Entrepreneur Shiva Ayyadurai has thrown down a rhetorical gauntlet to critics of his plan to unseat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2018: “Only a real Indian can defeat a fake Indian.”
Fox Business Network invited Cambridge’s start-up king on air Wednesday to discuss his realization of the American dream as an immigrant in 1970. Mr. Ayyadurai said that in addition to his seven successful companies and multiple degrees from MIT, his resume is poised to include the role of U.S. senator from Massachusetts.
“I’m looking forward to going against Warren,” Mr. Ayyadurai said. “I know how these elites work. I know I can defeat her.”
The tech-minded businessman, who holds a 1982 federal copyright called EMAIL, added that he was looking forward to the State Convention in April 2018 and the Republican primary election in September.
“In Massachusetts, 46 percent of Democrats have said that Elizabeth Warren should not run,” Mr. Ayyadurai added. “So there’s a significant opportunity here. For me, defeating Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts is driving a bigger blow to these institutions of power right in the belly of the beast.”
But the Mumbai-born entrepreneur (his family moved to the U.S. when he was seven) also went for the conservative punchline regarding Ms. Warren.
“I think only a real Indian can defeat a fake Indian. I sent her a DNA test kit for her birthday and I was very sad she returned it. That’s the issue of a real Indian and a fake Indian, the truth, because there is a woman who actually checked off the box that she is Native American.”
Ms. Warren faced scrutiny in 2012 over disputed claims that she possesses Native American ancestry. She has been mocked by critics as “Pocahontas” and “Fauxcahontas.”
“I think it’s going to be a historic campaign. I think it’s going to reveal a lot of very, very important contradictions that are important for the American public to hear,” Mr. Ayyadurai said.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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