Last week, a member of Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s staff called Rep. Ted Lieu’s team with a question: Couldn't the congressman have given her a heads up before issuing an endorsement in her state’s open, hotly contested Democratic Senate primary?
Lieu’s staff was puzzled. The California congressman, who, like Duckworth, is one of the most prominent Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) lawmakers on Capitol Hill, hadn’t weighed in on the Senate race in Duckworth’s state of Illinois.
That’s when Lieu's team learned that Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi’s campaign for Senate had implied otherwise, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation.
In fact, for months, the Krishnamoorthi campaign had been sending fundraising emails purporting to be written by Lieu, according to a review of nearly a dozen of those emails.
“It’s never been more clear that Raja is exactly the kind of leader we need fighting back against this insanity in the Senate,” one of the emails carrying Lieu's signature states. “I’m proud to endorse his critical campaign to flip the Senate blue.”
But Krishnamoorthi has not won Lieu’s backing in the contested Illinois Senate race. And Lieu knew nothing about the communications bearing his name and had not approved any emails for distribution this election cycle, according to his office.
“Congressman Lieu had no prior knowledge of these emails and has not endorsed anyone in the Illinois Senate primary,” Marc Cevasco, Lieu’s chief of staff, said in a statement to NBC News. “We’re still gathering information to figure out what happened here. But obviously elected officials should be aware if emails are sent using their name.”
It’s an embarrassing and awkward moment for Krishnamoorthi, who has worked closely with both Duckworth and Lieu since his election to the House in 2016, in the district Duckworth represented before winning her Senate seat the same year. And all three — Duckworth, Lieu and Krishnamoorthi — serve together on the executive board of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, or CAPAC.
Lieu, who emigrated from Taiwan when he was a boy, is a member of the House Democratic leadership team and is the highest-ranking AAPI lawmaker on Capitol Hill. Duckworth, who is Thai American, is one of only three Asian Americans serving in the Senate. Krishnamoorthi, who was born in India and raised in Peoria, Illinois, is hoping to be the fourth.
Krishnamoorthi's fundraising emails, some bearing Lieu’s photo, urged donors to contribute to the candidate and support his Senate bid, saying Krishnamoorthi would expand the economy, protect Social Security and shield communities from gun violence. The emails reviewed did not frame the Senate race as a primary contest, but some pit Krishnamoorthi in a fight to “flip the Senate blue” against Trump and his “MAGA maniacs.”
While the person with knowledge of the episode said Lieu and Krishnamoorthi were friends, they added: “Obviously, this is problematic.”
“Ted was less than pleased to find out about this. It’s a contested and a somewhat contentious primary,” this person said. “He does not want to be playing in Illinois.”
In a statement, the Krishnamoorthi campaign, which sends hundreds of emails to its fundraising lists every month, attributed the flub to confusion with a previous email that had been greenlighted. The campaign could not immediately say what year the email had been approved.
"A previous version of this email was approved, and there was a miscommunication internally. We have rectified this with Rep. Lieu's team, and the email copy is no longer being sent," Krishnamoorthi's campaign said in the statement.
Krishnamoorthi launched his Senate bid in May after longtime Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin announced his retirement. The other major candidates competing in the Democratic primary include Rep. Robin Kelly and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
Stratton has won endorsements from Gov. JB Pritzker and Duckworth. Pritzker, a billionaire, has not yet indicated to what extent he will financially back Stratton's bid.
Meanwhile, Krishnamoorthi is far ahead on both the fundraising and the advertising fronts in the race. He has already invested $13.3 million on TV ads since May, according to AdImpact, a campaign ad tracking firm. No other candidate has advertised yet.
Krishnamoorthi, who worked on Barack Obama's 2004 Senate campaign in Illinois, has also nabbed some noteworthy endorsements, including from the Teamsters Joint Council 25 and a coalition of 100 Black faith leaders. In June, he was endorsed by ASPIRE PAC, the campaign arm of CAPAC that is led by Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash.
