In Forsyth County, Georgia, Kannan Udayarajan, 42, sends his kids to local public schools that are now majority Indian American. The area, nearly all white 20 years ago, has since begun to teem with South Asian life.
Indian supermarkets, Hindu temples and cricket fields border country clubs and car dealerships. Some schools serve hot Indian lunches.
This burgeoning influence has turned the heads of major campaigns and super PACs — not just in Georgia, but in other battleground states where capturing the South Asian vote might clinch the presidency.
Their populations have ballooned since the last presidential election, and in states like Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, they have the potential to decide the election. New immigrants who have never voted in a presidential election before could be a huge part of the outcome.
“We are spending our energy predominantly in two places: Michigan and Georgia,” said Shekar Narasimhan, chairman of AAPI Victory Fund, a political action committee dedicated to mobilizing Asian American voters. “We have told the community that it is extremely important to participate in the American system. You have a responsibility. You have rights.”
From bustling urban centers to the Bible Belt, the impact of the booming South Asian American population is being felt in communities all over the U.S. In Georgia, for example, the Indian American population has doubled since 2010. They now fill entire neighborhoods, schools and caucuses — and they marked a historic first in Vice President Kamala Harris’ nomination for president.
That energy is mirrored throughout the South Asian American electorate.
There are close to 400,000 eligible voters of Indian, Pakistani, Nepali, Bangladeshi, Nepalese and Bhutanese descent in the 10 most hotly contested swing states. In some of them, the South Asian electorate is now larger than the margin of victory in the last presidential election.
“The South Asian community can and will play a critical role in deciding this election,” said Chintan Patel, executive director of the voter engagement organization Indian American Impact.
For Indian Americans alone, 235,000 eligible voters have become naturalized citizens in the last four years, meaning they can cast their votes for president for the first time in November. And as of the 2020 census, Indian Americans passed Chinese Americans as the largest “Asian-alone” group in the U.S. It means that the 4.4 million people in the U.S. that identify as 100% Indian are rapidly growing in size and influence.
Experts say that politics is one of the biggest arenas where that is playing out.
The Harris effect
Turnout in the community has been building for decades.
2016, 2018 and 2020 all had record voter turnouts for Asian Americans, including South Asians.
In the last two presidential elections, Indian American voter turnout was the highest of any Asian American group, on par with white voter turnout, according to AAPI Data. In 2020, 71% of Indian Americans who could vote did vote, a 9 percent rise from 2016.
Community leaders expect that trend to continue with force this November.
“I would expect that turnout to be even greater with Harris on the ballot,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, co-founder of AAPI Data. “Research indicates that having someone of your own race or ethnicity makes a difference when it comes to turnout. It’s basically inspiring people who might not normally be persuaded to turn out.”
Udayarajan, of Forsyth County in Georgia, says the increase in energy on the ground has been palpable.
“I see this as part of the evolution of the involvement of the Asian American and South Asian community in politics, which has accelerated since 2020,” said Udayarajan, who naturalized in 2018 and is now chair of the Forsyth County Democrats. “Kamala Harris’s nomination as a candidate has definitely had an impact, as I’m seeing in the crowd surges in our local meetings and the general excitement.”
The Harris campaign says it’s been reaching out to South Asian voters across communities.
“Team Harris-Walz is working closely with our South Asians for Harris-Walz affinity group, making significant investments in staffing and paid media, crafting in-language materials to combat disinformation in South Asian communities, and organizing culturally specific direct voter contact activities and events to reach South Asian American voters where they are across every battleground state,” said spokesperson Andrew Peng.
Indian Americans already lean left, with 68% saying they identify most with the Democratic Party, according to 2023 data from the Pew Research Center. Harris’ candidacy and her background as a South Asian American has upped the ante. Many say they’re thrilled to vote for her, but some have reservations
South Asian swing state voters told NBC News that health care, Gaza, inflation and racism were some of the issues that are driving them to vote this year.
The issues driving South Asian Americans
After Mexicans, Indian Americans are the fastest-growing immigrant group in the U.S. And in some states, they represent some of the highest earners: professionals in tech, medicine and business.
For Anju Sawni, a 64-year-old doctor and Michigan resident, health care and reproductive rights are driving her to vote for Harris.
“Being a pediatrician who works with young adults, both males and females, I focus a lot on reproductive rights, and have been absolutely crushed with the path our country is taking,” she said, adding that she now takes time during appointments with young adults to ask them to vote.
Michigan is one of only five states with a South Asian member of Congress, Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar, and Sawni says she’s ready to see a South Asian person in the White House, too.
In the 2020 election, President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia came down to just 11,779 votes. There are now over 82,000 South Asian eligible voters in the state. Voters there say they’ve seen a real increase in excitement in their community since Harris replaced Biden at the top of the ticket.
Many Bangladeshi eligible voters, a smaller South Asian community in the state, are also setting their sights on Harris. During the Trump administration, Tanjina Islam, 42, said she felt the impacts of policies like the Muslim ban on her own friends and family.
“One person could not bring her mother and she could not get a surgery,” Islam said. “My mom, during the 2020 election, she was threatened by people while coming home that ‘if Trump doesn’t win, we will come after you.’”
A Trump campaign advisor refuted that the former president has posed any harm to Asian communities.
“There has been no bigger advocate for the AAPI community than President Trump, as he created an environment where diversity, equal opportunity, and prosperity were afforded to everybody,” said Trump campaign senior advisor Steven Cheung. “Anyone who says otherwise is disgustingly using the AAPI community to play political games for their own benefit.”
Now, she worries most about Israel’s war in Gaza and the growing death toll. She feels Harris will do more than Trump, but thinks she needs to take a stronger stance to draw in hesitant South Asian voters.
There, and in other swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, Indian Americans have established themselves as a solid base — growing in numbers and consistently showing up to the polls, Ramakrishnan said.
“South Asian voters and Indian Americans in particular are among the fastest-growing segments of the electorate,” he said. “They’re also more likely than other Asian groups to be spread across the country, which means that they tend to be in larger numbers and swing states.”
South Asian organizers across the U.S. say they’ve been inundated with calls and emails from voters hungry to get involved in any way they can.
“I have had more calls, and our team has had more calls from people that have never donated before, never participated in politics,” Narasimhan said.
Pennsylvania has been deemed by both sides as crucial to winning the election — and one of Harris’ “toughest” battleground states, according to Democratic strategist J.J. Abbott.
One Republican voter from Pennsylvania says that he, too, sees the growing energy in his community, but on the opposite side.
“Kamala has not done anything for the country, so there is no feeling for her,” said Yagnesh Choksi, 70. “We should vote for the president who is more conservative, reducing the tax and working for the development of the country. Out of both politicians, who is doing more? Who loves the country more? That’s how Trump is better than Kamala.”
The changing South Asian American political landscape
Though Indian Americans don’t make up even 2 percent of the U.S. population, they’ve already made their mark on U.S. politics. Aside from Harris, the first South Asian person to lead a major party ticket, this election had other Indian Americans vie for the office of president.
It paints a picture of the deep investment and energy brewing within the community from the bottom up, experts said. On a local scale, experts say more South Asian Americans are running for office than ever before. More are volunteering, and more are voting, they said.
And as more people are naturalizing, that power continues to grow.
Threats to civil rights and safety have always been a driving force for immigrant communities to go to the polls. An example, Ramakrishnan said, is the spike in Asian American voter turnout after racist speech and acts spread during the pandemic, prompting the rise of the Stop AAPI Hate movement.
With Harris now on the ballot, the vote in November might test if identity and connection are equally strong drivers.
“What will be interesting to see in this election is not just threat as a motivating factor, but potentially inspiration as a motivating factor,” he said.
