A group of major Indian-American business leaders and entrepreneurs have donated over $15.8 million to Republican Party-linked political action committees and funds since 2025, giving Donald Trump’s party a roughly 4:1 fundraising advantage over Democrats among prominent donors ahead of the November 3 US midterm elections, an HT analysis of Federal Election Commission data shows.
Sankar, a newly minted billionaire, was reportedly considered by the Trump administration for a senior Pentagon role. Other major Republican donors include Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar, who contributed about $1.9 million to Republican political action committees and groups in 2025 and 2026.
Motwani attributed her shift to a loss of faith in the Democratic Party, alleging that it had allowed undocumented migrants to enter the country and obtain documents that could be used to vote. The funding gap also highlights how wealthy Indian-American donors are increasingly favouring Republicans, even as Democrats retain support among smaller contributors. “Trump is soaking up the money among big Indian-American donors. The trend, he added, was difficult to capture fully through Federal Election Commission records, which do not always convey the scale of small-donor mobilisation.
Florida businessman Ramalinga Mantena, who made headlines in India last year over his daughter’s lavish wedding in Udaipur, donated $886,000 to Republican causes, in addition to a substantial contribution to Trump’s inaugural ball. Donations from billionaire sports team owner Vivek Ranadive, technology entrepreneur Vipul Prakash and Nvidia vice-president Sundeep Singh Madra added a further $750,000 to the Republicans’ election war chest. The fundraising gap reflects a sharp increase in contributions to Trump-aligned groups by some prominent Indian-American donors since 2025. Motwani, for instance, donated $300,000 to a joint fundraising committee supporting Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and the RNC before increasing her contributions roughly 18-fold in 2025. Sankar, meanwhile, gave less than $100,000 to Republican causes during the 2023-24 election cycle before contributing about $1.9 million in 2025 and 2026. Motwani said she intended to continue backing Republican candidates in 2026 and 2028. The people giving less than $1,000 are Democrats now.
Motwani said her increased funding was driven by a desire to help Republicans retain control of both chambers of Congress in the November midterm elections. “I want the Republicans to maintain a major majority in the House and the Senate, so contributing to President Trump’s war chest is an important step towards funding the right candidates and their campaigns,” Motwani told HT. “I lost trust in the Democratic Party after I discovered that they had opened the borders to import voters in swing states,” she told HT, making claims about election fraud. The people giving more than half a million dollars are Republicans,” Narasimhan told HT. However, he said Democratic committees had seen a “big uptick” in small donors contributing $25 to $50 a month, describing it as evidence of a growing grassroots movement.
