Vice-President Kamala Harris's ascendancy marks the growing political clout of Indian-Americans in the US — and potential divides. A tight race between Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump means that the Indian-American vote matters.
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00:00Celebrating India in America.
00:03California has among the largest Indian American populations of any state in the country.
00:08And commemorating Indian Independence Day is a chance for the community here to come together in music and dance.
00:15And to many here, seeing a Californian Indian American potentially become the next president is cause for celebration too.
00:23Kamala Harris, she's one of the best that we have.
00:27Highly educated and then she really delivers on her promise.
00:32Everyone is super excited about her candidacy and we are super jazzed and we're going to go vote for her.
00:38Getting Kamala Harris elected is of personal importance to Ajay Bhattoria.
00:43He came to the U.S. nearly 30 years ago from India as a student.
00:47Today, he's become very active in fundraising for democratic campaigns.
00:51He says he's known the vice president since she was a district attorney in California.
00:56She represents the 4.4 million Indian American.
00:59To see that we came from India with two suitcases and then made a life for us
01:04and now see to someone who represent our color, our, you know, from the same background and origin
01:11to get elected as the next president of the United States, it's such a matter of pride and joy
01:16and that also brings hopes to millions of kids, you know, that, hey, one day we can also be something.
01:24To Ajay, Kamala Harris represents someone able to understand the issues affecting his community,
01:29like the economy and immigration.
01:32So it is important that we have people at the higher level of the policymaking, you know,
01:38level where our voices are heard.
01:41There are a lot of issues which are important to our community, immigration being one of the most important,
01:45where, you know, thousands and thousands of people are stuck in the green card backlog.
01:50So someone who could raise the issues.
01:53So I thought that, you know, I have an opportunity to bring,
01:58give a voice to the people who are not involved and bring the issues
02:03as well as also connect the community with the administration
02:06and connect the administration with the community
02:09and also build stronger, you know, relationships all around.
02:15But Kamala Harris is far from the only Indian-American figure
02:18that's risen to political prominence on the national stage.
02:22The nation has only recently been introduced to Usha Vance,
02:25wife of Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance.
02:29Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy have become surrogates for Donald Trump
02:33after their own Republican primary campaigns ended.
02:36But Karthik Ramakrishnan, a political scientist studying the 2.2 million strong
02:41Indian-American voting base, says Indian-American-ness is a factor,
02:45but it's just one among others.
02:47And to see people like Haley and Ramaswamy do as well as they did is remarkable.
02:53That said, most Indian-Americans still identify as Democrat,
02:57where they stand on issues ranging from the environment to gun control
03:02to health care is much closer to Kamala Harris
03:05than it is to people like Haley and Ramaswamy, right?
03:09And so ultimately, that's what is going to matter.
03:12Of course, having someone who comes from one's community
03:16might make a difference in terms of the amount of energy in the base,
03:20but party is still more important than shared race or ethnicity.
03:26That cuts both ways.
03:27On the other side of the country, Priti Pandya Patel
03:30of the South Asian Republican Coalition is trying to get the vote out
03:34for the GOP in New Jersey,
03:36another state with a high Indian-American population.
03:40I mean, it does give me good pride, right,
03:42to see somebody that is one of our own that's up there.
03:46So yes, of course.
03:48But I don't agree with a lot of her views and a lot of her policies and things.
03:52And so, of course, there is always going to be that disconnect.
03:56One of the biggest things, I think, is immigration, right,
04:01where she was in charge of, you know,
04:04making sure the border was protected,
04:06and she really didn't do a good job at that.
04:08And now she's coming back saying that,
04:10I want to do something, I think we should protect the border,
04:13and, you know, things that she's saying that she should have done
04:17or she's going to do, she should have done already
04:20because she's vice president.
04:23She organizes roundtables of supporters like this one.
04:27We're having a discussion about how the Indian community
04:30has come up, you know, recently.
04:32One of the questions that we propose as part of the discussion is,
04:35with having Kamala Harris vice president and Mushab,
04:40do you feel that there's going to be an increase in the voting?
04:44So I see a mixed bag.
04:46I see a mixed bag in the sense there are a lot of Trump supporters,
04:49but there are also now anti-Trump people
04:53who wanted actually Nikki Haley to be the candidate.
04:59And then when she didn't get it,
05:01this part wanted at least him to get her.
05:04And in their opinion, if he had gotten Nikki Haley,
05:09right now he would be in a very strong situation
05:12compared to Kamala Harris.
05:14Amongst your friend circles,
05:16how are you thinking that they're going to go out?
05:21The moment Biden dropped out
05:23and Kamala became the presidential candidate,
05:26everyone was excited.
05:32As in every diaspora,
05:33the Indian-American community is not a monolith.
05:36Their motivations and aspirations are nuanced.
05:39But it is an increasingly active and growing political force,
05:42whether in the halls of power themselves or in the voting booths.
05:46In an election that promises to be tight,
05:48that force will make itself felt.