Indian American ladies of Silicon Valley get to work to swing the election in Kamala’s favor

Abha Shukla Nilita Paul and Amita Shenoi write postcards to voters in Pennsylvania / Venk Shukla

Capturing the South Asian and Asian American and Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) vote might clinch the presidency, said the panelists at the Ethnic Media Services briefing, “All Eyes on AAPI Voters in Swing States.” AANHPI is the fastest-growing voter electorate.

More than 15 million AANHPIs will be eligible to vote on election day Nov. 5, including many first-time voters. They could constitute the margin of victory if they get out to vote in the battleground states. WhatsApp groups in California are putting shoulder to the wheel. The Mobilization and Get Out the Vote efforts are targeted at battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin.  

Abha Shukla reached out to her friends to come write postcards to desi voters in swing states urging them to support the Harris-Walz ticket to the White House. Members of ‘Indian Women for Kamala’ WhatsApp group in Silicon Valley embarked on postcard writing and phone banking bolstered by They See Blue®,  a grassroots organization with a mission to mobilize and engage Americans of South Asian origin to vote for Democrats.

“The three most important factors in any election are turnout, turnout, and turnout,” urged They See Blue®. “Controlled studies have shown that postcards increase voter turnout among irregular Democrat-leaning voters.”

Ladies got postcards from Rajiv Bhateja, a co-founder of They See Blue® (TSB) . They had the option of choosing a target state. “I think we should do Pennsylvania this month and later on decide for next month depending on the situation. Here’s the link to order postcards from TSB: https://bit.ly/tsb-postcards-2024 Sign up to receive 100 postcards for September. We can write 4 a day. They will send along a mailing list,” wrote Manjula Gupta who had started the WhatsApp group. “We can even have our children and grandchildren write the postcards too,” she messaged.

“Many news organizations have identified Pennsylvania as the battleground of battlegrounds. It's where everything is going down. And that means that for our community when we're at the margin of victory we need to step up,” said Seshadri. 

The ladies bought 58c stamps, hosted teas and lunches and got to work. They See Blue® offered to provide stamps to supporters who couldn’t afford to buy the stamps.

Group members worked hard to convince family members, friends, acquaintances and voters in swing states to vote. “Kamala’s mother's story resounds with our story of how we came to this country and how we brought up our children and how all of my friends are my family not related by blood but love! I love our adopted country as naturalized citizens! ,” said Kaveri Bhatt to the WhatsApp group.

“How are the cards coming along? I feel like I’m writing Shiva jap ,” wrote Mona Vijaykar. 

Phone banks 

The ladies of the WhatsApp group were soon invited to volunteer for phone banks. A 20 minute training was organized by Kamala ke Saath for four key swing states: Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan . “Kamala ke Saath is the South Asian phone banks organization that we are working with, through They See Blue,” said Gupta. 

“Hi Punjabi friends! Some of you had signed up to make calls. So, here’s an opportunity. There are 2,000 Punjabi contacts that we have in Pennsylvania. Please come forward and help. You will get all the info and support that you need. It’s not difficult. Thank you! ️,” wrote Manjula Gupta. 

The group soon expanded its scope 

T-shirts with Kamala aunty on them were printed and online distribution set up. Ankur Gupta wrote, sang and produced a YouTube song Kamala Disco to get the energy going. He created a Facebook group called Proud Libs and responded to people “who think that the two U.S. political parties are the same”. Tik Tok songs were recorded and shared. “I created this TikTok video with the Kamala Disco song! Thought I would share,” said Rohini https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTNcFvjTp/

“I’m following Cat Ladies for Kamala, a group on FB I liked this story today,“ shared Gupta. 

These efforts can be instrumental in making a difference to the result 

The panelists at the EMS briefing see tremendous power in outreach to the community.

“We are the reason for victory. Let me give you the data that proves that,” Shekar Narasimhan stated. Narasimhan is Chairman and Founder of the AAPI Victory Fund, one of the first Super Pacs focused exclusively on building the political power of the Asian American Pacific Islander community. “ In the 7 battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, that will basically determine the Presidency of the United States, we have approximately 1.75 million eligible AANHPI voters. The total victory margin in the 2020 Presidential election in these 7 States was 385,000. In the three states which ran the closest race, Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin, the total margin of victory was 45,000. In each of those states if AANHPI vote was three per cent or four percent, it has been material to the outcomes of these elections,” said Narsimhan. 

The number of Indian Americans who are eligible to vote has increased in the states key to the election. In Georgia, for example, the Indian American population has doubled since 2010. Michigan has one of the fastest growing Indian American communities, said Narasimhan. With the advent of AI robotics and the reimagination of the car industry around EVs. Michigan is one of those states where there are well over 23,000 AANHPIs, particularly Indian Americans, he said. 

Panelist Christine Chen, co-Founder and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIA Vote), pointed to the key findings from the Asian American voters survey, which was released in July. The survey results showed that in 2021 in Georgia the margin of victory was less than 12,000 votes. The number of Asian American Pacific Islander who voted in 2020 in Georgia was over 142,000, 26 percent being first-time voters. “If you do the math. that's about 39,000 voters, three times the margin of victory,” said Chen.

Mohan Seshadri, Executive director of AANHPI political alliance from Pennsylvania has been working on getting the Asian Americans to vote. He has been championing causes close to the hearts of the Asian community.“When we launched in 2020 we doubled the Asian American vote in Pennsylvania, and that doubling provided half of President Biden's margin of victory in PA,” said Seshadri. 

“Michigan is one of those states where there are well over 23,000 AANHPIs, particularly Indian Americans.”

How can we get the first time voter into that civic engagement ladder that is first register to vote and then vote?

“In 2020, which was the most virtual campaign, and AANHPIs are among the most active on social media and using computers and automation even in that year almost half our community was not reached directly by a campaign, " said Chen.

This election to advance the cause of Asian American political power and justice the panelists said their organizations were leaving no stone unturned.

“In 2022 we ran a year-long voter contact program, and we were successful in flipping the Pennsylvania State House,” said Sehsadri. This year his organization wants to ensure that the Asian Americans know how to vote and also are informed about how the candidates up and down the ballot will actually fight for their communities. In Pennsylvania they plan to send a million pieces of mail in the languages the PA community speaks, with representation not just from Vice President Harris and Senator Casey, but also the 25 State House, State Senate, and Congressional races all across the State. They plan to knock on 500,000 doors in 22 languages and make 5 million phone calls in 22 languages.

They will speak to the voters on issues that matter to them and where each candidate stands on issues like immigration, undocumented workers, small business capital formation etc. Well over 1.3 million AANHPIs are undocumented. 65% of AANHPI are most concerned about economic policies and educational equity, said Rina Shah, a strategic consultant, millennial entrepreneur, & media commentator based in Washington, DC

We are investing close to 7 million dollars this year. We are sub-granting about 3 million to local partners and then we're also using that to actually reach 2 million households with in-language mailers. 

Ambivalent voters could cost the Democrats the presidency, says Aseem Shukla who wrote “ Five kinds of places that win you Pennsylvania” in the Philadelphia Inquirer.  Suburbs and the inner cities must show up to vote.

National Voter Registration Day on September 17th is coming up. On the Asian hotline on election day there have been callers in the past asking how do I vote? If they never registered to vote they can’t !  

“Jai Ho!!!
️️️,” wrote Manjula Gupta to the ladies on ‘Indian Women for Kamala’ WhatsApp group.