Two out-of-state donors give very big to Beshear super PAC
FRANKFORT – Two big Andy Beshear supporters from outside Kentucky provided the lion’s share of the money donated to Beshear’s super PAC between April 1 and June 30.
Beshear’s super PAC is called In This Together PAC Inc., and a report it filed Wednesday with the Internal Revenue Service shows:
- Ashish Patel, an investor from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, contributed $300,000 during the quarter. Patel did not contribute to any of Besher’s campaigns for public office, but started making huge contributions to In This Together last summer. Counting his recent donations of last quarter, he has now given a total of $850,000 to In This Together.
- Deborah Simon, a philanthropist and Democratic Party megadonor, contributed $250,000. Simon is the daughter of the late Melvin Simon, who was a shopping center magnate and co-owner of the Indiana Pacers. The recent contribution brings the total amount Deborah Simon has given to In This together to $500,000. Unlike Patel, Simon has also been a donor to Beshear campaigns and the Kentucky Democratic Party since 2019. She’s also a massive donor to the Democratic Governors Association.
Between the two of them, Patel and Simon donated 77 percent of the $713,000 total in contributions listed by In This Together in the second quarter of 2026.
Other large contributions listed in the report were made by: David A. Trott, a Birmingham. Michigan attorney, $50,000; Joseph M. Molina, retired, from Woodland Hills, California, $25,000; the Morgan and Morgan law firm, of Orlando, Florida, $17,820; and Leonard Blum, of Edina, Michigan, $15,000.
Beshear formed In This Together soon after his reelection in 2023. It is a type of political committee that can accept donations of unlimited amounts from people, corporations and other groups. Beshear created it as a mechanism to raise money which can – in turn – be contributed to the candidates and political causes that Beshear supports across the country. This allows him to make friends nationwide as he explores a campaign for Democratic nomination for president in 2028.
The new report filed by In This Together shows that in the recent quarter it made two political contributions: $25,000 each to the Democratic Party of South Carolina, and Copper State Values, a political committee of Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who is seeking reelection in November.
Democratic Governors Association (DGA)
Beshear serves as chair of the DGA this year and is leading the group’s fundraising efforts to elect as many Democrats as governors in November.
A report filed by the DGA with the IRS on Wednesday shows that between April 1 and June 30 this organization also got some big donations from Beshear’s supporters from both inside and outside Kentucky.
Deborah Simon is listed as giving $1 million.
Other listed as donors to the DGA during the quarter include: Churchill Downs, $275,000; BrightSpring Health Services of Louisville, $100,000; Franklin Lassiter of Midway, of HealthTech Solutions, $55,000; Big Sandy Properties, a Louisa company headed by University of Kentucky Trustee Todd Case, $40,000; Physician Care Coordination Consultants, a Louisville company headed by big Beshear donor Karan Shah, $26,000; and WF Morgan Company, Lexington, $25,000.