Jay Vaingankar, a Gen Z congressional candidate running for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, received racist attacks from American far-right political activist Laura Loomer because he posted a video reaching out to voters in Hindi.

On X, Loomer, a MAGA conspiracy theorist and internet personality, wrote,
“New Jersey Democrat U.S. House candidate Jay Vaingankar just released an entire campaign ad in a non-English language. Leave it to House Democrats and their candidates to force Americans to read translations just to understand their ads.”

Vaingankar, a former Department of Energy official in the Biden Administration, released a statement calling the attacks disturbing.

“Over the weekend, Trump confidante Laura Loomer and her far-right allies attacked me by name in a series of racist posts calling me ‘un-American’ and accusing my campaign of putting ‘America Last’  – all because I posted a video reaching out to voters in Hindi.”

“What followed was even more disturbing. Within hours, I was flooded with messages and comments filled with death threats, racial slurs, and calls for me to be deported and stripped of my birthright citizenship.”

The current state of US politics allows extremists like Loomer to intimidate people who do not fit a narrow definition of who belongs in America, said Vaingankar. “They try to silence campaigns that are actually doing outreach in every community.”

Twenty-eight-year-old Vaingankar was raised by parents who immigrated from Mumbai, in Hightstown, a diverse community whose residents speak over 63 languages.

Vaingankar, who is fluent in Spanish, is running for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th District, one of the most diverse congressional districts in the country.

“As the son of Hindi speakers and a Spanish speaker myself, I’m proud to use my language skills to connect with diverse communities that are too often left out of our politics.”

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Jay became a community organizer and then spent the next four years working for the Biden White House and the Department of Energy to implement clean energy projects. Back home in New Jersey, he worked in community solar to increase supply and lower energy bills for families in New Jersey.

According to his campaign, Vangankar’s priorities include clean energy, which he says is key to lowering utility bills, creating union jobs, and protecting the environment. He plans to address the crisis of unaffordable housing driven by a lack of supply. “New Jersey has the nation’s highest rate of young people aged 25-35 who live with their parents,” he says. He is also calling for an end to indiscriminate immigration raids and the militarization of communities. “Cruel, fear-based immigration policy tears communities apart.

“New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District is one of the most diverse places in America,” added Vaingankar. “One in every three residents is foreign-born, and two in five households speak a language other than English. While Loomer calls this ‘un-American’, in Central Jersey we know that this diversity represents the best of America.”