IndiaScope: Indian-Americans Come into Their Own
In the weeks since the 2020 election, many have lamented that our nation remains unchanged—divided, distrustful, and diminished. President-elect Joe Biden takes over this month, although many of the 73 million who voted for President Trump held out forlorn (and fading) hope that challenges in a handful of states would result in a different outcome.
An anticipated blue wave turned out to be a bit different—blue in states that weren’t quite expected to turn yet, like Georgia, and red where a blue landslide was expected, as in the U.S. House of Representatives and many state assemblies.
Indian-Americans were energized by the first-ever vice presidential candidate of African American and South Asian descent. In India and in the Indian- American media, Harris’ Indian connections and roots were celebrated with pleasure and pride. Data indicate that the community went decisively for the Biden-Harris ticket, despite appreciation of Trump’s support of India, most recently in the India-China Galwan conflict. Even if the percentage of their vote did not reach what Hillary Clinton received from the community, it was, at around two-thirds of the community’s total vote, substantial.
Indian-Americans running for office fared quite well—of 11 House and Senate candidates, four (all Democrats) won their seats and another dozen (majority Democrat) won in legislatures of states as disparate as Vermont, Kentucky, Arizona, and Ohio, in addition to the more conventional states of New York and California. In a high-profile senate race in Maine, Sara Gideon, the challenger of South Asian descent who was leading every poll, failed to unseat the veteran Republican senator Susan Collins despite an avalanche of funding. However, the competitive race brought her into the national spotlight, and she may well have a national future.
Almost 2 million Indian-Americans voted, and even though the community’s voting strength continues to be concentrated in a few big states like New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, it is becoming a significant factor in many others—in the battleground state of Florida, in Texas and here at home in Georgia. As elections increasingly appear to be fought and won at a razor’s edge, it can be assured that the community will be making a discernible difference through their vote. Reliably red—or at a minimum, purple—Georgia went blue, and two seemingly safe Republican Senate seats were forced into run-offs. In the future, we will see a greater courting of the Indian-American vote, a community which thus far has been relied upon more for their financial than voting strength, more as behind-the-scenes than at-the-scene, more as expert political analysts and administration or presidential appointees than elected legislators. And while it is a reliably Democratic minority community presently, one of the things the 2020 election has shown is that minorities can change their voting preferences over time—as in Hispanics, who voted in greater percentages for Republicans in this election than in recent cycles.
Indian foreign policy has always been a pragmatic, and India’s relations with the United States have been on a generally amiable trajectory since the righting of relations in the George H. W. Bush era. Each successive administration, Democrat or Republican, has cultivated India’s friendship, and there is no reason to expect otherwise from a Biden administration.
As the dust settles, the election might be seen as the one where the Indian-American community came into its own. Not for the reason of having a charismatic and accomplished woman of Indian descent on the Democratic ticket (although that was quite fitting), but more for the coming together of demographic trends that seem to have made the community truly visible and a political force to reckon with and woo for the first time in American politics. Our community seems to have reached the correct size, strength, diversity, and visibility to become henceforth a minority group that will be analyzed alongside others in the national electoral context.
Tinaz Pavri is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Asian Studies Program at Spelman College, Atlanta. A recipient of the Donald Wells Award from the Georgia Political Science Association, she’s the author of the memoir Bombay in the Age of Disco: City, Community, Life.
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