Authored by: Karthick Ramakrishnan
As we look ahead to the 2024 presidential election in the United States, we cannot help but notice the power of Indian Americans in politics. Two of the top four candidates in the Republican primaries, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, are Indian American, and there is growing speculation that Haley might be a vice-presidential candidate even if the chances of her clinching the presidential nomination are slim. On the Democratic side, Kamala Harris already made history as the first person of Indian origin to serve as US Vice President, and as the first person in line to be President should anything happen to Joe Biden.
The growing political presence of Indian Americans can be felt in many other ways. Five out of 15 Asian American members of the US House of Representatives are of Indian origin, and Indian Americans have served under both President Trump (over 80 including Nikki Haley, Seema Verma, Ajit Pai, and Raj Shah) and President Biden (over 130 including Neera Tanden, Vanita Gupta, Kiran Ahuja, and Vinay Reddy). Indian Americans have also grown rapidly in the number of candidates running for political office and, relatedly, in campaign fundraising.
These kinds of political achievements are remarkable for a population that is relatively small and more recently settled than other comparable groups. Based on AAPI Data’s analysis of US Census Bureau data, Indian Americans account for less than 2% of the US population (4.95 million out of 335 million people) and less than 1% of the voting eligible population (2.2 million out of 239 million adult citizens). Indian Americans are also much more recently settled than other minority groups in the US. Even though several thousand Indian immigrants migrated to states like California and Washington in the early 1900s, the Indian American electorate is still overwhelmingly foreign born (72%), with nearly one in four having arrived in the last 20 years.
At the same time, there are limitations to the political influence of Indian Americans in US politics. First is name recognition. Even though Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy have generated plenty of news headlines in the US and India, AAPI Data/AP-NORC Survey released on November 14, 2023 revealed that over one quarter of Indian Americans did not know enough about either candidate to offer an opinion. Furthermore, partisanship looms large in American politics, and Indian Americans tend to be strong supporters of the Democratic Party. So, even though Indian Americans give higher marks for Haley and Ramaswamy than for Trump, more still view these candidates unfavourably than favourably.
Even beyond partisanship, there are limits to how much candidates like Haley and Ramaswamy can meaningfully represent the interests of Indian Americans. Surveys over a decade show that Indian Americans are broadly liberal on a variety of issues, ranging from favouring expansions in healthcare and environmental protection to stricter policies on gun control and greater civil rights protections for Black Americans. So, even if party affiliation were not a factor, most Indian Americans would not feel well represented by Haley or Ramaswamy, based on where they stand on many of these issues.
More broadly, the rise of Indian Americans in US politics stands in uneasy contradiction to the growth of anti-immigrant sentiment and Christian conservatism. This is perhaps most evident in Donald Trump’s rhetoric, which has gotten even more incendiary as of late. For example, he has said that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country…”
The rise of nativism, white nationalism, and Christian conservatism is not isolated to Trump’s candidacy. Key moments in the growth of these movements have included the September 11, 2001 attacks, which portrayed immigrants as a threat to America; the election of Barack Obama in 2008 which expanded the appeal of white nationalism among those who felt a loss of status and power; the election of Trump in 2016 and a string of legislative, political, and court victories by Christian conservatives related to restrictions on abortion and increasing the power of religious organisations in American life. Looking ahead, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 sets out a very ambitious and far-reaching agenda for the next Republican president that is at odds with the policy preferences of a vast majority of Indian Americans.
Thus, the outlook for Indian American political influence in 2024 and beyond will remain decidedly mixed. Even as many more Indian Americans run for office, contribute to candidates and vote in elections, they will have to contend with political and social movements that envision a very different future for American politics and policy.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
END OF ARTICLE