Kamala Harris’ campaign launches new ads focused on Asian American voters after Trump questioned Harris’ ethnicity

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will launch two new ads focused on the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community in battleground states, including Pennsylvania, as part of a massive, $90 million ad blitz for the rest of August.

The focus on AANHPI voters comes after former President Donald Trump’s comments on Harris’ mixed-race heritage and attempts to delegitimize her as both Black and South Asian American.

Harris is the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father. She has always embraced both identities.

“She definitely understands that this is a very fast growing demographic group in our country and there’s certain issues that face our communities,” said Philadelphia Councilmember Nina Ahmad, who is in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. “We have to understand the needs within [the AANHPI community] and she understands that, which makes it amazing to have, at the very top of the ticket, someone who understands the nuance in the AANHPI community.”

Two new ads will air on AANHPI-focused television channels along with online outlets, including Meta, YouTube and iHeart Radio beginning this week.

One spot highlights the Biden-Harris administration’s work on the Affordable Care Act, which reduced the number of uninsured AANHPI people by 63%, the campaign said.

The second ad focuses on Trump’s anti-Asian rhetoric and subsequent spike in anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These new ads remind Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander voters that the choice in this election is clear for our communities,” Andrew Peng, the Harris-Walz campaign’s AANHPI spokesperson, said in a news release.

Harris’ emergence as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee energized Black and South Asian voters, according to leaders who spoke with the Inquirer soon after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

Ahmad said the DNC had several events geared toward AANHPI voters, and people were energized for Harris’ candidacy.

“People from all different walks of life, different AANHPI identities, are coming together and we are so excited and thrilled,” Ahmad said.

Harris’ identity has already netted her a number of historic firsts in politics.

She was the first person of color to become San Francisco district attorney, the first woman, first Black person, and first South Asian person to become California’s attorney general, the first South Asian American U.S. senator and the first Black person, Asian American and woman to serve as vice president.

When Biden exited the presidential race in July and endorsed Harris to run in his stead, she eventually became the first woman of color to earn her party’s support as a presidential nominee.

And when campaigning for then-candidate Biden wore on in early July, Harris made a visit to Philadelphia when she served as the keynote speaker at Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote’s presidential town hall meeting.

More than half a million Asian Americans live in Pennsylvania, making up 3% of the state’s voting population. In Philadelphia, Asian Americans represent 8% of the population.

In late July, Trump claimed that Harris only recently had begun identifying as Black during an antagonistic live interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention.

“She was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went — she became a Black person,” Trump said. “I think somebody should look into that.”

Trump’s comments echoed the time the Republican ex-president entered national politics by falsely claiming that then-President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Since then, Trump has continued to make untrue claims about Harris’ race and Blackness.

Harris attended Howard University, a historically Black institution, in the 1980s and in 1986 pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically Black sorority.