‘We are in a moment where minority rights in US are under attack... we need to step up’

Nirav Shah, an Indian-American Democrat, is running for governor of Maine, aiming to be the first Indian-American governor in the US.

Nirav Shah, an Indian-American politician and a Democrat, is running to be governor of the northeastern US state of Maine. Should Shah win the Democratic primary race and the election next year, he will be the only Indian-American governor across the United States. He rose to prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic, when his televised public health briefings made him a household name in Maine. In the primary, Shah will face off against established political figures including the speaker of the state’s lower house Hannah Pingree and Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. In an interview with HT, Shah talked about his opposition to the Trump administration, rising racism and online vitriol directed at Indian Americans, and his reflections on how his Indian background has helped him in his bid for Governor. Shah called on Indian-Americans of all political stripes to unite as online attacks on the community grow. Edited excerpts:

Nirav Shah, an Indian-American politician and a Democrat. (GETTY IMAGES)

You’ve been a lawyer and a public health official. You haven’t held elected office before but you’re running to be Governor of Maine. Tell us about your journey so far

What has really been the defining aspect of my career, the thread that runs through all of the things that I’ve done, has been a call toward public service. I started my career in the private sector working as an attorney. However, after a number of years, I really felt the call to do more and address bigger policy issues that were facing our country in my lane, specifically in health care and public health. And so I became the director of the health department in Illinois in very early 2015 and served in that role for about four years. And once you see the impact that you can have in public service, it’s very difficult to go back to anything else. And so I was then asked to move to Maine and continue working and running the health department. When Covid-19 hit, that took a difficult job and made it even more so and more important. But at the same time, the impact that you could have on day-to-day lives also became so much more important. Following that, I was asked by the Biden administration to go down and help run the US Centers for Disease Control and Protection. I was the number two official at the US CDC, and then ultimately wanted to come back to Maine. And so my family and I moved back, and I was approached by some groups to consider leading not just the health department, but the entire state. And again, that desire for impact and to help people’s lives is what continues to motivate me then and now.

Should you be elected governor of Maine, you will be the only Indian American governor at this point in time elected to head a US state. How does your background and your connection affect your politics?

My mother and father moved to the US in the early to mid 1970s. They first moved to Chicago and then to Wisconsin. I was born in rural Northern Wisconsin. Wisconsin is very similar to Maine. I think many of the experiences that I had as a child navigating different cultures and appreciating the best of both cultures, that sticks with me now. And I say that in the following way. One is, I think it’s important for folks to have exposure to as many different cultures as possible. But two, when you grow up navigating these different cultures, it becomes second nature to talk to folks who don’t necessarily have the same background and upbringing as you. It’s not a skill that you have to learn. It’s just what you do when you grow up in a multicultural family as I did and as so many others have. And so what that means is that there’s no one I can’t walk up to, strike a conversation with and start talking with. The other aspect that is really critical in this moment is representation. Representation matters. And I think it’s important in the US and frankly around the globe for South Asians, minorities of all stripes to see leaders stepping up.

Twenty years ago, you barely saw Indian Americans in elected office. Now we have Kamala Harris, Ro Khanna and Zohran Mamdani among dozens of others. What changed?

I think a few good things have happened. Number one is with any diaspora community, after it gets established, it goes from just the commercial elements of their work into more public service. And I think that’s a pattern we’ve seen in places where there have been South Asians for even a longer period of time, in other diaspora communities. So in a sense, it’s not atypical. It’s just the maturation of the South Asian diaspora community in the United States. The second, however, is that many of us recognize that we are in a special moment, a moment where the rights of minorities and brown people of all types, not just South Asians, are coming under attack. And frankly, we need to step up. Now, not everyone can step up, but I think everyone can do something. And that’s the ethos that I’ve been sharing with other South Asians around the country. So I think in this particular moment, where many minority groups and brown people are coming under threat or fearing of being scooped up by agents, things of that nature, the one thing that I can do is step up and try to lead.

How much of your campaign is based on challenging President Trump and his agenda?

I’m not running against Trump. I am running for the people of Maine. And what I mean by that is my priorities are about things that are affecting people in Maine today and that are within the purview of the government of the state of Maine to fix. My priorities are to fix housing, to fund health care, to feed kids, and to fuel the growth of our economy here in Maine. All of those things are things that have been long standing problems in Maine and that are within the ability of our state government and our governor to make headway upon. The fact of Donald Trump is a factor that makes all of these things worse. But make no mistake, we have our own challenges. We’ve had our own challenges even before Donald Trump. What he has done is injected more chaos and confusion into problems that already existed.

Over the last year, we’ve seen a massive uptick in these online attacks against Indian Americans. What exactly is going on here?

I’m glad that you raised that because it’s been weighing on me and I’ve seen it unfold over the past however many months, one year or so. And I think we can diagnose the problem, but then we can also talk about the prescription as well. The diagnosis is a bit murky. Some of it perhaps is a natural backlash to many South Asians and Indian Americans rising in prominence across the country because of the factors we’ve talked about. The need to step up leads to people stepping up, but then that can sometimes lead to some degree of backlash. Make no mistake, this coarsening of our politics is in part because of the tone that is set by the current administration, which allows, if not fosters, this very, very debased style of discussion. And it’s not just been Indian Americans who have suffered. It’s also been a number of other ethnic minority groups across the country who have found themselves on the unfortunate end of a lot of attacks. I don’t know the extent to which these online attacks actually mirror real sentiment or the extent to which they are just bots that are spewing out nonsense. It’s difficult to know. But what matters more than anything is our response. And in a moment of this nature, we as a community of Indians and Indian Americans have two choices. We can retreat or we can step up. If we retreat, then it’s possible that the vitriol may go away. But that is effectively handing a victory to our bullies.And that is something that we cannot do. It’s something that I will not do. And to me, the only option in the face of these hateful attacks is to step up and assert our ability to lead. And that is in part why I think it’s important that Indian Americans of all stripes and all political backgrounds, Republican and Democrat, step up to lead.