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 id — and a reminiscence of her hometown.
“The railroad tracks divided the city by race,” she stated 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 mother and father, is making an attempt to make inroads with Indian Individuals, consultants say it’s not working.
She doesn’t symbolize the group, stated Varun Nikore, government director of the AAPI Victory Alliance, a nonprofit representing Asian Individuals and Pacific Islanders. In truth, Nikore stated, “there’s a large number of points the place she particularly and the Republican Social gathering are diametrically against 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 id typically 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 believe folks can see via her significantly better now than ever earlier than,” Nikore stated. “So she will attempt to speak about her immigrant background, I believe it’s going to fall flat.”
However as Asian Individuals turn into extra politically energetic, 2024 presidential candidates throughout the board will likely be trying their method, he stated.
“Our degree of political sophistication has grown by leaps and bounds,” Nikore stated. “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 line with the 2022 Asian American voter survey, solely 15 p.c of Indian American voters are decidedly Republican. Fifty-six p.c are Democrat, and 19 p.c are unbiased. Nikore says he sees Haley’s attraction to some older, first era Indian Individuals, however he doesn’t foresee the group as a complete getting behind her.
One South Asian and Democratic commentator agreed. “I believe I communicate for a complete lot of individuals in saying that Nikki Haley’s values aren’t the values of the Indian American group,” Kaivan Shroff tweeted. “She is a deeply cynical and unkind individual. Her candidacy just isn’t the type of illustration we should always rejoice.”
An overwhelmingly Democratic constituency with a big immigrant inhabitants, Asian Individuals are involved about racism, well being care entry, gun management and the surroundings, based on the 2022 survey. Indian Individuals prioritize gun management greater than another ethnic group, and it’s a coverage place that Haley has firmly opposed.
“These are areas the place the Republican Social gathering and conservatives have kind of laid their stake on the way forward for their motion: weapons and reproductive rights,” Nikore stated. “They will discover, to their demise, they’re on the mistaken aspect of at the moment and the mistaken aspect of historical past.”
Neil Makhija, government director of the voter-mobilization nonprofit Indian American Affect, stated the Biden administration had engaged South Asian American voters in a method Republicans have by no means executed. On Haley’s presidential bid, he stated, “I believe it will likely be laborious for Republicans to place a dent in our group’s help, except 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 Social gathering. As U.N. ambassador, Haley defended Trump’s executive order banning travel 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 stated, including that Haley’s refusal to face towards that whereas concurrently touting her personal background will flip voters off.
“In the event you don’t disavow essentially the most extremist components in your individual occasion and name out people on their white supremacist, racist phrases and actions, you might be in truth complicit,” he stated. “She made decisions that I believe she’s going to must dwell with for the remainder of her political profession.”
