Local and state politics trumped the national mandate in making it a historic year for Indian-Americans. While an overwhelming proportion of the community supported Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton only to see her lose, at least four Indian-American Democrats made it to the U.S. Congress, a banner year for the community on the national political stage.
As ballot boxes closed on election night Nov. 8, and it became clear that Republican candidate Donald Trump was going to be the president of the United States, polls also showed that four Indian-American Democrats won their races to Congress from around the country; one has not conceded, and one lost the bid to unseat a Republican incumbent.
But the national election took precedence in the minds of most Indian-Americans watching the results unfold on their screens after more than a year’s work of campaigning and building support for what they thought was their White House.
“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 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.” But Trump in his acceptance speech, moderated his election rhetoric and said he would work to unite all Americans behind him.
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.
North Carolina State Senator Jay Chaudhuri, who won his election by a 35 point lead over his Republican rival, acknowledged that anyone who won the election would have to address the economic anxieties and bring the nation together, in this case Trump.
Indian-American Candidates
Despite the rocky road for the presidential candidates, the future of Indian-Americans running for office, was assured. It proved that a melting-pot America is alive and well at least for most Indian-Americans – one which sent the first Indian-American woman Senator to Congress, California Attorney General Kamala Harris; the first Indian-American candidate from Illinois, Raja Krishnamoorthi from District 8, to the U.S. House of Representatives; the first Indian-American woman, Pramila Jayapal from District 7 in Washington state to Capitol Hill. It sent back Rep. Ami Bera, D-California, back to Congress even if with a slim margin of just over 2,000 votes.
Democrat Ro Khanna, a former senior Obama administration official, who fought a tough race against long-time Democratic incumbent Mike Honda in District 17 which includes Silicon Valley, said he would not concede the election until all remaining 40,000 mail-in ballots largely from Silicon Valley, were counted. Unofficial results in local media reports showed he was approximately 3,500 votes behind Honda.
Never in the history of the nation had four Indian-Americans become lawmakers, and that too, all of them from the party opposing the President-elect.
Krishnamoorthi said the election of several Indian-Americans 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.
Bernie Sanders supporter Peter Jacob, the candidate for Congress from New Jersey’s District 7, lost to Republican incumbent Leonard Lance by 15 percent, according to a report from Indo Asian News Service.
North Carolina State Senator Chaudhuri, who was appointed to fill the remainder of his predecessor’s term as State Senator in April this year, was a shoe-in and won his seat Nov. 8 by 35 percentage points he told this correspondent, 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 he was far behind his Democratic competitor during the open primaries in that state and was not expected to win. The same was the case with Pennsylvania attorney Neil Makhija, born and brought up in the U.S., who ran as a Democrat for the state House from District 122.
Meanwhile, Ohio State Representative Niraj Antani, a Republican, kept his seat from state assembly District 42, winning re-election with a massive lead of 63.17% to his opponent’s 36.83%, Antani announced via email.
“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 Chaudhuri. Reactions
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,” said Raja Krishnamoorthi, 43. “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. Clinton, in her concession speech Nov. 9, urged Millennials to continue their engagement in the political system.
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 have been a breaking of the glass ceiling, and that would be something Millennials would have welcomed.
“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.”
“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 supporter 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 were Clinton’s close advisors and outreach staff; and on the other side were Raj Shah, the GOP’s director of Research and deputy director of Communications, who designed an RNC campaign agenda against Clinton.
“But our surveys have indicated pretty strong rejection of Donald Trump, (by Indian-Americans) 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 contended. 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 and Trump campaigns, and how many executive positions will go to Indian-Americans in a Trump administration. The Obama administration raised the profile of the community with numerous top appointments the President made during his 8 years in office, including to the federal judiciary. It remains to be seen if that trend will continue over the next four years.
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