Vineeta Gupta hosted 20 Indian American women at her home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Fueled by chana masala, naan and rice pudding, they wrote hundreds of postcards in an appeal to fellow South Asians.
Their message: Vote Kamala Harris for the next president of the United States.
Organizing for a political candidate was a highly unusual move for Gupta, a 61-year-old physician and human rights lawyer who immigrated to the US from India in 2003. Despite advocating various social justice causes, Gupta — a registered independent — had never involved herself in electoral politics outside of voting.
That changed last month when Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, rose to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden announced he wouldn’t seek reelection.
Gupta joined several WhatsApp groups of politically activated South Asian Americans. She participated in a “South Asian Women for Harris” Zoom call. She appealed to skeptical women of color on LinkedIn. On August 6, she drove to Philadelphia to watch Harris introduce Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate — Gupta’s first election rally.
“It became impossible not to engage,” she told CNN. “The choice is not about Democrats or Republicans. The choice is between democracy and losing it.”
Many Indian Americans appear to share Gupta’s newfound enthusiasm and urgency. Over the past several weeks, national and grassroots political organizers from the community say they’ve seen a groundswell of support and energy for the Harris campaign.
