For Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, it was “granny” — a term she often used to describe herself to voters, trying to show them who she was beyond her political work.
In Kamala Harris’ case, it might be “aunt.”
Harris’ presidential nomination has already made history. She is the second woman, the first Black woman and the first South Asian woman to be nominated for president by a major party. Now, as she pushes to break through the nation’s highest glass ceiling, women — especially Black and South Asian women who already lean Democratic — have mobilized, by donating to her campaign in record amounts, including $1.6 million raised by Win With Black Women just hours after Harris announced her candidacy.
For those, like Harris, who claim the title of “aunt”—a term prosperous with meaning, especially in the South Asian and black communities where Harris grew up—the moment is especially resonant. “Aunt” is an honorific with a pliant definition, a word that is used not only to refer to relatives but also to older women in the community who lend a hand care for children, in a role very similar to that of a surrogate or additional parent.
Harris proudly embraces this identity in her social media biographies, calling herself “Wifey, Momala, Aunty.” Friends and family have been known to exploit the term “aunty” when addressing her. References to aunts — including “Aunty Kamala” herself — pepper Harris’ 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold.”
“In cultures where it’s not just the nuclear family, but more the extended family or even the neighborhood social relationships, aunts play a really important role,” said Patricia Sotiriin, a professor emeritus at Michigan Technological University who has written several books about the role of aunts in America. “When it comes to the vice president, it’s a really interesting identity to take on. When you take on the role of an aunt, it’s a very empowering role.”
“Auntie” has a less defined role than mother, Sotirilin noted. An aunt can have a career, be childless, be the guardian of a family legend — or do none of the above. But most importantly, she said, “aunts are community builders. They keep the community together.”
Now, by claiming that identity, Harris is mobilizing voters to do the same.
Padma Lakshmi, an Indian-American writer and model, has published photo on Instagram with Harris shortly after the vice president announced her campaign launch using the hashtag “#auntiepower.”
In a Zoom call aimed at South Asian women, Mini Timmaraju, president of the advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, characterized Harris’s laugh—one of the ones her opponent Donald Trump has singled out in his attempts to criticize her—as “auntie laugh.” In the same call, Pramila Jayapal, the first South Asian American woman elected to the House of Representatives, said she had received repeated text messages from her aunts about Harris’ promotion.
“She’s many things to many people,” Timmaraju, who, like Harris, is of South Indian descent, told The 19th. “She’s the first Gen X, the first multiracial person, the first Black woman, the first person of South Asian descent. Kamala Harris has embodied all of those things throughout her career.”
The term “aunt” is certainly a intricate label, in part because of the widespread cultural stigma against older women. Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance attempted to weaponize that stigma when ridiculed “childless cat people” aimed a sarcastic swipe at Harris and other Democratic leaders. He said people without biological children have “no direct stake” in the country’s future. (Harris has two stepchildren and has spoken of helping raise her niece.)
Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay have both they expressed their reluctance for addressing them as “aunts.” Harris also had her moments of restraint: In Video from 2019 told actress and writer Mindy Kaling, who is 14 years her junior, not to call her “aunt.”
“I’m thinking about [Harris] as an older cousin because I refuse to say we’re aunts at this point,” said Melissa Murray, a legal scholar at New York University who is a black, Generation X woman. (Harris was born after the baby boom ended but during the boom years, so she probably misses Generation X, but only slightly.)
Still, many women who identify as aunts — particularly South Asian American and black women — said Harris’ promotion gave them up-to-date energy. Many said she felt like she was one of them, someone who would listen and understand their concerns.
“It’s a different kind of euphoria,” said Deepali Gulati, 59, who lives just outside Boston and works at a support organization for South Asian and Arab victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. “I stopped watching the news because it was just the same old thing. Now I’m interested.”
When Ardeana Scott-Yon, a physical education teacher and athletic department administrator, attended Harris’ recent rally in Atlanta, she took her 6-year-old niece with her. “I want my child to see this,” said Scott-Yon, who is black. She hoped that letting her watch the vice president speak would teach her “that she can do whatever she wants. Nothing is off limits.”
This latest polls shows that elections remain a virtual game of chance; black women and South Asian women both were already more likely to vote Democratic, even without Harris on the ticket. Women of all racial groups, but especially black women, are more likely to say they prioritize protecting abortion and reproductive rights, which is an issue Harris emphasized in her campaign.
Some self-described “aunties,” like Sarbani Hazra, a 41-year-old Bengali woman from Philadelphia, were already planning to campaign for the Democrats. But watching Harris’ candidacy, she said, has encouraged her to do more: She’s considering applying for campaign jobs and even running for local office.
Then there are women like Iram Khan, a 44-year-old first-time voter who recently moved from California to Raleigh, N.C., where she will be voting. Because California is solidly Democratic, Khan didn’t think voting there would make much difference. That’s not the case in North Carolina, a battleground state. She planned to vote for President Joe Biden, albeit halfheartedly. “I’d have to crawl to the polls,” she said.
But when Khan, who is of Pakistani descent, learned that Biden would not run for a second term and that Harris would take his place in the race, her stance changed. Within 24 hours, she said, she went from fearing that voters would not support Harris to excitement she hadn’t felt since former President Barack Obama’s first campaign.
Khan is already trying to get more involved, sharing voting information on social media to lend a hand mobilize other Asian American voters in her state, especially those who are also South Asian.
For her, it’s moving to see a woman her age and background being touted as a potential president. “For Kamala, if she becomes president? I have two daughters. They’ll look at this and say, ‘The president looks like me.'”
Jennifer Gerson assisted in the preparation of this report.
