In the wee hours of Saturday morning, the prospective field of the year 2018 Republican challengers to Sen. Elizabeth Warren added another name: Shiva Ayyadurai.
The 53-year-old Cambridge resident and self-described inventor of the email publicly announced his plans to run against the Massachusetts Democrat in a tweet at 4:23 a.m. on Saturday.
As Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin reported that, it appears Ayyadurai also shared his plans at a party on Friday night in Washington, D.C. Ayyadurai, who said that he is a Republican, tweeted on Sunday night that he had opened a campaign office on the Concord Avenue in Cambridge and called Warren a “fake fighter,” in addition to referencing the senator’s controverted claims of the Native American heritage.The Indian-born Fulbright scholar,who holds four degrees from the MIT in fields of computer science and engineering, most recently made headlines for suing media outlets which cast doubt on his claim of having invented email.
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According to the 2012 correction in the Washington Post, while Ayyadurai does hold the copyright to the computer program called “EMAIL,” electronic messaging predates his 1978 work. Computer historians credit fellow the Massachusetts resident Ray Tomlinson with sending the first modern email in the year 1971.
Nevertheless, Ayyadurai sued Gawker and TechDirt for the articles casting doubt on his claim to the invention. Gawker founder Nick Denton settled with Ayyadurai for $750,000 following the media company’s bankruptcy in the last year, much to the displeasure of the internet pioneers.
The Boston Globe recently profiled the local computer scientist, who runs several startup companies out of an office building in the Cambridge.
Ayyadurai joins the state Rep. Geoff Diehl, businessman Rick Green, and also former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling on the list of Warren’s potential 2018 Republican challengers.
Mrudula Duddempudi.
