Indian Americans In Key States Become Democratic Targets

Just three decades ago, this area 40 miles north of Atlanta was part of an almost entirely White, Republican-dominated exurban district that sent Newt Gingrich to Congress.

01 Nov 2024, 06:38 · www.ndtv.com

On a bright Sunday afternoon, two men walked door to door through a Forsyth County, Georgia, neighborhood on a mission to get out the vote for Democrats.

Just three decades ago, this area 40 miles north of Atlanta was part of an almost entirely White, Republican-dominated exurban district that sent Newt Gingrich to Congress. It was the scene of a 1987 civil rights march that drew hundreds of protesters, some wearing Ku Klux Klan robes. Now, after an influx of newcomers that's bolstered diversity, many of the large single-family homes sported traditional Diwali decorations. Hindu temples and Indian restaurants and markets lined a nearby commercial strip.

Sure enough, almost everyone who answered the door that day in mid-October was of South Asian descent. The two canvassers switched among English, Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil as they asked residents if they planned to vote. Many of the people they spoke to had already cast early ballots. Nearly all the others said they planned to back Vice President Kamala Harris, perhaps somewhat of a surprise given surveys showing growing support for the GOP among Indian Americans.

"These are doors that have never been touched" by Republican or Democrat campaigners, said one of the men, Shekar Narasimhan, the national chair of the AAPI Victory Fund, a political action committee that supports Democrats. They were targeting houses where data suggested occupants hadn't voted in the past, and they stressed to everyone they encountered that just a tiny number of votes in Georgia swung the last presidential election.

In the frenetic final days before what's likely to be another incredibly close contest, both parties are making last-ditch efforts to identify and mobilize potential supporters - Black women in Georgia, Latino men in Nevada or working class White people in Pennsylvania. People of Indian descent, now the biggest Asian-American group in the US, are a compelling target as the cohort takes on a more prominent role in politics. Harris's mother was from India, as are the parents of Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance.

Narasimhan points out that in the seven so-called swing states that will decide the presidential contest, some 400,000 Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have become new potential voters over the past four years via relocation, gaining citizenship or turning 18. There are particularly large concentrations in swing-state metro areas including Atlanta; Philadelphia; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Detroit, according to AAPI Data, a research institute.

Asian Americans now comprise 17% of Forsyth County's population and a quarter of its voters, with many drawn to the area by good schools, a relatively low cost of living and plentiful jobs. The county hasn't been won by a Democratic presidential candidate since Georgia's own Jimmy Carter sought re-election in 1980.

Indian Americans are by far the largest Asian ethnic group in Georgia and key to suburbs around the country that have swelled with urban sprawl, according to data compiled by AAPI Data and APIAVote. In Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Asian Americans make up 10.5% of voters; they're 10.9% of voters in Oakland County, Michigan.

In Georgia, Narasimhan and other canvassers touted Harris's support for women's reproductive rights, in a state subject to a strict ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. They talked about her record on gun safety, especially after the Apalachee High School shooting that took place about an hour away. Her multiracial heritage make her a better choice for an increasingly diverse public, they asserted.

Halfway across the country, Ramesh Kapur, a fundraiser for Democrats, spent a recent weekend rallying support from devotees at Hindu temples in the northern suburbs of Detroit, which has one of the US's biggest Arab-American populations. With the Middle East conflict raging, Kapur said it was crucial to mobilize Hindus in swing-state Michigan to help offset a drop in support from Muslim voters enraged by the Biden administration's handling of the crisis in Gaza.

"The Hindu vote is all the more important," said Kapur, who raised money for Harris when she ran for Senate in 2016 and the presidential ticket in 2020.

But some of the worshipers told Kapur they still didn't know enough about Harris. Others said they weren't convinced that she's strongly connected to her Indian background. Kapur said he told them that Harris, who is Christian, was brought up by a Hindu mother and had hosted Diwali celebrations at the White House.

Devesh Kapur, who studies the Indian diaspora as a professor at Johns Hopkins University, says that since the 1990s, companies desperate for technology workers have tapped talent from India. Indian Americans make up less than 2% of the US population, but because of the tech ties have been among the most successful ethnic groups over the past 50 years.

Most immigrants "come to the US and you gradually climb up the ladder," he said. "The Indians came and climbed up an escalator."

But a Bloomberg News analysis of campaign donations from the start of July to mid-October showed only about a dozen Indian American donors on a list of more than 1,000 people who gave $50,000 or more to either Harris or Republican candidate Donald Trump's main fundraising vehicles.

There have been outliers. Billionaires Vinod and Neeru Khosla, who made their fortune in Silicon Valley, have given at least $3.8 million to Democratic candidates and committees since the start of 2023, according to federal election data. Sumir Chadha, who runs investment firm WestBridge Capital, has given at least half a million dollars, mostly to Democratic candidates and causes. Oil executive Harry Singh gave at least a quarter of a million dollars to a pro-Trump PAC this year.

A survey by Politico found that the number of small Democratic donors with common South Asian names quintupled after Harris became the nominee. Harris's mother, who came to the US to study at the University of California, Berkeley, was from the city now known as Chennai.

As of now, there are five Indian Americans in Congress, all Democrats, affectionately dubbed the "Samosa Caucus."

Republicans have encroached on Democrats' backing from Indian Americans since Trump's 2016 victory. About 27% of Indian Americans indicated they would vote for Trump this year, up from 17% in 2016, according to a survey released in late September by AAPI Data. Some 47% of Indian Americans identify as Democrats, down from 56% in 2020, according to an October report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Conservatives have long tried to argue that Indian Americans are a natural fit for the GOP: Older members of the group in particular are often religious and socially conservative; they're wealthier than average; and Trump and Republicans have cozied up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has led India for more than a decade. In 2016, Trump appeared at a Bollywood-themed benefit in New Jersey weeks before the election.

Shalabh Kumar, a Midwest manufacturing businessman who runs the Republican Hindu Coalition, said he and his family have given about $500,000 to Trump's election effort over the past year. But in a recent interview, he bemoaned the lack of interest the campaign has shown in events he had wanted to organize for Indian Americans.

"The Trump campaign has been just totally silent," Kumar said, adding that Democrats had done more to mobilize voters. A spokeswoman from the Trump campaign didn't return messages seeking comment.

Still, Trump on Thursday showed some support to Hindus when he said in a post on X that Harris and President Joe Biden have "ignored Hindus across the world and in America."

Narasimhan, of the AAPI Victory Fund, points out that of the approximately 5 million people of Indian descent in the US, only about half are citizens eligible to vote. To encourage them to turn out at the ballot box, he planned to travel to Nevada and Michigan over coming days, while allies went to Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

He tells people he meets with that the Asian American vote swung the Senate race for Democrat Raphael Warnock in 2022, when an exit poll showed support at 78%.

"The next generation understands one simple thing: They were born here, they live here, they're staying here," Narasimhan said. "This community has so much potential and growth and opportunity."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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