Washington: Indian-American Krystle Kaul, the first-ever Kashmiri woman to run for the US Congress, has $567,000 in campaign funds, according to the latest figures.
A former US Army officer and foreign policy and national security expert, Krystle is running from the 10th Congressional District of Virginia, currently represented by her Democratic colleague Jennifer Wexton. The incumbent has $538,000 in cash, less than her main primary challenger.
This Congressional District in Virginia represents Loudon County among others, which over the past one decade has emerged as the hub of Indian-Americans in the Greater Washington DC area. The primary in Virginia is scheduled for June 18, during which Krystle is confident of earning the party's nomination for the November 5th general elections.
"I am really excited to announce that the FEC (federal election commission) reports just came out and I have the most cash on hand of all candidates in the race. I'm leading the pack. I have $567,000. They said I couldn't do it. They said I couldn't surpass 500K, which was the goal, and I did it. I'm really excited and I really appreciate all of the support I've received," she told PTI in a recent interview.
"Locally, nationally, Indian-Americans have come out. Lots of different groups have come and supported Asian-Americans, the Jewish-American community, defense community. Women have come out and I'm really proud to say that if elected, I would be the second Indian-American woman into Congress. We definitely need representation. Today, we have five Indian-American members of Congress, but only one is a woman, and we definitely need to have more women that are in, and I think that it's important to have that gender equation to look at as well," Kaul said in response to a question.
Kaul said she is running on the issue of education, affordable health care, and public safety. The 10th Congressional District of Virginia from where she is running has 44 per cent minorities.
“It is 16 percent Asian, and we have a high population of Indian-Americans close to almost 10 percent. I have an overwhelming level of support from minorities in the district: from the Asian community, from the Indian American community, from the Italian community, from the Thai community, and Korean."
"So I've been able to speak, I spoke at the Thai Temple at the Korean Association event. I've spoken at a number of Indian American events, small business events, defense contractor events, and so it's really a wide issue," she said.
District 10 includes Ashburn, Chantilly, Leesburg, Dulles, Manassas, Warrington, and a part of Fairfax.
'It is quite a broad district. It's about 820,000 constituents, and it's primarily made up of folks who are government contractors, defense contractors, small business owners like myself. I'm also a teacher. I teach at MIT remotely,' she said.
Kaul said she is not a career politician. "I am someone coming in that really can relate to the average voter and not just from a female status, not just from a minority status, but also being a small business owner, coming from a defense background, being a government contractor myself, being a senior defense official," she said.
Kaul said there are a lot of reasons why people really appreciate and respect her candidacy and have been overwhelmingly supportive 'which has been really heartwarming'.
A strong proponent of forging a stronger US-India ties, she said, "I actually do believe that US-India relation is the most critical relationship of this century and want to see this relationship strengthen. I participated in the B20 summit in Delhi. I was part of some of the engagements of the G20 summit. I am a big advocate of bridging that skills gap and India can really come and help with IT, can help with technology algorithms to help advance the DODs mission. It can help with the chip war that we are in right now with China."
India-US relationship has been improving post-civil nuclear deal, she said.
"I think we have a lot more room for improvement in terms of our defense relationship and intelligent sharing. That is something that I think we'll see in the next 10 to 20 years," she said.
With over $567,000 cash on hand, Kaul said she is running a very strong campaign.
"I have a top media firm, a fundraising firm, campaign manager, call time manager. I've got a number of consultants. I've got 40-plus volunteers. I have a team of 70 and growing. I believe it's the largest campaign that's running, and it really does take an army to win."
"Between the cash on hand and also the human capital I have, it's really touching for me the fact that I have so many young Indian-American girls and boys that have joined my campaign both locally and nationally. It's a multi-prong effort to get elected, and that is really what's going to help me win this race. I really need to stay in that lead position," Kaul said.