Michigan Asian-American leaders say a Harris presidency could be gamechanger

BY ANNA LIZ NICHOLS, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—Since her daughter was in middle school, Canton Township Trustee Tania Ganguly said she’s been hearing her daughter say that she’s going to be the first president of the United States of Indian descent.

“You hear that, but when I saw Kamala Harris, that was a possibility right?… That was something that was happening much earlier than I expected,” Ganguly said, remembering the excitement in her Indian-American household in 2019 when now-Vice President Kamala Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrant parents, announced her candidacy for the 2020 election.

About 20% of Canton’s population, the metro Detroit township where Ganguly lives, is Asian American, and around 400,000 Michiganders checked Asian as at least one of their identities in the 2020 U.S. census.

Ganguly emigrated from India more than two decades ago. And when one of the Democratic presidential primary debates in 2019 was in Detroit, Ganguly was thrilled that her daughter, then in high school, could see a presidential candidate like Harris who also came from immigrant parents.

“That made me very excited that we had someone from our community. … I could totally identify with her mother,” Ganguly said.

The pool of Democratic presidential candidates that represented the Black, Asian and LGBTQ+ communities animated a lot of people, Ganguly said, because more people could see parts of their identities in candidates.

“People were very excited that we had a lot of choices. Sometimes people just don’t vote because of representation. They also vote because of the values the person represents and to have somebody that looks like them and represents the values that they have is very important,” Ganguly said.

As the mother of two Black and Asian American daughters, ages 5 and 8, Michigan Sen. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) was also excited to tell her girls that someone like them was running for president.

“We have a Kamala Harris action figurine, and they definitely were excited. We told them on [July 21] that Harris was going to be running and my oldest daughter actually out of the blue made a little campaign sign. It’s even got fringes on it,” Chang said. “I think they’re excited that she’s Black and Asian.”

Seeing someone like Harris campaigning for president is meaningful,  in and of itself, Chang said, because it’s important that a person of those identities recognizes that they are suited for the highest office in the land. And although Democrats will work hard to make the idea of a Black and Asian-American woman president a reality, her campaign has already sent an important empowering message to kids.

Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are the fastest-growing racial population in the U.S. and still managed to put a significant dent in former President Donald Trump’s winning 2016 campaign. Exit polling from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) reflected that about 80% of Asian-American voters favored Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Exit polling from pollsters at Edison Research reflected a 65% preference of AAPI voters toward Clinton.

Even though 90% of Asian Americans are planning on voting in November’s election, about 42% say they haven’t been contacted by either Republicans or Democrats, according to a survey from Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote.

While Trump and Harris have frequented battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, the power of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) voters can’t be ignored, Indian American Impact Executive Director Chintan Patel said. Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia came down to less than 13,000 votes.

“AANHPI voters will tell you that they’ve never been communicated with, no one sending them a mail piece or targeting them with digital ads or calling them trying to mobilize them,” Patel said. “I think that’s been changing, and with the vice president’s candidacy … the South Asian vote can be critical to winning elections. … We’re going to see an increase, I believe, in investment to organize these communities this year and moving forward.”

Harris has already brought out first-time voters, Patel said, as he’s been getting calls from people asking how to get involved in her campaign, how to knock doors and talk with others within the Asian-American community to get involved.

So on top of the $100 million Harris brought in with fundraising within 48 hours of her campaign being announced, Harris is amassing hoards of volunteers, Patel said, namely those who are trying to mobilize communities that have never been tapped by major political parties.

In Harris, voters see the strength of America and that’s exciting, Patel said. Harris would not simply be the first woman to serve as president of the United States, she represents a host of Americans as an Asian American and Black person.

“We believe she will win this November, there’s this sort of this newfound energy to step up and run, because she helps us as a community, reimagine what is possible,” Patel said. “I’ve heard a couple people say you’re going to see within our community, parents telling their kids, ‘Hey, you could be a doctor and you can be an engineer, but you can also be a president now.”

The work of groups who have improved engagement with the south asian american community is admirable, Sen. Sam Singh (D-East Lansing) said after speaking at a Harris campaign event in Lansing last week. Given the historic undervaluing of the voting power of the community, he said, it matters if the Harris campaign harnesses the excitement for her campaign within the Asain American community.

“Because that sort of extreme agenda that you’ve seen under the Trump administration is not something that the traditional, independent or Republican Asian community is comfortable with, when you see what he did to international relations, there’s a lot of concern out there,” Singh said. “I think having somebody who’s pragmatic, like Vice President Harris, is gonna bring a lot of those Independent and Republican Asian voters over to this side.” 

Singh’s parents immigrated to Michigan from India in the 1960s and he went on to become the first Indian American elected to the Michigan state Senate. He remembers the excitement within the South Asian community in 2019 with Harris’ first run at president. That excitement has only compounded as a portion of Gen Z has latched onto the campaign, dubbing Harris as “brat” in honor of musical artist Charlie XCX’s new summer album “brat.”

“She’s young enough where Gen Z and other generations kind of feel a connection,” Singh said of Harris, 59. “When you have presidential candidates sometimes that are in their 80s or late 70s, there’s sometimes a disconnect with that younger generation and so I’m hopeful that having a Harris campaign will make the youth vote an instrumental part of the November elections.”

Young people of all demographics were instrumental in the 2022 election where the constitutional right to an abortion was on the ballot in Michigan. The state of Michigan reported that Michigan had the highest rate of youth voter turnout than any other state.

Rep. Mai Xiong (D-Warren), who emigrated with her family from the Ban Vinai refugee camp in the Loei Province of Thailand as a young child, remembers being 18, having gained her U.S. citizenship in seventh grade, but still not feeling a sense of belonging in America.

“I didn’t have anyone sit me down or knock on my door and say, ‘Hey, can you please vote for me? Because your vote is so important and your voice is valued’ — I didn’t have that,” Xiong said. “So it wasn’t until I became a parent and then I ran for local office and I had to go through this whole process of winning in a campaign that was when I really realized how important every single vote is.”

And so representation was the reason Xiong said she initially ran for office. She joined the Legislature this year, swearing in on “Hmong Means Free: Life in Laos and America” a collection of stories from Hmong refugees, previously serving as a Macomb County Commissioner. 

“Growing up, I didn’t see anyone in office who looked like me, and I went to school in a community that wasn’t as diverse as I would like. And I would turn on the TV and not see people who look like me,” Xiong said. “Now as a mom and as an elected official, my children, they follow me everywhere I go, at the state Capitol, [knocking] doors and at political events. And so they have seen me very much involved in the democratic process.”

Being a mom legislator of four kids ages 5, 7, 9 and 12 can mean having no choice but to bring your kids with you to events and meetings, Xiong said. And she and other moms in her situation have faced criticism for doing so. But as a person who represents a “first” in Michigan as the first Hmong state lawmaker in the state, showing up as all the identities she represents matters, just as Harris showing up as who she is matters.

At one point, Xiong said her oldest daughter said she was going to grow up to be a county commissioner like her mom and it made her think of why she ran for office in the first place.

“I think because she has seen me in that role, that she could actually see herself as a county commissioner, right? And so I think having someone at the highest level of office look like you and also have lived experiences and may have had to overcome the same challenges is just really exciting for the Asian American community and for the Black community. And I’m really pleased that we can all share in this celebratory moment in history.”

READ MORE: Why Kamala Harris has Michigan youth advocates standing behind her

This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.