Shiva Ayyadurai becomes an Independent for Senate race

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Indian American entrepreneur Shiva Ayyadurai, announced on Saturday that he plans to run for State Senate as an independent, next year.

According to the Boston Globe, Ayyadurai has been campaigning as a Republican to take out Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, decided to declare his independence since he has been facing challenges in running against three other Republican candidates.

“Declare your independence. The establishment is one. The Republicans and Democrats profit from war and sickness,” he told WBUR News.

Ayyadurai, 53, told the Boston Globe that his campaign is focused on creating better jobs, promoting a direct-pay health care system and reforming campaign finance.

His campaign has nearly $75,000 as of Sept. 30 and he has raised nearly $1.3 million ever since, much of which he financed himself, according to the Boston Globe.

Ayyadurai holds four degrees from MIT and claims to have invented email in what some technology historians and computer engineers say, was in 1965, when Ayyadurai was only a toddler.

Ayyadurai’s switch was described as a “desperation move by a failing candidate” by Geoff Diehl’s campaign spokeswoman while representatives from Beth Lindstrom and John Kingston’s campaigns have yet to respond.