Black and Asian American leaders in Philly hope Kamala Harris’ candidacy will energize Democrats

Philadelphia City Councilmember Nina Ahmad stood on a stage at the Pennsylvania Convention Center earlier this month and asked a crowd of Asian American and Pacific Islander voters what representation looked like.

“It looks like having the first ever Asian American and African American woman as our vice president, Kamala Harris,” she said, answering her own question.

Harris was in Philadelphia that day as the marquee speaker at Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote’s presidential town hall, as she sought to defend President Joe Biden’s struggling reelection campaign in the wake of a disastrous debate performance.

Now, just over a week later, Harris — the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father — is poised to make history as the first woman of color to lead a major party’s presidential ticket.

Energy quickly built behind Harris Sunday evening — according to the New York Times, she raised $50 million in less than 24 hours. And that energy was especially apparent among Black and South Asian voters, who see themselves represented in Harris’ historic candidacy. Leaders in Pennsylvania’s Black and Asian American communities speculated Monday that excitement would grow, enabling Democrats to recruit new or disengaged voters.

“If we do the work, and we will, if we inspire, if we mobilize, if we organize, we could see historic turnout in November,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, the first Asian American to serve as a county commissioner in the state and the former leader of an Indian American voter engagement group.

More than half a million Asian Americans live in Pennsylvania, making up 3% of the state’s voting population, while 12.7% of the state’s population is Black. In a critical swing state where the election is expected to be very close, those voters will be pivotal in November. Harris’ candidacy could be especially impactful in heavily Democratic Philadelphia, where more than 39% of the population is Black and 8% of the population is Asian.

Anton Moore, a community organizer and the leader of Philadelphia’s 48th Ward, said Black voters in his South Philly neighborhood are ready to stand behind Harris.

“When you look at the Democratic Party, who is it? It’s Black women,” he said.

State Sen. Nikil Saval (D., Philadelphia), who is the first Indian American to serve in the Pennsylvania Senate, said that while Harris had a story that would resonate with many voters of color, driving engagement off that isn’t always simple.

“It can’t just be invoked,” he said. “To speak to people and to reach people, it has to be substantive.”

Recent polling of Asian American voters showed Biden had lost support among the group but maintained a strong lead over former President Donald Trump. While the poll, conducted by AAPIData in April and May, didn’t track Harris’ chances against Trump, it showed her overall favorability among Asian Americans was slightly lower than Biden’s.

And polls have shown that Trump has more support with Black voters this year, particularly with Black men nationally, than he did in 2020. Biden has still led with that demographic in recent polls, but not as decisively as he did four years ago. It’s not yet clear how Democrats’ switch to Harris would affect polling among Black voters in Pennsylvania.

Deanda Wilson, a Black Mount Airy voter and former federal government employee who has volunteered in local elections and serves as an inspector of elections, was disappointed with what she called a superficial look at Biden’s performance. Still, she’s looking forward to supporting Harris as the Democratic nominee.

“She would be an excellent president, and as soon as I get a chance to breathe, I am going to be out there knocking on doors … to get her elected,” she said.

Philadelphia City Councilmember Cindy Bass, who is Black, said Harris is highly qualified, and she is confident the vice president can win in November.

Still, Bass said she worries Harris will face additional scrutiny due to her identity.

“There’s always some sort of unknown, unspoken, unidentifiable trait that people want to attach to Black women in politics,” said Bass, who leads Philadelphia’s 8th District.

Ahmad points to Harris’ career track record to dispel that idea. Her political career began two decades ago when she was elected district attorney of San Francisco, and she has also served as California’s attorney general and as a senator.

“She has done her due diligence of starting locally and building herself up, so she is supremely qualified,” said Ahmad.

For some AAPI communities, language barriers and access to accurate information also pose a sharp and specific challenge in informing voters the Democratic ticket has changed, said Wei Chen, a Philadelphia community activist who specializes in voter engagement.

“That’s going to be very hard, to reeducate people like, ‘Hey, the presidential candidate is not Biden anymore,’” said Chen, who works with residents who have limited English proficiency.

Mohan Seshadri, who heads the Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance and works to help voters with language barriers, said that Harris — and any candidate — should look at “the full diversity of our communities,” and noted that Pennsylvania’s Asian communities aren’t monolithic and speak more than two dozen different languages.

“Organizationally, a meteor just hit,” Seshadri said of Harris’ rise. “The ground just shifted under our feet.”

The potential for Harris’ nomination also left many Democrats with a sense that it’s time for a woman of color to become president. And that Harris had earned her spot.

Said Salima Suswell, founder of the Black Muslim Leadership Council: “It’s time for a woman to run this country. It’s time for a Black woman to be taken seriously as a leader in this nation.”

Jamila Winder, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and the first Black woman to serve as a Montgomery County commissioner, touted Harris’ qualifications.

“If she gets the nomination,” Winder said, “it’s because of all her education, her experience, her professional experience, her public service experience. She just happens to be a Black woman.”