This issue is sponsored by the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium.

New Jerseyans head to the polls today to determine candidates for November’s midterm elections, when all 12 of the state’s congressional seats and one U.S. Senate seat will be on the ballot.

This marks the end of a months-long primary campaign cycle that saw a wave of young New Jersey politicians challenge incumbents for their seats, including several South Asians. While the New Jersey legislature has several Desi members, the state has never elected a South Asian for federal office. 

For the Desis who are running, campaigning has come with the burden of navigating growing inflammatory rhetoric against immigrant communities.

Jay Vaingankar, a former Biden administration and Department of Energy official, is running for the Democratic nomination in New Jersey's 12th congressional district. A few months ago, after a campaign ad of him speaking in Hindi gained traction online, he received a flurry of threats and anti-immigrant hate.

“I watched as Laura Loomer and End Wokeness and all these MAGA Twitter accounts picked up the video, blasted it with claims that I don't speak English, that I'm invading the country, and it escalated to calls for me to be hanged, calls for blood to be spilled,” he told Central Desi.

According to a report by Stop AAPI Hate, 48% of South Asian adults surveyed said they experienced targeted hate in 2025. An AAPI Data survey found that in the past year, two out of 10 Asian American and Pacific Islander adults experienced a hate incident, such as verbal harassment or cyberbullying.

Some advocacy groups have said this rise in hate is exacerbated by the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, including a recent incident in which President Donald Trump reposted a podcast transcript criticizing Indian and Chinese immigrants.

So, why do young Desis like Vaingankar still want to run for public office?

“It doesn't discourage me, it actually reminds me why I'm doing this — to stand up and make sure that communities like ours aren't left in the shadows,” Vaingankar said. “There are so many folks that want communities like ours to give up on the political process.”

Mussab Ali, a congressional candidate for New Jersey’s 8th district and a former president of the Jersey City Board of Education, said his first foray into politics began 10 years ago in response to similar hate targeted at the Muslim community in Jersey City. 

“2016 was really when I started to care about politics,” he told Central Desi. "It's when Trump has that infamous quote about Jersey City — when Trump says thousands of people were celebrating on the rooftops of Jersey City during 9/11. That's when I really started to think, ‘How do I think about politics myself?’”

Two years later, Ali ran and won a seat on the Jersey City Board of Education, becoming the first Muslim elected to public office in the city. 

Ali worked with unions to pass policies including raising the minimum wage for district employees and increasing teacher salaries. For Ali, progressive ideas like these are widely popular with the American electorate and appeal to voters beyond the left. 

“I always think about campaigns as trying to be as broad of a tent as possible. Everyone should feel welcome in our campaign, whether you're a centrist or a moderate,” he said. “I don't see our campaign as fighting for issues that only people on the left care about. I see our campaign fighting for issues that the vast majority of Americans care about.”

In 2025, Ali ran on a similarly progressive platform in Jersey City’s mayoral election. Ali credits his conversations with voters during this campaign for revealing the need for better congressional representation in the district.

“We heard a lot from people, even in the mayoral campaign, folks talking about health insurance, immigration, foreign affairs, things that were happening around the world. And it all goes back to the central theme around affordability,” he said. “I just realized that at the federal level, there was so much more that we could do for our residents in terms of advocating for the things that they believed in.”

After losing the general mayoral election in November, Ali helped James Solomon win a mayoral runoff election in December. By January, he had announced his run for Congress.

Ali’s current campaign is focused on making public transportation and healthcare more affordable for constituents, as well as safeguarding immigrant communities from ICE.

Vaingankar’s campaign also targets affordability, an issue on which he says establishment Democrats have lost the public’s trust.

“There are Democrats who've been in elected office for 10, 20 years that will say ‘It's my turn, and I've been around the longest,’ but it's very clear the status quo isn't working,” he said. “The people who have led New Jersey or led the U.S. federal government for decades have not been able to solve this affordability crisis, and I think it's time for new leadership.”

During his time at the Department of Energy, Vaingankar worked on the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided tax credits and direct rebates to American households switching to clean energy. 

Now, as Trump administration legislation like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts these programs, Vaingankar said Democrats are realizing an incrementalist approach to affordability is untenable. 

“I think Democrats are finally starting to realize that not building housing or not building new clean energy or continuing to make healthcare a for-profit enterprise has blocked a whole new generation from being able to afford to live in this state,” he said.

Both Vaingankar and Ali are running at a time when Desis are becoming larger players in American politics. The past few years have seen the first South Asian vice president, the first South Asian chair of the Federal Trade Commission, and, most recently, the first South Asian mayor of New York City.

For South Asian constituents, this type of representation can feel empowering and encourage political participation. A 2024 AAPI Data survey found that 70% of Indian Americans find electing more Indian Americans at least “somewhat important.”

Last year, when Zohran Mamdani ran in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, he handily won neighborhoods with large Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian communities, including Jackson Heights, Kensington and Richmond Hill. The New York Times reported his multilingual campaign “boosted turnout among new voters in Muslim and South Asian neighborhoods.”

Despite this momentum, gaps in representation for Desis still persist. Only seven out of 535 voting members of Congress are of South Asian descent. 

“The South Asian community has taken major leadership roles in technology, in engineering, in the legal world, and we sort of shied away from politics because there's a lot of fear in our community about seeking the spotlight,” Vaingankar said.

The tide is changing. In 2026, Desis are running for Congress other states as well, including New York, Illinois and Florida. Others like Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman or Maine gubernatorial candidate Nirav Shah have captured public attention as frontrunners in their races.

“South Asians bring a very rich set of beliefs and a very rich set of backgrounds to America, and I think that we've really improved the American story as all other minority groups do,” Ali said. “I think that we should not be afraid to be like ‘Hey, I shouldn't just see myself as a passive observer of the American project, but someone who can be actively involved in what it means to be an American.’”

Astha Lakhankar is a freelance reporter for Central Desi. While at Rutgers University, she served as managing editor of the student-run newspaper, The Daily Targum.

June 5 - A Traveler Weeps, A River Laughs Exhibition
Opening Reception: June 5th @ 5:30-8:00 PM
Twelve Gates Arts
106 N 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA
Twelve Gates Arts presents “A Traveler Weeps, A River Laughs,” opening June 5 as part of ArtPhilly 2026. The exhibition brings together artists Alexei Mansour, Mir Masud-Elias, sāgar kāmath, and Shehrezad Maher in work that holds more than one truth at once about place, myth, and what remains when official narratives run dry. Spanning film, poetry, and mixed-media installation, and made in the context of America's 250th year, this is not a commemoration. Rather, it is a record of what was laughed at, of what was lost, of what is still being made. Details here.

June 10 - Log Kya Kahenge? — Roadmap to Change the Narrative
Wednesdays, June 10, 17 & 24 | 8:30–10 PM ET
This three-part virtual series is specifically for South Asian parents of trans and non-binary children — and it begins from a place most workshops never reach: you don't have to explain your culture, define your traditions, or translate the weight of "log kya kahenge" before the real conversation can start. You can simply begin.
These peer-led sessions bring together Desi parents who have walked this road and found their way to a place of deep pride and joy. Together, participants will untangle cultural expectations, practice the intergenerational conversations they've been putting off, and reclaim traditions — from Raksha Bandhan to family blessings — as the protective gifts they are meant to be. Registration is limited to 20 participants. More information here.

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