“A trailblazer”: Indian-Americans react with joy, pride to Harris’s VP nod

Indian Americans forwarded the New York Post’s front page calling Harris “President-in-Waiting.” They sent photos of Harris with her sari-clad relatives, along with videos of the senator from California cooking South India’s dish of choice — masala dosa.

The nomination of Harris, 55, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, comes at a time when Indian Americans are a rising political force in America, with both political parties courting their nearly 2 million eligible voters, according to the Pew Research Center.

“In terms of Indian Americans, Kamala is a trailblazer,” said Neil Makhija, the executive director of IMPACT, an Indian American advocacy and fundraising group.

In an interview with The Washington Post last year, Harris pushed back on the perception that she had not spoken enough about her Indian background, adding that she had been a defender of the South Asian community since as early as 2001, when South Asians were targeted for abuse after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

“I grew up with a great deal of pride and understanding about my Indian heritage and culture,” she said.

Indian Americans voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016, 77 percent to 16 percent, according to the National Asian American Survey, which was conducted soon after the election.

As a voting bloc, Kurien said, Indian Americans are more fluid than other immigrant groups.

Karthick Ramakrishnan, who directs the Asian American Voters Survey, said he expects Harris to help increase the number of votes Biden receives from Indian Americans, especially among independents.

Of those Indian Americans who are registered to vote, 46 percent said they thought of themselves as Democrats and 19 percent as Republicans, while 35 percent identified with neither party, according to the post-election National Asian American Survey.

Harmeet Dhillon, a civil rights attorney from the Bay Area who is the RNC Committeewoman from California, said both political parties have done little to connect with Indian American voters, other than hitting them up for campaign donations.

Many of her Indian American friends are Democrats who planned to vote for Biden regardless of his running mate, so she wonders how much Harris will help the former vice president expand his support from Indian American voters.

She criticized Harris as not heavily involved with the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California or Indian American civil rights causes during her law career and years as California’s Attorney General.

Ami Bera (D-Calif.) disagreed with that characterization, saying that Harris has always been proud of her Indian heritage and has long been involved in Asian communities, including at events that he attended.

I’ve never seen her run away from her Indian American heritage,” said Bera, whose district is in northern California.

Makhija, whose group hopes to raise $10 million for 70 South Asian candidates this election cycle, says that he sees Harris’s Indian values reflected in her passionate positions about immigration — particularly families separated at the border — and climate change.

He also said Indian Americans have loved her social media posts about food, such as the video with Kaling, where the two cooked the crepelike South Indian dish known as dosa and Harris listed other Indian dishes she makes at home: “Lots of rice and yogurt, potato curry, dal, lots of dal.”.