Ritu Jha-
Excitement and anticipation are palpable in South Asian communities, especially among Indian American grass roots groups, as they rally around Democrat Kamala Harris for president.
South Asians for Biden has instantly transformed to South Asians for Harris, and its rapidly adding volunteers and donors who are thrilled at the prospect of one of their own holding the world’s highest office.
“As soon as Harris became the presidential candidate, we got together and decided to pivot to South Asia Harris,” Neha Dewan, founder of South Asians for Harris told indica.
Dewan recently spoke to indica on what lies ahead and what Harris’ candidacy means for South Asians in America.
“As soon as Harris became the presidential candidate, we got together and decided to pivot to South Asia Harris,” Dewan said. “We started planning our socials, adding people, and talking to different people. We were up and running in just 24 hours after the announcement was made about Harris. The fact that she’s half desi is electrifying to the base and the API community. We’ve already started putting together phone banks and started a ground game in battleground states where we have state directors.”
Dewan said the organization also is figuring out how to do the canvassing, voter registration, voter guides, translations, and inverter guides. After creating the South Asians for Harris, they circulated a Google form asking people if they are interested in social media, communications, or advocacy. They’re collating that list and then reaching out to interested people and getting them onboard.
South Asians for Harris expressed its excitement in a letter to supporters, stating, “This past week has been one of the most historic, as President Joe Biden made the selfless decision to withdraw his candidacy for President and to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President, paving the way for our nation to elect the First Woman, South Asian and Indian American woman, and black woman to become President of the United States… Over the next 104 days, we will be working tirelessly to mobilize the South Asian community nationwide to elect the first female, South Asian, and Black President.”
Dewan said South Asians are “ecstatic, even people in India, we’ve done interviews. Finally, there’s somebody from the community who could actually be the next U.S. president. The fact that she’s female goes a very long way for the community. This person could be making history, and she is one of us.”
Dewan said already having the campaign apparatus in place from 2020 has helped to speed things up.
“We have a database and connections; we know how to do things,” she said. “South Asians for Harris is a grassroots organization. In 2020, during COVID-19, we reached out to people through virtual media and that actually helped us because we were able to have a national movement and be together in one space.”
This time, they have that already set up. They built connections during the 2022 mid-term elections and they’re building on that, now having the capacity and necessary people to do on-ground canvassing. They have more than 11,0000 members. They’lll still do virtual events, but they also now have a ground game, Dewan said.
“Now we can physically go to a temple and a grocery store to register people. We are employing a very different strategy this time. We have more volunteers and more people. After Harris came into the game, the number of supporters ballooned, as more people wanted to be involved.”
Immigration has emerged as a dominant issue in the campaign. As vice president, Biden has tasked Harris with running point on the issue. Dewan said Republicans’ controversial “Project 2025” platform doesn’t bode well for immigrants.
“This administration has been trying to have a pathway to citizenship, and then you have the other administration that wants to come in and take that away,” Dewan said. “This administration has already laid out what they want to do, and immigration is a Congress issue. People always think that the administration is going to be able to change that. But there has to be bipartisan support in Congress. Trump made the green card backlog situation worse when he was President. That backlog was removed by the Biden administration.”
The group is focused on voter registration and turnout. Like they did in 2020, they’re asking people to tag five or 10 others and make sure they come to the polls in November.
Another support group, South Asian Women for Harris, raised $285,000 at a fundraiser recently.
“The South Asian Women for Harris put the event together and we were there as part of this process and spoke about our organization, South Asians for Harris, and informed participants how they can get involved and join us,” Dewan said.
Recently, a coalition of black women announced support for Harris. Along the same lines, there were other groups like the White Women for Harris, Women for Harris, South Asian Women, and South Asian Men for Harris.
“If people identify with something, then that’s fine,” Dewan said. “During the 2020 election cycle, I realized that some people, especially the first generation, did not identify as South Asians. They identified as Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi. I then started councils like the Indian Surviving Council, and similar organizations for Pakistanis, Nepalis, and Bhutanis, because I realized that people may not tune into South Asians for Biden, but they probably would work as Indians for Biden. However, all of these councils were part of South Asians for Biden. So, if you’re reaching groups in a targeted way, because it would not have catered to you otherwise, then why not? The goal is the same, we’re creating partnerships for the prize – the presidency.”
