024, Israni gave $1,000 to Tulsi Gabbard’s leadership PAC, which contributed solely to Republicans that cycle. Today, Gabbard is Trump’s director of national intelligence. Israni also supported the Republican executive director of Christians United for Israel, David Brog, when he ran in Nevada’s 1st Congressional District.
One Texas Republican who received $250 from Israni in 2022, Pat Fallon, had voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In total, she gave to over 10 MAGA candidates, more than the Democratic candidates she donated to in recent years, which included Mikie Sherrill for New Jersey governor and several Indian American candidates around the country.
In her statement, Israni said, “I am a Democrat running for Congress in California’s 14th District because I believe in accountability, protecting fundamental rights, defending democracy, and delivering real economic results for the families who make up our district. As the only attorney in this race, I bring the legal experience necessary to hold Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, and any form of extremism accountable.” (Contrary to Israni’s statement, Qadir is also an attorney.)
Israni and Wahab’s Past
Irsani and Wahab, one of her House primary opponents, previously found themselves on the opposite sides of a legislative tussle. In Sacramento, Wahab introduced legislation in 2023 that would make California the first state to add caste-based discrimination to non-discrimination law. Proponents of the bill saw it as a way to address alleged discrimination based on someone’s “caste,” their position in a system of inherited social stratification in South Asian societies and diasporas.
At the time, Israni testified against the bill at statehouse hearings, calling it an “unconstitutional denial of my community’s rights to fairness and equal protection under the law.”
The law was also opposed by the Hindu American Foundation, a controversial Indian American diaspora advocacy group whose lobbying is aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Israni served as a board member of the Hindu American PAC, a group that shares leadership with the Foundation.
Wahab — the first Afghan American woman elected to public office in the U.S. — said she received violent threats in response to the proposed legislation, which was reportedly the target of coordinated opposition from major Democratic Indian American donors and Hindu nationalist networks. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom ultimately vetoed the bill.
Israni’s list of campaign donors won’t be publicly filed until mid-April. With ballots mailing out in May, that leaves little time for voters in the district to review her backers. A corporate lawyer who owns a testing preparatory company with her husband, she announced on January 23 that she raised over $1 million in the first 24 hours of her campaign. Less than two weeks later, on February 4, she claimed the total raised was nearing $2 million.
Israni has links to American organizations aligned with the Hindutva movement — a Hindu nationalist political tendency. She appeared at recent events hosted by the Hindu American Foundation and spoke on a panel called “Hinduphobia & Antisemitism: Two Sides of the Same Coin” at the group’s conference last year. She also served as an executive at Sewa International USA, an international Indian charity tied to Hindutva groups. And Israni wrote about hosting Modi at a Silicon Valley reception in 2015.
A deleted X account reviewed on the Internet Archive that is tied to Israni’s email shared frequent content in support of Modi and the Indian government.
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