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| Vice President Kamala Harris could become the first US President who is part Asian. |
The idea that in one generation, the daughter of immigrants could be running for President of the United States is the latest and best example of the American Dream.
Vice President Kamala Harris emergence as the frontrunner for the Democrat's candidate for the Presidency has sparked new energy in the AANHPI communities.
On Tuesday, in one of her first campaign stops since receiving President Biden''s endorsement, Harris visited a Hmong shopping center and met with Hmong business owners.Campaign staffers in Minnesota admitted that the stop in the heart of the Hmong community, the largest Asian American group in the state, is a deliberate strategy to shore up support among the AANHPI communities.
Shivanthi Sathanandan, vice chair of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, said “Representation matters.” referring to Harris mixed racial heritage. Her mother is from India and her father is from Jamaica.
“The energy that comes from seeing someone from a shared culture, whether they’re Black or Asian American or South Asian or just a woman, that energy is contagious, and it’s exciting.”
“We have been saying for a while that the 24 million strong Asian-American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community is doing well but wasn’t politically engaged in a big way because no one was talking to them. Then you get Harris running for president in 2020, becoming the vice president and there was a burst of energy in the community. Representation matters,” said Shekar Narasimhan the chairman and founder of the AAPI Victory Fund, one of the first of its kind super Political Action Committees (PACs) that supports Asian American candidates.
Harris helped the AAPI Victory Fund create a network with other caucuses of minority groups such as Blacks and Hispanics. “We are smallest of the three but the fastest growing group and have a lot of resources. Harris is aware of the potential. She will tap into it, and her presence will also galvanise the community,” he told the Hindustan Times.
When Harris launched her campaign for President in 2019, the national media emphasized her Black heritage, basically overlooking her Ssouth Asian roots. That gave the initial impression that the Oakland-born Harris was ignoring her Indian American background so it took a while for the Asian American communities to warm up to her.
It took numerous meetings with Asian American communities and leadership for Harris to overcome the initial impression pushed by mainstream media.
Harris' big hurdle is to let the nation know more about her. As Vice President, Harris was a sounding board and advisor for Biden and as a good soldier, made appearances, nationally and internationally, in support of the administration. However, in that supporting role, she was unable to make an impression as someone of Asian American background.
In a survey asking American respondents to name the best known Asian Americans, her name rarely came up falling behind the late Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, who is not even American.
But during the 2024 on campaign trail, she has emphasized her Asian background. A week before Biden withdrew from the Presidential race, Harris was in Las Vegas to launch the AANHPI for Biden-Harris coalition. A week later, a day before Biden's announcement, she was the keynote speaker at a Presidential Town Hall of AANHPI leaders in Philadelphia.
New excitement among AANHPI voters
Indeed, Harris ascendency to the top of the ticket has stirred up the AANHPI communities, which in a poll showed strong support for the Biden-Harris ticket despite an 8% percent drop from 54% in 2022 to 46% this year. The strong majority still tops Trump which garnered only 31% support among AANHPI voters.
“We have been saying for a while that the 24 million strong Asian-American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community is doing well but wasn’t politically engaged in a big way because no one was talking to them. Then you get Harris running for president in 2020, becoming the vice president and there was a burst of energy in the community. Representation matters,” said Shekar Narasimhan the chairman and founder of the AAPI Victory Fund, one of the first of its kind super Political Action Committees (PACs) that supports Asian American candidates.
Harris helped the AAPI Victory Fund create a network with other caucuses of minority groups such as Blacks and Hispanics. “We are smallest of the three but the fastest growing group and have a lot of resources. Harris is aware of the potential. She will tap into it, and her presence will also galvanise the community,” he told the Hindustan Times.
“I join President Biden in fully endorsing Kamala Harris to be our Democratic nominee for President of the United States. I was with Vice President Harris when she spoke at our Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote Presidential Town Hall in Philadelphia last week and for our AANHPI community she made clear that she is one of us, she hears us, and she will empower us. We have seen through her leadership and action that she has always been ready and able to step up to lead this country as its commander-in-chief, and I am one hundred percent behind her,” said Hawaii Rep. Jill Tokuda, vice chair of ASPIRE PAC, which seeks t empower and encourage AANHPI to run for office.
“Representation matters. The first woman. The first South Asian. The first Asian American. The first African American woman. From California. All those things matter to me,” Harini Krishnan told KQED. Krishnan is a long-time Harris supporter from Silicon Valley and the national director for South Asians for Harris, which this week switched its name from South Asians for Biden.
“Representation matters. The first woman. The first South Asian. The first Asian American. The first African American woman. From California. All those things matter to me,” Harini Krishnan told KQED. Krishnan is a long-time Harris supporter from Silicon Valley and the national director for South Asians for Harris, which this week switched its name from South Asians for Biden.
One of the first endorsements for Harris came from the Progressive Caucus in Congress led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
"We had the quickest endorsement vote for Kamala Harris as our nominee. I think within a couple of hours, it was done, with a supermajority of all of our members being on board, and so I think this is a great moment for the nation," said Jayapal.
"We had the quickest endorsement vote for Kamala Harris as our nominee. I think within a couple of hours, it was done, with a supermajority of all of our members being on board, and so I think this is a great moment for the nation," said Jayapal.
"As a woman of color myself, ... as a South Asian American, to have her at the top of the ticket is going to push new momentum into our voters across the country."
Harris outreach to Democratic delegations was successful. By Tuesday, she had enough delegates' votes committed to vote for her at the Democrats National Convention in August.
Poll: Harris gains ground
Indeed, by Wednesday, three days after Biden withdrew from the campaign for President and endosed Harris, new polls showed that Harris had closed the gap against Trump to virtual tie. Harris improved the Democrats' chances compared to Biden vs. Trump.
A CNN poll conducted in the days after Biden's announcement, Trump had 49% support among registered voters nationwide to Harris’ 46%, well within the margin of error.r. That’s a closer contest than earlier CNN polling this year had found on the matchup between Biden and Trump.
A CNN poll conducted in the days after Biden's announcement, Trump had 49% support among registered voters nationwide to Harris’ 46%, well within the margin of error.r. That’s a closer contest than earlier CNN polling this year had found on the matchup between Biden and Trump.
"This very well could be a game changer. If we look at 2020 election and saw Indian-American community energized in a significant way both in terms of voters and donors," said Karthick Ramakrishnan, researcher at UC Berkeley and founder of AAPI Data.
"We did a survey of Asian Americans in April and May and favorability ratings for Kamala Harris among Indian Americans were about the same as for Biden and it wasn't great for either of them. It was much better than Trump's approval ratings. This really shakes up the race in a huge way."
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.
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