Pennsylvania Investor Gives Another $100K To Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's PAC

By Tom Loftus, Pennsylvania Capital-Star

April 23, 2026

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

Patel did not contribute to Beshear’s political campaigns over the years, but emerged as Beshear’s biggest recent donor in the second half of 2025 when he made three contributions of $150,000 each to In This Together.

Patel, whose residence is listed in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, has been a regular donor in the past few years to a score of Democratic candidates and committees, according to Federal Election Commission records and other online sources. But his contributions to others are much smaller than the $550,000 he’s listed as giving to Beshear.

The next largest contribution Kentucky Lantern has been able to find from Patel is $130,000 he gave in the 2024-25 campaign cycle to the successful campaign of Democrat Abigail Spanberger for governor of Virginia.

Patel’s March donation was tied for the largest made to In This Together so far this year. A Beachwood, Ohio corporation called Alliance Prime Associates Inc. also contributed $100,000 in March.

Beshear formed In This Together soon after winning reelection as governor in 2023. It acts as a forerunner for what now seems to be a likely Beshear campaign for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028. The super PAC pays for some of Beshear’s travels -— its reported expenses during the past quarter include hotel expenses in New Hampshire, Boston and New York. It pays his political advisers, fundraisers and other consultants. And it helps Beshear win friends by making political contributions to like-minded political candidates as he travels the country.

Reports filed by In This Together with the FEC and the Internal Revenue Service show that the super PAC raised $563,358 during the first quarter of this year. It reported spending $344,915 during the same time.

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

Hyers also noted Beshear is serving as 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 part of In This Together that reports to the FEC said it had more than $1.5 million in cash on hand. (The part of In This Together that reports to the IRS does not list how much money it has on hand at the end of a reporting period.)

In This Together reported contributions from 20 states during the first quarter, with the largest number of contributions coming from a state other than Kentucky coming from New York.

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

The largest expense reported by In This Together during the quarter was $74,916 paid to First Saturday in May Inc., for “event tickets.” First Saturday in May is a non-profit created by Beshear to entertain out-of-state economic development guests at the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks and at a Derby eve party at the Old Governor’s Mansion in Frankfort. (Some Beshear donors and friends also buy prime Derby and Oaks tickets from First Saturday in May and attend the party, but — unlike his predecessors — Beshear has declined to release names of those who buy the tickets from First Saturday.)

Very little of the spending during the quarter -— only $30,000 — was for contributions to candidates and political committees that Beshear supports: $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, president of the Cook County (Illinois) Board of Commissioners.

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