Kamala Harris' historic candidacy energizes Texas' Black and Indian American voters

BY JAMES BARRAGÁN AND JASPER SCHERER
JULY 25, 2024

KATY — Mika Rao has known Kamalas her whole life.

The 49-year-old Katy resident has several family friends and relatives named Kamala. So when Vice President Kamala Harris emerged this week as the prohibitive favorite to replace President Joe Biden atop the ticket, Rao marveled at the idea that a woman of the same name, a fellow second-generation Indian American, was on the verge of becoming the Democratic presidential nominee — and that Rao’s two college-aged children would witness it.

“That would have been completely unbelievable to 10-year-old Mika,” she said. ​​”I want to go back and tell [myself], guess what? … You thought you had to limit yourself in all these ways, but that's not the world that you're gonna see.”

Elsewhere on the outskirts of Houston, Vernita Metoyer, a 48-year-old Black woman from Cypress, was also feeling inspired. She, too, could see herself in Harris.

“I never thought I could feel more excited than the moment when President [Barack] Obama took the office,” she said. “But this is a whole new adventure for America. It shows that even through recent rhetoric and divisiveness, America has taken true steps to diversity and equality.”

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Is Texas in play? 😬