Kamala Harris’ ancestral village in India prays for election victory

Kamala's prayer warriors are in formation.

Nov 3, 2020

Supporters of Kamala Harris in Thulasendrapuram, India, a village about an eight-hour drive from Chennai can’t vote for her in the presidential election but they’ve found another way to show their support.

Thulasendrapuram is the village where Harris’ maternal grandfather was born. So on Tuesday, as many Americans are heading to the polls to support Harris, some people in Thulasendrapuram are doing so through prayer. Dozens of folks gathered at a Hindu temple to say prayers and deliver flowers and jasmine in support of Harris on election day.

“She is the daughter of the village’s soil,’ a housewife named Lalitha, told the New York Times. “The position she has attained is unbelievable.”

After the good luck ceremony ended, people gathered to enjoy idli and sambar, South Indian dishes elders say are a favorite of Senator Harris.

Presidential Candidate Joe Biden And Running Mate Kamala Harris Get Briefed On Coronavirus — Presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris listens as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden speaks following a coronavirus briefing with health experts at the Hotel DuPont on August 13, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Harris is the first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to be a presumptive nominee on a presidential ticket by a major party in U.S. history. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Harris’ father’s side of the family is Jamaican and Floridian Jamaicans have also been very vocal in their support.

According to NBC News, Jamaicans in the battleground state are showing her love.

“She is a wife, a stepmom, an auntie, she can cook, she can dance,” said Rep. Anika Omphroy, who is a first-generation Jamaican like Harris. “She has a good sense of humor and appeals to working-class people, to the middle class, as well as corporate men and women. She is able to relate to everyone.”

In 2020, Florida has about 14 million registered voters and 29 electoral votes. So as Joe Biden and Harris target the state’s Latin voters they are also honing in on the Caribbean community such as the one in Broward County. The mostly Democratic community not only wants to support a fellow Jamaican but also defeat Trump.

According to Antoinette Henry, director of corporate relations at the Dutch Pot Jamaican Restaurant that has locations throughout South Florida, folks are coming out to support Harris even if they don’t usually vote.

“The fact she has a lineage means you are going to see a lot of Jamaicans voting even if they were not doing so before. Part of Jamaica will be in the White House,” Henry told NBC.

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