NJ Desi voters cautiously optimistic about Harris

Kamala Harris’ unexpected presidential campaign is being met with warmth, excitement and cautious optimism by many members of New Jersey’s South Asian community.  

A key question going into November’s election is whether the current vice president will be able to galvanize Democratic voters who were lukewarm on supporting President Joe Biden. While New Jersey is reliably Democratic in national elections, concerns about Biden’s health and his staunch support of Israel had led many South Asians in New Jersey to express hesitancy about voting for him.

There are about 500,000 South Asians in New Jersey, one of the largest populations in the country. They are diverse and do not vote as a monolith. While a significant portion, about 80%, of Indians in New Jersey are Hindu, a large portion of the overall South Asian population is Muslim, and the state has one of the nation’s largest Muslim communities. 

“I’m cautiously hopeful about Kamala Harris’s candidacy,” said Sadaf Jaffer, a South Asian Muslim, former assemblywoman and associate research scholar and lecturer at Princeton University. “It is difficult to be enthusiastic at this moment after 10 months of genocide funded by the US government.”

Still, Jaffer sees the possibility of Harris diverging from Biden on her stance regarding the war. 

“I hope that Harris listens to the majority of Americans and the vast majority of South Asian Americans who want to see an end to this carnage,” she said.

A shared background

Among Indian Americans in general, Harris is as popular for her background as she is for her policies. Many say they see themselves in her.

“I’m personally thrilled because her biography is also of mixed race, a child of international students. Like Obama, I think she represents the diverse America we have been becoming for a long time,” said Marina Budhos, an author based in Maplewood. 

Harris’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, grew up in Chennai and came to the United States to study at UC Berkeley and become a doctor. That’s where she met her husband, Donald Harris, an immigrant from Jamaica who became the first Black scholar to be granted tenure in Stanford University’s Department of Economics. 

Deelip Mhaske, a New Jersey-based advocate against caste-based discrimination, said he believes Harris’s family background informs her sense of social justice. 

“Her grandparents were ardent advocates for the abolition of the caste system in India,” Mhaske said. “This influence was evidence when Harris, at the White House  Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, openly condemned caste-based discrimination, asserting that such systems have no place in democratic societies.”

Support for Trump

Indian Americans are strongly attached to the Democratic Party, according to a study of the community by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The Indian American Attitudes Survey, conducted ahead of the 2020 presidential race, found that Harris's candidacy galvanized the community.

"Her candidacy is linked to greater enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket," the study found.

In general, there is a perception among Indians that the Republican Party is intolerant of minorities and influenced by Christian evangelicalism, the study noted. 

Still, a significant portion of Indian New Jerseyans support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who famously appeared with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a “Howdy Modi” rally in Houston in 2019. (Harris was also welcoming of Modi on a more recent state visit last year). 

Laavanya P., an Indian American in New Jersey who asked that her last name not be used, noted that Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, has an Indian wife and mixed-race children.

“It is hard to predict whether politicians with any South Asian heritage are sincerely representing us or just reaching out to us Desis when they need votes,” Laavanya said, adding that she is “not impressed” with Harris. “She does acknowledge her Indian immigrant mom, but I do not think she has done much, if anything, for the South Asian or Indian American community.”

Hitha Palepu, who helped organize a national call to galvanize South Asian women in support of Harris on Wednesday, disagrees. She said Harris’s stance on reproductive freedom, healthcare, voting rights and judicial reform are the reasons she is supporting the candidate.

Palepu’s perspective lines up with the majority of Indian Americans, the Carnegie study found. Despite Trump's friendliness with Modi, US-India relations are not a principal determinant of how Indian Americans vote, it noted.

“Do I feel seen by her as a fellow South Asian woman? Of course I do,” Palepu said. “But I’m voting for her because of what she stands for and what I believe she will do with a Democrat-led House and Senate.”

Outreach to the community

When she was still a vice presidential candidate two weeks ago, Harris addressed a crowd of Asian American supporters at a town hall in Philadelphia. 

She emphasized the work she and Biden have done to ensure the Asian American community is recognized in statistical data by federal agencies, the passage of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act — which makes it easier for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) to report acts of hate — and their fight for reproductive freedom. 

APIAVote, the group that hosted the July 13 town hall, said in a statement that “no prior Democratic candidate has invested earlier, more frequently, and in more mediums where AANHPI voters are than Team Biden-Harris.”

They highlighted that the campaign has sought to combat misinformation through culturally competent and linguistically appropriate resources; organized events and programming that directly engage the community; and hired dedicated staff focused on voter engagement and media outreach in the community. 

In the end, these efforts to engage the community may result in a strong showing of support for Harris. But her administration’s stance on Israel is also likely to shadow her through the race.

During her speech, Harris was interrupted by shouts of “Free, free Palestine.” 

She responded to the activists by saying, “We respect everyone's right to voice their concerns. I am speaking right now, however, and I am going to continue with the topic at hand.”

Ambreen Ali is a longtime politics and policy journalist and the founding editor of Central Desi.

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