Mumbai-born eminent author Salman Rushdie has endorsed front-runner Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, saying she is the only person who can stop Donald Trump from taking America towards authoritarianism.
Rushdie is the latest Indian-origin celebrity to endorse Indo-Jamaican politician Kamala Harris. Support from three out of five Indian-American representatives,
“It’s an important moment. I’m a Bombay boy and it’s great to see an Indian woman running for the White House. And my wife is African-American, so we like the fact that a black and Indian woman is running for the White House,” news agency PTI quoted Rushdie as saying.
The author expressed his support for Kamala Harris at a virtual event ‘South Asian Men for Harris’, attended by several prominent names from the Indian-American community.
Kamala Harris’s approval ratings have surged and prominent figures, including the Obama couple, are rallying behind her. US President Joe Biden withdraws from the raceHe is facing investigation regarding his health.
However, Salman Rushdie made it clear that it was about leader Kamala Harris, not just shared ethnicity.
“We don’t gather like this for, say, Usha Vance or Nikki Haley,” Rushdie said. Indian-American wife of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance and Indian-American former governor of South Carolina.
He said that in just one week, something “extraordinary, transformative” had happened in American politics.
“The conversation has completely changed with the advent of Kamala Harris’ candidacy, and it has most hearteningly changed, to a place of optimism and positive, forward-thinking,” he said.
Kamala Harris officially announced her candidacy after Biden withdrew from the race for a second term on July 20. She is expected to be officially declared as the presidential candidate by the Democrats next month.
Rushdie stressed that the community must do this work because “we cannot allow the alternative to happen”, calling Trump a “hollow man”.
He said, “This hollow man, who does not have a single great quality, is trying to drag this country towards dictatorship. This cannot happen.”
Rushdie expressed confidence that Harris was “the person who can stop this. And so I’m 1,000% for her.”
He said star power matters in America and it could be argued that Trump’s celebrity status from being on TV for many years helped him get elected to the White House in 2016.
“Right now he doesn’t look like a star. He looks like an old, fat man. Kamala looks like a superstar. And I think the charisma she brings to the campaign could be important in the weeks to come,” he said.
Rushdie called on people across the US, including the writing community, to “use every power we have, whether it’s speaking, writing, debating. We have to win this debate. And writers are very good at debating. So I think we will do our best.”
Noting that the November 5 presidential election is just 100 days away, Rushdie said “not a minute is worth losing”, urging “aunties” and families to come out in large numbers and vote for Harris.
Responding to a question that there are skeptics in the country who believe that America will not elect a black and Indian-origin woman as president, Rushdie said that this argument might have been made even a decade ago, but times have changed.
“I think the way female leadership is viewed now is different. The way the issue of race can be made positive is a new thing. And so I think there’s no reason why Kamala Harris shouldn’t win and in fact she could win easily,” Rushdie said.
Emphasising that the situation is changing, Rushdie cited a recent media poll that put Harris on a par with Trump, “which is a huge jump from the last Biden poll”. “And it hasn’t even been a week yet. We can do this. We just have to believe in it,” he said.
Co-hosted by Sri Srinivasan, CEO and co-founder of full-service digital agency Digimenters, the event was attended by several prominent names including Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois, Co-founder of South Asians for Harris Harini Krishnan, and Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija.