Kamala Harris has a background that could benefit her to win the Indian American presidency, but why she is losing even then.
The Democratic presidential candidate is directed to lose a huge part of Indian American votes in her traditional share. Who sided completely with the Democratic Party. This is revealed by a new survey of the community’s political attitude has found.
this was going to change history Harris was going to be the first Indian American president of the U.S., according to a report by, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, she was supposed to secure some of the votes from the community that incumbent president Joe Biden did in 2020.
According to an accurate estimate, 61% of the respondents from the community will vote for Harris, the survey predicted that down by nearly 4% as compared to the last presidential election in 2020. This is not going to be zero. Some voters are below according to the time of Biden’s presidency.
In the United States, Mexican Americans are there in huge amounts, but there are 5.2 million strong Indian-American communities, which is the largest second immigrant block in the U.S. out of which, almost 2.6 million voters are eligible for casting votes on November 5.
Estimate tells that there also has been a decline in the community’s attachment to Harris’s party as well with an estimated 47% of respondents from about 56% from 2020. Meanwhile, researchers observed ‘a modest shift in the community’s preferences,’ with a slight increase in openness to voting for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
Both major parties have intensified their outreach to the growing Indian American community in recent years, recognizing its rising political influence. While Harris currently represents the Democratic face, several prominent Indian Americans have gained traction within the Republican Party as well, including former presidential candidate and ex-U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur-turned-Trump supporter Vivek Ramaswamy, and Usha Vance, the wife of vice-presidential nominee JD Vance.
With only four days until November 5, pollsters are calling the election too close to predict, as Harris’s national lead over Trump narrows, according to FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker. In seven key battleground states Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada the margin between the candidates is less than 2 percentage points, within polling error margins.
The outcome of the presidential race may hinge on a few thousand votes in these critical swing states, where smaller communities, including Indian Americans, could have a pivotal impact, say political analysts. ‘Even though the Indian American community isn’t very large in absolute numbers, they could swing the decision one way or the other,’ noted Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ‘In several states, the community’s population exceeds the margin of victory in the 2020 presidential election.’
Indian Americans are the largest Asian American group in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan. In both Pennsylvania and Georgia, there are over 150,000 Indian Americans a population far exceeding Biden’s 2020 margin in these two states, which hold 35 Electoral College votes combined.
Mixed Support for Indian Heritage?
Harris, whose mother was born in India and immigrated to the U.S. in 1958, has often identified herself as a Black woman, emphasizing her African American roots. This identification, rather than fully embracing her Indian heritage, has discouraged some South Asian voters, explained Rohit Chopra, a scholar at the Center for South Asia at Stanford University. ‘There’s more enthusiasm for figures like Tulsi Gabbard or Usha Vance within the Indian American community,’ he said. ‘In the American mainstream, Harris is perceived primarily as African American.’
Chopra suggested that this choice by her campaign is strategically driven. ‘Her Indian heritage doesn’t carry the same political weight as her connection to Black voters; it’s not a trade-off they see as beneficial.’
The latest survey indicates that Indian Americans (61%) are less inclined to vote for Harris compared to Black voters (77%) and are only slightly more supportive than Hispanic voters (58%). However, Harris’s support is also down among Black and Latino voters compared to historical levels for Democratic candidates.