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As election night Tuesday edged closer to midnight the nation waited on tenterhooks as projections for president of the United States swung from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to Republican nominee Donald Trump. The New York Times changed its predicition midway. Only a few hours earlier in the day, it had said Clinton had an 86 percent chance winning, but two hours before midnight, it changed the narrative to one of Trump having a 54 percent chance to win.
“Oh my gosh, I’m may be a faint-hearted Clinton supporter, but at this time I’m for her,” said Amit Prakash, a former staunch Bernie Sanders supporter as he watched results role in showing Trump headed to a possible victory.”But I’m not shocked at all about this wake-up call for those who live in bubbles,” said Prakash, adding that Trump was all too American. “Racist speeches have mobilized voters in a hallowed American tradition.”
North Carolina state Senator Jay Chaudhuri, who won his election by a 35 point lead over his Republican rival, said the results were still too close to call. “But clearly whoever wins will have to address the economic anxieties and bring the nation together,” Chaudhuri added.
Millennial Aakash Patel, a Republican activist and gubernatorial appointee in Tampa, Florida, said a possible Trump win was very exciting because he is a small businessman from an immigrant family and the real estate tycoon signaled the ability to break the barriers and fight so many opponents during the primary and win. “For Indian-Americans it’s great to witness a businessman who defied all odds,” Patel said.
Indian-American Candidates
Despite the rocky road for the presidential candidates, the future of Indian-Americans running for office, appeared more predictable. Three Indian-American Democrats were poised to win their races for Congress; one if not two candidates were in a nail-biting finish in California; and one in New Jersey had a difficult if not impossible task of dislodging a Republican opponent.
“It reflects the political maturity our community is slowly reaching where we are fielding highly intelligent, accomplished and strong candidates at a time when the public wants practical problem solvers,” said North Carolina State Senator Jay Chaudhuri, who won his seat from District 17, Nov. 8 to become the first Indian-American state Senator in southern United States.
Most Indian-Americans interviewed for this report said they felt this was an election about the future of an America shaped by waves of immigrants in the past, and a future that was critical for Millennials who probably outnumber the baby boomer generation today and face massive challenges ranging from college tuition and healthcare to climate change. “Millennials care about very important issues like climate change and affordable higher education,” Krishnamoorthi, 43, told Desi Talk. “But in my experience, they are deeply concerned about the underprivileged, about discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or gender. Millennials believe Hillary Clinton is the best choice for that,” he added.
Prakash, 40, a staunch Bernie supporter said in this election Millennials had “moved the needle in terms of the pressure from the Left on the Clinton campaign. “These are millennials across the demographics of gender or ethnicity,” Prakash told Desi Talk, “But whether that translates into continued activity after the election is a different matter.”
A Hillary Clinton win, Patel said, would be a breaking of the glass ceiling, and that would be something Millennials would have welcomed.
Multiplication Over Division
That melting pot America is alive and well at least for most Indian-Americans – one which can celebrate sending an Indian-American candidate from Illinois, Raja Krishnamoorthi from District 8, to the U.S. House of Representatives; promising a win for the first Indian-American from Washington state to Capitol Hill, Pramila Jayapal from District 7; and registering an impending win for the first Indian-American to the U.S. Senate from California, Kamala Harris, as this went to press.
According to Krishnamoorthi, Clinton’s win signals the victory of “multiplication and addition over division and subtraction.”
As for the election of several Indian-Americans and the number of them trying for elected office, Krishnamoorthy said it continued the age-old tradition of assimilation in America. “Indian-Americans are like every other group that has immigrated – they establish themselves and then they give mightily to their country. Indian-Americans will play a greater role in the civic life of this nation in years ahead,” Krishnamoorthi predicted. His views were echoed by Harmeet Dhillon, the Republican National Committeewoman from California on the RNC. “This election shows a national evolution of an immigrant diaspora. Indian-Americans are more engaged in this than in previous elections and a lot of that has to do with social media, growing awareness, younger people energizing the vote.” But, she contended, there was still a level of apathy in the community.
Two candidates from California, Democratic Rep. Ami Bera from the 7th District, and candidate Ro Khanna from District 17, encompassing Silicon Valley, were still in tight races in the last hours of voting. Karthick Ramakrishnan, director of AAPIData.com and professor at University of California, Riverside, predicted a win for Bera, but was hesitant to give a clear chit to Khanna by press time.
Results for Peter Jacob, running from New Jersey’s District 7, were not yet available, but even if he lost, he may have brought out more votes for Democrats in a Republican leaning district, against incumbent Leonard Lance.
Chaudhuri, who was appointed to fill the remainder of his predecessor’s term as State Senator in North Carolina in April this year, was a shoe-in and won his seat Nov. 8 to become a full-fledged elected official representing District 16.
The fate of San Jose City Councilman Ash Kalra running for California State Assembly as a Democrat from District 27, was not known by press time. But it would be a potentially difficult win as he was far behind his Democratic competitor during the open primaries in that state which pit the top two vote getters regardless of party affiliation against each other Nov. 8.
Attoreny Neil Makhija, also a Democrat, born and brought up in Pennsylvania, ran for the state House from District 122 which had been a Democratic leaning district until 2010 when it went Republican. The graduate of Sarah Lawrence College with a Harvard Law School degree ran against an incumbent Republican Doyle Heffley, in the hope of taking it back.
Reactions
“I voted for Hillary Clinton but it was a real clothespin-to-the-nose vote as I am a Bernie supporter,” said author Aruna Gill, of Princeton, N.J. Her family mailed in their ballot days before Nov. 8. In light of the vitriolic campaign rhetoric, Gill said she had developed deep admiration for President Obama’s ability to preserve the dignity of the office through his tenure. For the ordinary American however, she said, Obamacare has “unfortunately become very expensive” and she hopes Clinton will make a difference. “I know friends who are wondering how they will pay the rising prices for insurance under Obamacare,” Gill said.
“This election has been an epic and historical one where choices have never been more clear – with one candidate saying we work best when we work together and another who is tearing us apart,” said Chaudhuri. He acknowledged the angst of sections of the American public supporting Trump. “This election is a transition to the future and a debate about that future. That can produce a lot of anxiety among communities. But ultimately, it is about whether we protect the great American experiment.”
Maryland voter J.D. Chawla, 49, a financial planner, told Baltimore Sun he was “a Republican through and through” and voted for Trump. “This is a very pivotal election, and it changes the dynamic of the future of this country and the economics of this country and the track that we will end up taking significantly,” Chawla said adding that Clinton wanted to tax the wealthy. Everest Chakraborty, 26, told the Sun he was a Bernie Sanders and until recently felt he could not vote for Clinton until he saw a video which showed she had reached across the aisle when she was a U.S. Senator.
In Cleveland, Ohio, Revathi Vasudevan cast her ballot for Clinton in early voting, but says if Ohio Governor John Kasich, a moderate Republican, had stayed in the race, she would have given serious thought to voting for him. She is pleased to vote Clinton in she says, because that for her means preserving the democratic framework of the American system of government.
Karthick Ramakrishnan, director of the non-partisan AAPIData.com and professor at University of California, Riverside sees this election as a “banner year” not just in terms of the number of Indian-Americans making it to Congress, but also in terms of playing very important roles within the campaigns and in the national parties. For example, Huma Abedin, Neera Tanden, Maya Harris, Mini Timmaraju as Clinton’s close advisors and outreach staff; and on the other side, Raj Shah, the GOP’s director of Research and deputy director of Communications, as well as a couple of high-profile Trump supporters.
“But our surveys have indicated pretty strong rejection of Donald Trump, and again shows Republicans have consistently failed to make a dent in the Indian-American vote,” Krishnamoorthi said. “That whole effort by (Chicago businessman) Shalli Kumar playing up the international terror angle for Trump didn’t get much traction either,” Krishnamoorthi said. He was referring to a Chicago businessman’s attempts to swing Indian-American support toward the GOP over the last few months of the campaign.
The question uppermost now is what happens after the election to the Indian-American movers and shakers in the Clinton campaign.
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