An investor from Pennsylvania gives another PLN 100,000. dollars to Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s PAC

FRANKFORT — Gov. Andy Beshear’s In This Together super PAC received another $100,000 from Pennsylvania investor Ashish Patel last month, bringing Patel’s total contributions to the super PAC to $550,000 over the past nine months.

Patel did not participate in Beshear’s political campaigns for years, but in the second half of 2025 he became Beshear’s largest donor when he made three donations of $150,000 each to In This Together.

Patel, who lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, has regularly donated to dozens of Democratic candidates and committees over the past few years, according to Federal Election Commission records and other online sources. However, his contributions to others are significantly less than the $550,000 he is estimated to have given to Beshear.

The next largest contribution Kentucky Lantern could receive from Patel was the $130,000 it gave during the 2024-2025 campaign cycle to Democrat Abigail Spanberger’s successful campaign for Virginia governor.

Patel’s March donation was tied for the year’s largest donation to In This Together. Alliance Prime Associates Inc. Corporation in Beachwood, Ohio, also donated $100,000 in March.

Beshear founded In This Together shortly after being re-elected as governor in 2023. It is a precursor to what now appears to be Beshear’s likely campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. The super PAC covers some of Beshear’s travel – his reported expenses in the last quarter include hotel expenses in New Hampshire, Boston and New York. It pays his political advisers, fundraisers and other consultants. He also helps Beshear make friends by making political donations to like-minded political candidates as he travels the country.

Reports filed by In This Together, the FEC and the Internal Revenue Service show the super PAC raised $563,358 in the first quarter of this year. He was reported to have spent $344,915 over the same period.

This is a slower fundraising pace compared to last year for In This Together compared to last year, when over $4 million was raised. But Eric Hyers, who managed Beshear’s campaigns for governor and is chief strategist for In This Together, said he expects fundraising to pick up later this year. He said 70 percent of the group’s contributions last year were received in the second half of the year.

Hyers also noted that Beshear will be president of the Democratic Governors Association this year. As such, Hyers said Beshear’s top political priority this year is raising money for the DGA.

As of March 31, the FEC portion of In This Together said it had more than $1.5 million on hand. (The IRS portion of In This Together does not report how much money it has available at the end of the reporting period.)

Contributions

The “This Together” report showcased contributions from 20 states in the first quarter, with the largest number of contributions coming from a non-Kentucky state in New York.

In addition to Patel and Alliance Prime Associates, the other largest donations were: $50,000 from Robert Klein, president of Klein Financial Corporation of Los Altos Hills, California; $27,500 from the Kentucky law firm Frost Brown Todd ($15,000 from the firm’s six attorneys and $12,500 from the firm’s PAC); 25,000 from Arn Tellem of Los Angeles, vice president of the Detroit Pistons; $10,000 from United Parcel Service PAC; $10,000 from Chaosmonkeys Inc. from Del Ray Beach, Florida; $7,500 from Babbage Cofounder, a Kentucky lobbying firm headed by former Secretary of State Bob Babbage.

Expenses

The largest expense recorded by In This Together this quarter was $74,916 paid to First Saturday in May Inc. for “event tickets”. The First Saturday in May is a nonprofit organization created by Beshear to entertain out-of-state economic development guests at the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks and at a Christmas Eve party at the Old Governor’s Mansion in Frankfort. (Some of Beshear’s donors and friends also purchase prime Derby and Oaks tickets for the first Saturday in May and attend the event, but – unlike his predecessors – Beshear declined to reveal the names of those who will purchase tickets for the first Saturday.)

A very tiny portion of this quarter’s spending – just $30,000 – went to contributions to candidates and political committees supported by Beshear: $10,000 to Beau Bayh’s campaign for Indiana secretary of state; $5,000 to Greg Landsman’s campaign for Congress in Ohio; $5,000 to the New Hampshire State Senate Democratic Caucus; $5,000 to Gabe Amo’s campaign for Congress in Rhode Island; and $5,000 to the political committee of Toni Preckwinkle, chairwoman of the Cook County (Illinois) Board of Commissioners.