D.C. Council candidate Chander Jayaraman is now the first candidate in the at-large race to qualify for matching funds through the Fair Elections Program, receiving nearly $90,000.

The program, which began in 2018, provides public funding to local D.C. political campaigns through matching and lump sum base amounts. Proponents of the program say it could help dampen the influence of big money donors in D.C. politics.

On Wednesday, the Office of Campaign Finance informed Jayaraman, a local business leader and Ward 6 ANC Commissioner, that it had approved 277 small donations for his campaign, totaling $17,503. The program requires that at-large Council candidates receive 250 small donations that add up to at least $12,000. Jayaraman will receive a $5 match for everyone dollar donated, adding up to about $87,000, as well as a base donation of $20,000 for surpassing the program’s certification requirements.

The Fair Elections Program is in its first year, and after an initial hiccup or two in the beginning, many other 2020 candidates are also using it. “Fair Elections is allowing for more candidates who are representative of the city and from all different backgrounds to have a fighting chance,” Ward 4 candidate Janeese Lewis George told DCist in August.

Jayaraman is running against eight other registered candidates in the race to replace At-large Councilmember David Grosso, who announced in November that he would not be running for reelection. Democratic incumbent At-large Councilmember Robert White is running for reelection and widely expected to win another term, meaning that the contest among independents for Grosso’s seat has quickly become the more competitive race.

Jayaraman, who now lives in Capitol Hill with his wife and son, immigrated to the United States from India when he was a child. He spent his childhood and college years in Kansas before moving to D.C in 1995. He says his potential service on the council honors his mother—he even announced his campaign on the same day as her birthday last October.

“[My parents] gave up a good middle class life in India to bring us here,” Jayaraman says. “[My mom’s] really inspired me to pay it forward, and this is one of the ways I can do that.”

Just after announcing his campaign on October 18, Jayaraman says he began fundraising. By the end of December, he’d received over the 250 small donations necessary, and submitted his application to the program.

“People know what I’ve done. They know I don’t play sides, and I work always to find solutions that everyone can live with,” Jayaraman says about his success in reaching the necessary number of donations for the Fair Elections Program. He calls himself a “true independent” and stresses that he’ll be an outside voice on the council.

Jayaraman is currently the president of Strategic Educational Consulting, a consulting firm that works to prepare schools, businesses, and other organizations with emergency procedure plans in the case of events like fires or shootings. Prior to assuming that role, he worked at a nonprofit that served people with disabilities, and at the Latin American Youth Center, where he oversaw leadership training as well as the GED program.

As a candidate, Jarayaman says he’s focusing on crime and public safety, creating a government that works for everyone, and economic independence.

He suggests re-introducing community college opportunities in high school and supporting vocational interests in children, with the aim of not only creating economic independence but addressing the violent crime rate as well.

“Our education system says college or bust, but in D.C. we have only 30 percent going to college,” Jarayaman says. “And that means 70 percent of our young people are left without anything. We need a different option to a career path.”

He also has plans to treat homelessness and drug addiction that include revamping shelters into dormitory-style spaces and allowing individuals to sleep in private rooms (the Muriel Bowser administration has already taken this approach to housing homeless families). To combat substance issues, Jarayaman wants to make supportive services more readily available.

“We need to meet them where they are,” he says, and make services available outside of normal working hours.

After working on the ANC for eight years and living in the city for over 25, Jarayaman says he has had time to identify what works and what doesn’t about the council, and he hopes to be one of the people to fix it.

“The issues we tackle on the ANC have applications on a broader level, and I really wanted to change the discussion that’s going on in the council. We need to focus more on what’s important to people, things like public safety, and economic independence,” he says. “We need a government who understands who they work for, and they’re supposed to be working for us.”

Also in the race for Grosso’s seat are his former staffer (and Grosso’s pick for a successor) Christina Henderson, State Board of Education Member Markus Batchelor, and real estate developer Marcus Goodwin. Anthony Dale, Eric Rogers, Franklin Garcia, Jeanné Lewis, and Mario Cristaldo are also running.

The D.C. primary elections are on June 2 of this year, and the general election is on November 3. In addition to two at-large seats, there are also elections happening in Ward 2, Ward 4, Ward 7, and Ward 8.