Kamala Harris Trumps Donald Among Indian Americans

Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

WASHINGTON, DC (IANS) – Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, has a 19-percentage point lead over her Republican rival Donald Trump in favorability ratings among Indian Americans, according to internal polling by the Harris campaign.

The findings were released on July 24 in a memo from Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon on the overall state of the presidential race at this juncture.

It included polls on a whole range of issues. The outcome on Indian Americans was part of the polling among Asian Americans, which also included those of Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Filipino descent.

The poll was released internally on July 10, 11 days before President Joe Biden ended his campaign.

The poll measured the favorability ratings of Biden, Trump, Harris, and Nikki Haley, among Asian Americans.

A combined total of 54 percent of Indian Americans said they have a “very favorable” to “somewhat favorable” impression of vice president Harris, which was 19 percentage points more than Trump’s 35 percent.

She also beat Haley by 21 percentage points but came a shade behind her boss, Biden, who at 55 percent surpassed her by a solitary percentage point.

The head-to-head match between Biden and Trump showed a remarkable decline in support for the former among the community.

Only 46 percent of them said they would vote for President Biden if elections were held at the time of the survey, but a mere 29 percent said they would vote for Trump. As many as 20 percent either refused to answer or were not decided yet.

The Harris campaign internal poll showed that 55 percent of Indian Americans said they planned to vote for Democratic candidates in the US Senate race and 52 percent for Democratic candidates running for the House of Representatives.

The Republican party has made some headway in the community with 29 percent of them planning to vote for Republicans running for the Senate, and 31 percent for Republicans in the race for the House.

The population of Indian Americans in the US is between 4.16 million and 4.4 million, accounting for roughly 1.4 percent of the US population of more than 333 million.

Only 2.62 million Indian Americans are US citizens of which 1.9 million are registered voters, which is 0.82 percent registered voters in the country. These numbers may seem to make the community look inconsequential numerically, but that is not accurate.

Virginia, a once solidly Republican state, is now reliably Democratic because of its sizable population of Indian Americans and others of foreign descent living and working along the state’s northern region abutting Washington.

The community says it plays a critical role in the swing states that decide presidential elections by hair-thin majorities — Biden won Wisconsin by a 0.63 per cent vote margin last time.

O’Malley Dillon said in the memo that the 2024 race between Harris and Trump will be “tight”.

And in tight races, every vote counts.