Harris ramps up Asian American outreach with ad about her mother

The Harris campaign is boosting its pitch to Asian American voters with a new battleground state ad that spotlights the vice president's personal story.

Advocates on both sides of the political spectrum say the demographic could play a key role come November, especially in swing states with tight margins.

Asian Americans recorded the largest registration increase of any racial group from January to June compared with the same period in 2020.

Engagement with Asian Americans, the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc, has often been an afterthought for major political parties — which had never had an Asian American presidential nominee before Harris.

The group has historically voted Democrat, but a 2021 analysis found that the GOP made gains with AAPI voters in battleground states in both 2016 and 2020.

The TV and digital ad "My Mother" pays tribute to Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a breast cancer researcher who immigrated from India at 19 and raised Kamala Harris and her sister as a single mom.

Positioning Harris as "one of us," it pulls from her remarks at the Democratic National Convention: "My mother was a brilliant 5-foot-tall brown woman with an accent. … She taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it."