Senate Candidate Sues Local Newspaper for Not Covering His Campaign

A man running for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts is suing his local newspaper because he says it didn't cover his campaign fairly. Shiva Ayyadurai, who lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, filed the lawsuit against The Belmont Voice this week. He is challenging U.S. Senator Ed Markey in the upcoming election. Ayyadurai says the paper wrote about other candidates but mostly ignored him, and he wants a court to do something about it.

Ayyadurai says the newspaper showed a pattern of treating him differently because of his background. He is originally from India, and he claims the paper's lack of coverage was a form of racial discrimination. The paper distributes free copies to about 11,000 homes in Belmont every week. The lawsuit names the paper's editor-in-chief, Jesse Floyd, as one of the defendants.

The Belmont Voice's board of directors quickly pushed back against the lawsuit. They posted a statement on the paper's website calling the suit 'baseless' and 'frivolous.' The board said the lawsuit is also a costly problem for them because they are a nonprofit organization. 'We will not be intimidated by outside pressure,' the board said in their statement.

A press freedom expert also weighed in on the case. Justin Silverman leads a group called the New England First Amendment Coalition. He said the U.S. Constitution gives newspapers the right to decide what stories they cover. 'Just as the First Amendment protects our right to critique local news coverage, it also protects an editor's right to report on public issues in a way they alone see fit,' Silverman said.

Ayyadurai said he believes in the First Amendment, but argued this case is about equal treatment. He says the paper covered Senator Markey and Republican candidate John Deaton, but not him. He also said he was insulted when the paper's staff called him 'Mr. Ayyadurai' in emails instead of 'Dr. Ayyadurai.' Ayyadurai holds four college degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As part of the lawsuit, Ayyadurai is asking the paper to publish a full feature story about him before Election Day. He also wants the paper to send a special email to its subscribers that includes his entire campaign platform. On top of that, he is asking for money damages, though the exact amount is not specified in the lawsuit.

This is not the first time Ayyadurai has run for office or filed a lawsuit. He ran against Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2018 as an independent and got less than 4 percent of the vote. He ran in the 2020 Republican primary and lost. He even ran for president in 2024, but got less than 1 percent of the vote in Massachusetts.

Ayyadurai is also facing some legal trouble of his own. Last month, the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office sent a case to state prosecutors about possible signature fraud. Officials said they got several complaints that Ayyadurai turned in fake signatures when he was trying to get on the ballot. Ayyadurai has disputed those claims.