BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) — In one week, Vice President Kamala Harris will accept the likely nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The largest group of delegates will be from California, her home state. Among them are many from the Bay Area.
When asked who he is voting for, Harris Mojadedi replies: “I am proud to cast my vote for the next president of the United States, Kamala D. Harris.”
Born in the East Bay to Afghan refugees, Mojadedi, who is Muslim, South Asian and an LGBTQ activist, sets off on Sunday for Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Mojadedi, who is assistant dean of Student Engagement at UC Berkeley, has spent the past 15 years as an activist — especially on behalf of refugees.
“I have spent my entire life growing up in the social safety net program of Alameda County. So the fact that I get to be able to vote for the nominee of one of the two U.S. major political parties, really speaks to this nation and what’s possible,” he said.
In 2019, Kamala Harris, then the first-term senator from California, dropped out the 2020 presidential race, citing a lack of funds. Others pointed to political in-fighting within her campaign. A 2019 ABC News poll showed Harris had just single-digit favorability ratings among democrats. But Mojadedi says he’s voting based on what Harris has accomplished as vice president.
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“The Inflation Reduction Act from a few years ago. Looking at our federal judiciary, having justices and jurists who represent and reflect to this great country,” are among the examples he gives.
Mojadedi will also be among just a handful of Muslim delegates from across the United States. Many in the South Asian and Muslim communities have supported pro-Palestinian protests and aligned themselves with the uncommitted vote because of the dissatisfaction with Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the war in Gaza. But Mojadedi believes four more years of President Trump could usher in another wave of Islamophobia.
“We saw that with the Muslim (travel) ban,” he said. “I know that we are not going back to the four years of Donald Trump that really saw a rise in Islamophobia and various other types of discrimination. To me, the choice is clear,” Mojadedi said.
California will send close to 500 delegates to the DNC. Delegates are usually party activists and local political leaders. But Mojadedi was selected by the California Democratic Party Executive Board to be one of just two at-large delegates. For him, to rise up from a family of refugees who didn’t speak English, to vote for the highest office in the country, he says is a chance to stand in presentation of so many who often don’t get to be heard.
“Representation in terms of class and everyday regular Americans. So I am honored to have that opportunity to present and reflect my own lived experiences,” Mojadedi said.
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