Two Indian American candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley are serious candidates for the 2024 US Presidential elections. However, the Indian-American voters have now been divided over the two Republican candidates.
Indian Americans account for around 2.1 million or around 16 percent of the 13.4 million Asian Americans eligible to vote and are the third largest Asian-origin population behind Chinese and Filipino Americans, reported New York Times. Pew Research data suggests that Indian Americans have tended to be more democratic than any other Asian American subgroup.
The report added Indian Americans account for a small percentage of the voters they can still make a big difference in swing states and purple constituencies like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada.
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Indian Americans divided over Presidential choices:
The New York Times report noted that many of the Indian Americans interviewed had expressed frustration and dismay over the hard-line positions taken by the two candidates. It noted that many of the voters were worried that Ramaswamy’s vow to dismantle the Education of Department could destroy the same institutions that had been critical to the success of the Indian Americans.
Suresh Reddy, a centrist Democrat and city councilman, told New York Times that he watched the Republican presidential primary with a mix of pride and disappointment. He said, “I’m really proud…I just wish they had a better message.”
Another Democrat and a retired engineer and program manager in Hollis, Venu Rao said that Haley and Ramaswamy captured the ideological diversity among South Asian Americans even though he does not agree with their positions.
A 20-year-old student at Boston’s Tufts University, Nikhil Voothkur said, “It can be really easy to see this as a win and be like, ‘Oh my god — look there, those are two brown faces on national TV. That’s amazing… But, the diaspora, it has matured, and when a diaspora matures, you have a lot of ideological cleavages.”
Nishant Kumar, his wife Smita Nishant and 17 year old daughter Ankita Yadav recently got their citizenship and have a home in Waukee, west of Des Moines. Kumar’s who would have voted for Democrats in the last few elections say they find Ramaswamy as smart and refreshing.
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Updated: 26 Sep 2023, 11:02 AM IST
