Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has long rejected the concept that the U.S. is a racist nation. However when it got here time to announce her 2024 candidacy for president on Tuesday, she started by sharing her identification — and a reminiscence of her hometown.
“The railroad tracks divided the city by race,” she mentioned of Bamberg, South Carolina. “I used to be the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. Not Black, not white, I used to be totally different.”
Haley’s announcement makes her the primary Republican opponent of former President Donald Trump, whose administration she spent two years in as ambassador to the United Nations.
But when Haley, born Nimrata Randhawa to Sikh Punjabi dad and mom, is attempting to make inroads with Indian Americans, specialists say it’s not working.
She doesn’t signify the neighborhood, mentioned Varun Nikore, govt director of the AAPI Victory Alliance, a nonprofit group representing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. In reality, Nikore mentioned, “there’s a large number of points the place she particularly and the Republican Get together are diametrically opposed to the place AAPIs are.”
Haley didn’t reply to NBC Information’ request for remark.
Some South Asians say Haley’s on-and-off acknowledgment of her ethnic background is a routine they’re acquainted with. Nikore, who has adopted Haley’s profession for the reason that starting, says her use of her racial identification usually goes hand-in-hand with perpetuating the mannequin minority fantasy, taking anti-immigration stances and opposing complete training about race within the U.S.
“I feel individuals can see by way of her a lot better now than ever earlier than,” Nikore mentioned. “So she will attempt to discuss her immigrant background, I feel it’s going to fall flat.”
However as Asian Americans turn into extra politically energetic, 2024 presidential candidates throughout the board might be wanting their means, he mentioned.
“Our degree of political sophistication has grown by leaps and bounds,” Nikore mentioned. “And that’s evidenced by turnout charges and by degree of civic engagement on the native degree all the way in which to the highest.”
In accordance to the 2022 Asian American voter survey, solely 15% of Indian American voters are decidedly Republican. Fifty-six p.c are Democratic, and 19% are impartial. Nikore says he sees Haley’s appeal to some older, first-generation Indian Americans, however he doesn’t foresee the neighborhood as a complete getting behind her.
One South Asian and Democratic commentator agreed. “I feel I converse for a complete lot of individuals in saying that Nikki Haley’s values should not the values of the Indian American neighborhood,” Kaivan Shroff tweeted. “She is a deeply cynical and unkind particular person. Her candidacy is just not the sort of illustration we should always rejoice.”
An overwhelmingly Democratic constituency with a big immigrant inhabitants, Asian Americans are involved about racism, well being care entry, gun management and the atmosphere, in accordance to the 2022 survey. Indian Americans prioritize gun management greater than some other ethnic group, and it’s a coverage place that Haley has firmly opposed.
“These are areas the place the Republican Get together and conservatives have type of laid their stake on the way forward for their motion: weapons and reproductive rights,” Nikore mentioned. “They’re going to discover, to their demise, they’re on the flawed facet of as we speak and the flawed facet of historical past.”
Neil Makhija, govt director of the voter-mobilization nonprofit Indian American Impression, mentioned the Biden administration had engaged South Asian American voters in a means Republicans have by no means completed. On Haley’s presidential bid, he mentioned, “I feel it might be laborious for Republicans to put a dent in our neighborhood’s assist, until they reverse course on the nativism and xenophobia that Trump unleashed.”
Nikore says Haley can’t be separated from the racist, Islamophobic and anti-immigrant stances of the trendy Republican Get together. As U.N. ambassador, Haley defended Trump’s govt order banning journey to the U.S. from some Muslim-majority nations in 2017, saying, “It’s not a Muslim ban.”
Utilizing alarmist sentiments to scapegoat immigrants has turn into a bedrock of conservatism, Nikore mentioned, including that Haley’s refusal to stand towards that whereas concurrently touting her personal background will flip voters off.
