Indian Americans conflicted about Kamala Harris pose campaign challenge WaPo gift article [View all]

[irisblue]

https://wapo.st/4egCRDd


https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/08/26/kamala-harris-asian-indian-voters/

subtitle- In an immigrant community stratified by religion, language and class, Kamala Harris’s background is embraced by some but rings hollow for others.



snip-"Harris’s challenge now is to spread that enthusiasm. In an immigrant community stratified by religion, language, caste and class — and whose political divides in the United States often mimic the fissures back home — Harris’s background has been embraced by some but rings hollow for others. Some view Harris as Black, but not Indian American, and say her identity matters less than policies; others contend that Donald Trump would be better for small business owners; while some worry Harris won’t prioritize a strong American relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist."


snip-"Both Republicans and Democrats face big challenges in reaching these voters, in part because they speak a multitude of languages — including Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Urdu, Punjabi and Kannada. Many Indians’ favorite method of communication is WhatsApp group chats, not Facebook or Instagram, making them potentially harder to reach. There are also few centralized spaces to reach the diverse Indian American community in person, because places of worship run the gamut: temples, mosques, gurdwaras and churches."

But the payoff of courting the Indian American vote could be significant, especially in Pennsylvania, which Trump won by a slim margin in 2016, about 44,000 votes, less than 1 percent of the 6.2 million votes cast, and Biden secured with a margin of about 80,000 votes in 2020, about 1 percent of the 6.9 million cast. There are about 100,000 to 120,000 Indian American registered voters in the state, according to the advocacy groups Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance and Indian American Impact. About half identify as Democrats, 25 percent as independent and 21 percent as Republicans."

snip-"
Nationwide, Asian Americans are among the fastest-growing groups of eligible voters. Voter turnout among Asian Americans overall surged in the last presidential election, from 48 percent in 2016 to 62 percent in 2020, according to a Washington Post analysis of census data."


Much more there