Trump supporter Shalabh Kumar hopes to influence Indian American voters with $1 million campaign

TOI correspondent from US: Indian American supporter of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, Shalabh Kumar, who is the founder of lobby group Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC), is running a whopping $1.2 million campaign, over the past four days, targeted at Hindu American and Indian American voters.

“Our educational advertisement is running across 40 TV channels every 15 minutes, in the crucial battleground states; pointing out the policy differences between former President Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris regarding India and Hindu Americans. It talks about their past actions and expected future actions if elected,” Kumar told the Times of India.

“Trump has made his support clear about atrocities against Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and in Canada. On the other hand, Harris is Hindu only in her name but has taken a stand against India and Hindus on different issues. Both she and Democratic President Joe Biden are surrounded by several advisors who are known for their radical Islamist and anti-India stand. Harris has also opposed the Indian government and the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership on the issue of the revocation of Article 370 and the status of Kashmir,” Kumar, who raised $1.5 million in 2016 for Trump’s successful presidential campaign, said.

Commenting on the recent last-minute campaign, Kumar said that with Trump’s aides focusing on other issues and priorities earlier, the opportunity to target Indian American voters presented itself only last week when the former president put out a message on social media in support of Hindus on Diwali. “We all know that Trump has had big Diwali celebrations at his home in Mar-a-Lago and at the White House when he was president. His Diwali message supporting and greeting the Hindu community gave us the opening and ammunition to launch our campaign. We used some of our earlier recordings of the Diwali celebrations to make our points about the contrast in policies between Harris and Trump with regard to the Indian American community,” Kumar said.

He feels that his campaign, which is focused on the Indian American community in the three important battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, will help influence 200,000 voters and push the needle in favour of the Republican candidate. “The campaigns by the Democratic South Asian community for Harris so far have been more generic and not targeted at the Hindu American community. We are razor focused on Indian Americans in the battleground states and hope to be successful,” Kumar said.