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NJ Indian Americans absorb Kamala Harris’ election loss

Harry November 7, 2024

3 minute read

For many of New Jersey’s large Indian American community, Kamala Harris’ surprising defeat to Donald Trump in Tuesday’s election was a tough time to swallow, especially after predictions of a narrow election race failed and Trump was on course for the White House. It’s a bitter pill.

Harris is Indian and Black. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a breast cancer researcher who moved to California from the southern Indian state of Tamilnadu.

The weekend before November 5 coincided with Diwali celebrations in the South Asian community. But missing the meetings and elaborate meals was a small price to pay for Parul Aneja Khemka and other Indian American volunteers campaigning for Harris-Walz.

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In the final rush of carpooling and bus rides to Pennsylvania and after-work phone and text banking, even the tradition of cooking sweet dishes to celebrate Badi Diwali, or “Big Diwali,” had been reduced to preparing a token “halwa,” or dessert. Khemka, co-president of the New Jersey chapter of South Asians, said on behalf of Harris. His family’s Diwali lights came on only on the day of the festival.

Khemka, along with fellow co-chairs Karan Virmani of Scotch Plains and Radhika Menon Sharma of Marlboro, were on a bus to Pennsylvania early Saturday morning and returned at 9:30 p.m. Despite her best efforts, Harris lost Pennsylvania, a blue-wall state that was key to development. The Democrats’ victory opened Trump’s path to victory.

“There was only one worthless kheer made for Diwali in my house,” said Sharma. “We did what we could but kept it to a minimum.”

Virmani is the finance manager of a logistics company, Sharma is a technology worker and Khemka is a volunteer parent advocate. All three are naturalized citizens who immigrated in the 1990s or early 2000s. According to Pew Research, Indian Americans lean Democratic by 68 percent to 29 percent. So for this group, it was shocking that Harris lost in Pennsylvania after trying to get votes for six weeks.

Blood feud in Pennsylvania

While door-to-door campaigns targeted all voters, phone banks targeted South Asian voters. Sharma said some South Asian Muslims did not want to vote in protest of the rising death toll and destruction in the Gaza war, but overall New Jersey-South Asians felt that the more than 200 volunteers working on behalf of Harris were making progress in the neighboring transition. situation.

“The general consensus was that Harris had the necessary votes in Pennsylvania, so I think we’re still in shock,” Virmani said. he said.

“I feel sad. I’m almost numb,” said Virmani, who began volunteering for Biden with South Asians in 2019 and felt Trump voters weren’t listening. Trump’s 2016 presidency motivated Virmani, a father of two, to volunteer with the 2020 Biden campaign. Trump’s MAGA platform has been criticized for being divisive and fear-mongering, demonizing immigrants and denying women’s reproductive rights.

“As a country, we are at a point where we will actually see and learn what will happen in the next 18 to 24 months,” Virmani said. he said. “I say this because it eats me up. By voting for Trump, for example, women voted against women’s reproductive rights. Muslim voters who voted for Trump forgot about the Muslim ban. Latinos have moved past being called rapists and murderers by Trump.”

“When I saw what Trump could do in 2019, I kept asking myself: ‘Is this the America I want them to grow up in, where they can be discriminated against based on how they look or what they eat?’” Virmani said. from his children. “It’s not. So what can I do? What’s in my power?”

“We did a great job on the referendum,” Khemka said. Harris’ loss means all Democrats “need to think about where we’re missing the mark in our messaging. I think we’ve got a lot of introspection to do.”

“We need to lean in and talk about what is driving these votes,” Khemka said. “I’m less angry and more sad that we couldn’t have this discussion honestly.”

‘People did not agree with his policies’

“I don’t know if there’s anything to say other than what the results show,” said Priti Pandya-Patel, a Republican and Indian American from New Jersey. “I don’t think Harris lost because she was a woman. I don’t think she lost because she was Indian. I think she lost because she didn’t have experience and people didn’t agree with her policies.”

Pandya-Patel said the rise in the stock market was evidence that Trump’s victory was a good sign.

Ridgewood resident Niti Mistry, a supporter of Democrat Andy Kim who won the Senate seat once held by former Sen. Bob Menendez, attended his victory speech in Cherry Hill Tuesday night and took a different position. He said misogyny and racism may have played a role, but there were plenty of reasons to vote for Harris that had nothing to do with her identity.

“He is a smart and talented politician and, in my opinion, is better equipped to lead than Trump,” Mistry said. “That’s why we should have voted for him, it’s a loss and it’s a shame.”

Gender and race politics

Patricia Campos-Medina, a Latina advocate and labor leader who ran against Andy Kim and lost in the New Jersey Democratic Senate, said the biggest damage done to Harris was that Democrats inserted her into the race at the last minute after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. The primary was held in June after Tammy Murphy withdrew from the race.

“The Democratic Party should have held a primary and they should have allowed him to run so that he would be better known to all voters,” Campos-Medina said. he said. “Instead, it has absorbed all the anger and anxiety that people have about the economy right now.”

“I don’t subscribe to the politics of despair,” Campos-Medina said. “Harris’ nomination was a miracle as a black and Indian woman.

“Once again, America was not ready to move beyond our gender and race policies that recognize women as supporters of leaders but not as people who can lead,” she said.

“I hope women look at this with courage,” Campos-Medina said. “We have to keep running.”