Politico touts Kamala Harris as 'first Indian-American candidate to make a serious' POTUS run and people have questions

Sarah D | 6:19 PM on April 17, 2019

Politico magazine wants to know: Will Kamala Harris’ Indian heritage help her score points with Indian-American voters?

Kamala Harris, whose mother was born in India, is the first Indian-American candidate to make a serious run at the presidency.

But her public image so far has been more closely associated with the other half of her heritage, that of her Jamaican father: https://t.co/V3ZtSJamX9

— POLITICO Magazine (@POLITICOMag) April 17, 2019

Aren’t you forgetting someone, Politico?

Bobby Jindal? I know he didn't go far, but the guy was a governor and congressman. https://t.co/aWZPLvj3jL

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) April 17, 2019

Yeah, but was he “serious,” you guys?

I’m really digging the “serious” qualifier here.

— Ty (@BossDoxie) April 17, 2019

Yeah, this is a pretty suspect use of "serious candidate" to wishcast Harris' candidacy as groundbreaking in a way that it isn't https://t.co/YrjbyZWA0q

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) April 17, 2019

To be fair, the piece does mention Bobby Jindal once — to reiterate that his presidential run wasn’t serious, unlike Kamala’s:

Will the rest of the Indian-American community coalesce around her, too? Harris, whose late mother was born in India, is the first Indian-American candidate to make a serious run at the presidency. (Bobby Jindal, the former Louisiana governor, never cracked the upper tiers of a massive Republican field in 2016.)

If only he’d been as stunning and brave as Kamala Harris, he could’ve made it as far as she has … which isn’t actually any further than he made it. So, why is Harris a serious candidate while Jindal wasn’t? Is it really that difficult for Politico to just acknowledge that Bobby Jindal beat Kamala Harris to the punch? Not to mention that he didn’t enter the presidential race with all the baggage Kamala’s got?