In resonance with immigrants

Sumathi Madhure, 63, a physical therapist in New Hampshire, says she has never seen this level of enthusiasm among Native American voters. She says it all started when Harris became the Democratic Party nominee.

“Voter engagement in the Native American community has exploded,” says Madhure, co-chair of the New Hampshire Democrats’ Asian Americans and Pacific Islander (AAPI) caucus. “It’s present in fundraising, volunteering… you see it everywhere. In fact, before it was very difficult to recruit them. Now it’s difficult to keep them out. People want to knock at doors and making phone calls.”

A July poll suggested that 46% of Indian-Americans would vote for President Joe Biden. Once Harris rose to the top, that share rose to 69 percent.

Madhure works the phones for Democrats three evenings a week, contacting Indian and South Asian voters. On weekends, she knocks on around 700 doors to get people to vote.

She was even elected among the delegates who chose Kamala Harris as their candidate at her party’s national convention.

Madhure says she can’t believe the changes she’s seen in the four decades since she left India for the United States. When she arrived, at age 20, she couldn’t have imagined that someone sharing her ethnicity would run for president.

“Every time I went out and saw another Indian, whether it was at the grocery store or somewhere else, I would go and tap them on the shoulder, make their contact and we would invite each other over for dinner,” she says. “We were trying to build a community. They were like little streams.”

Today, she feels these streams of Indian immigrants flow into a “robust river” under Harris.

“The first generation of immigrants always feels like we weren’t born and raised here,” she says. “My kids feel differently. But we’re from India. Harris’ heritage gives us legitimacy. The fact that someone who looks like me could become president makes me feel American, even though I am. “

The “sleeping giant”

According to analysis by AAPI Data, an organization focused on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the American Indian population increased from 387,000 in 1980 to 4.4 million in 2020. That includes more of two million eligible voters.

Shekar Narasimhan, founder of the AAPI Victory Fund, describes this voting bloc as a “sleeping giant.”

He says many first-generation immigrants focus on working hard to provide for their families. And voting isn’t necessarily a priority, especially if you think your vote doesn’t matter. But he says those in the second generation have a deeper connection to politics and feel they should have a say.

Although Indian Americans still represent only a small segment of the U.S. electorate, in battleground states their numbers are large enough to make a difference.

Georgia is an example. A survey suggests 70,000 Indian-Americans are eligible to vote in the state. In the elections four years ago, the difference was only 11,000 votes.

“So they believe they can be part of that difference,” says Narasimhan. “But they’re from the country of India. They’re Indian-American. That doesn’t mean they care about the exact same things.”

Indian Americans for Trump

Aware of their growing influence, Republicans of Indian origin are also making their voices heard.

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy both campaigned for the Republican nomination but lost to Donald Trump. Usha Vance, the wife of Trump’s running mate JD Vance, has joined her husband on the campaign trail.

Republican supporters believe they can make a difference in a tight race.

Yagnesh Choksi, 71, chairman of the South Asian Republican Coalition, has held roundtable discussions in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, to get a sense of what voters think. He has supported the party for three decades.

“Trump is the right candidate because he is strict. If he doesn’t get results, he immediately takes action,” he says. “It’s a total disaster at this point: from an economic standpoint, from a security standpoint and from a business standpoint. The Democrats are not taking good action for small businesses, they’re not taking any action. And everyone in our Indian community works in small businesses.”

Other small business owners participating in a roundtable echo Choksi’s complaints that the current administration has failed them.

“What happened over the last four years is a lot of people thought they were misled by what the Democrats did,” said Republican voter Prashant Shah.

Another supporter, Arun Pareek, agrees. “The most important issue on everyone’s mind is the economy and how we are suffering,” he says.

Devesh Kapur, a professor of South Asian studies at Johns Hopkins University, says a survey in October showed that Harris continues to attract support from Indian Americans. But he notes that their attachment to the blue party has decreased: 47% of those surveyed identify as Democrats, compared to 56% in 2020.

He points to a segment of the community: “Harris leads Trump by two to one in voting preferences. But we’ve seen a drop in support, particularly among younger, U.S.-born male voters…and it’s not clear to us from what’s happening why. the investigation.”

Choksi says he detects a change when he calls first-time voters.

“I see in every county new registrations and voters switching parties,” he says. “And they’re going from being a Democrat to being a Republican. Until now, Americans thought that this was a minority community, but this time they will realize that Indian voters are just as important. “