What do Indian-Americans think of Kamala Harris? Transcript DW News Report

Another addition to the CofA Blog Transcript Project 

Photo credit Reuters 2020

“The 9/11 attacks meant many Indian-Americans faced racial discrimination or profiling, or even discrimination by the government. The Democratic party was much better positioned as an anti-discrimination party to attract Indian-American voters.”

Transcript: What do Indian-Americans in California think of Kamala Harris? | DW News from Germany report (linked at bottom)***

Turning to the US elections now.

However Kamala Harris's presidential candidacy goes, her professional and political Journey has already been trailblazing. Her ascendancy marks the growing political clout of Indian-Americans in the country and potential divides. A tight race means the Indian-American vote matters.

Celebrating India in America, California has among the largest Indian-American populations of any state in the country. And commemorating Indian independence day is a chance for the community here to come together in music and dance.

And to many here seeing a Californian Indian American potentially become the next president is cause for celebration too.

“Kamala Harris she is one of the best that we have, highly educated, and then she really delivers on her promise. Everyone is super excited about her candidacy and we are super jazzed and we're going to go vote for her.”

Getting Kamala Harris elected is of personal importance to Ajay Boria. He came to the U.S. nearly 30 years ago from India as a student. Today he's become very active in fundraising for Democratic campaigns.

He says he's known the vice president since she was a district attorney in California. She's represents the 4.4 million Indian Americans,

“We came from India with two suitcases and then made a life for us. And now see someone who represents our color, our you know, from the same background and origin to get elected as the next president of the United States- it's such a matter of pride and joy.

“And that also brings hopes to millions of kids, you know, that hey one day we can also be something.”

To Ajay, Kamala Harris represents someone able to understand the issues affecting his community, like the economy and immigration.

“So it was important that we have people at the higher level at the policymaking levels where our voices are heard. There are a lot of issues which are important to our community- immigration being one of the most important- where thousands and thousands of people are stuck in the Green Card backlog. So someone who could raise the issues- so I thought that I have an opportunity to bring give a voice to the people who are not involved and bring their issues as well as also connect the community with the administration and connect the administration with the community, and also build stronger relationships all around.”

But Kamala Harris is far from the only Indian-American figure that's risen to political prominence on the national stage. The nation has only recently been introduced to the wife of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance. Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy have become surrogates for Donald Trump after their own Republican primary campaigns ended.

But Caric Ramakrishnan, a political scientist studying the . Million strong Indian-American voting base, says Indian American-ness is a factor but it's just one among others. And to see people like Haley and Ramasamy do as well as they did is remarkable.

That said most Indian-Americans still identify as Democrat. Where they stand on issues ranging from the environment to gun control to Health Care is much closer to Kamala Harris than it is to people like Haley and Ramasamy, right.

And so so ultimately that's what is going to matter. Of course, having someone who comes from one's Community might make a difference in terms of the amount of energy in the base. But party is still more important than shared race or ethnicity. That cuts both ways.

On the other side of the country pretty panda Patel of the South Asian Republican Coalition is trying to get the vote out for the GOP in New Jersey another state with a high Indian-American population.

“I mean it does give me good Pride right to see somebody that is one of our own that's up there, so yes of course. But I don't agree with a lot of her views and a lot of her policies and things. And so of course there is there is that always going to be that disconnect.

“One of the biggest things I think is immigration right, where she was in charge of you know making sure the Border was protected and she really didn't do a good job at that. And now she's coming back saying that I want to do something. I think we should protect the border and and you know things that she's saying that she should have done or she's going to do, she should have done already.”

Because she's vice president she organizes roundtables of supporters like this one. We're having a discussion about the how the Indian Community has come up you know recently. One of the questions that we've proposed as part of the discussion-

"On the Republican side you saw the rise of nationalism. This rise of Christian conservatism, given the Indian-American population is religiously diverse, it was really difficult for Indian-Americans to find a political home in the Republican party"

[JUMP TO 7:57 in Video]

People are just coming out in droves in terms of volunteer energy and campaign contributions have skyrocketed as well, so where Harris will likely have her greatest impact is among those who are already leaning towards the Democratic party. To ensure higher turnout but also higher volunteer effort as well as higher campaign contributions now polling backs this up that most uh do identify as Democrats. Why is that? Why not with the Republican party?

“So people might look at the Indian-American community and say you know, you have a population with relatively high education, relatively High incomes, these should be natural constituents for the Republican Party, and in the abstract that may be true. But there are several factors over the last two decades that have made a difference.

One actually the last three decades Bill Clinton, when he was president, he and his administration did a lot of Outreach to Indian-American voters in the 90s.

And then if you look at at the 2000s the 9/11 attacks the September 11th attacks meant that many Indian-Americans faced racial discrimination or profiling or even discrimination by the government. And the Democratic party was much better positioned as an anti-discrimination party to attract Indian-American voters,

Whereas on the Republican side you saw the rise of nationalism. This rise of Christian conservatism, given the Indian-American population is religiously diverse, it was really difficult for Indian-Americans to find a political home in the Republican party, as opposed to the Democratic party.

Now just before I let you go I'm afraid we only have about a minute left but this is not typically a group that you hear that much about in US Politics as a voting bloc.

But it does seem to be one that is growing in influence.

Can you tell us why that is?

So if you look at the Indian-American population compared to other Asian-American populations, they're more likely to be spread across the country. So for example Filipinos and Chinese Americans very heavily concentrated in California, less so for Indian-Americans.

So they are now the largest Asian-American group. They are spread across the country, meaning they're more likely to live in these swing States. And then finally their voting participation is really high.

My research shows that people who come from democratic countries are more likely to participate than those who come from repressive regimes.

And so all of these factors combined with more and more Indian-Americans running for office and winning office- all points to this rapid increase of participation in this critical voting Group.

Well thank you so much for joining us to share your insights.

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Weblogged by Kay Ebeling, volunteering my blog to help Harris/Walz get elected and I'm not even a Democrat. The U.S. will not survive another Trump presidency. 

producing City of Angels Blog since January 2007