What are Indian Americans saying about Kamala Harris?

Satish Dharni, a Draper, Utah, resident, is an Indian immigrant who moved to the United States in 2005. He was 57 at the time, old enough to retire, and faced the challenge of setting up a new life for his wife and two sons in a foreign country. So far, Dharni, a registered independent, has voted in three elections, choosing to support former President Donald Trump the last two times.
He plans to vote for Trump this election cycle as well but has a soft spot for Vice President Kamala Harris because of her Indian heritage.
Between the two political parties, a majority of voters say the Democratic Party is more welcoming to Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs, according to the latest Deseret News and HarrisX national survey.
Dharni is an American Indian, now the largest and most politically active group among Asian Americans.
Although a large majority of Indian Americans are loyal to the Democratic Party — around three-fourths of Indian Americans said they planned on voting for President Joe Biden — Trump’s tax policies, a focus on small businesses and close ties with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are enticing to many voters in this demographic.
Despite disliking Trump’s “foul mouth,” Dharni said Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act helped the economy grow through deductions and lower tax rates for businesses and individuals. Dharni’s daughter-in-law, Shreya Chopra, who owns hotels in Utah, Idaho and Nevada, also said she doesn’t support Harris’ proposal of upping tax for top earners and she doesn’t like her views on the border.
Dharni also accused the current administration of not taking a stance against the Khalistan movement, a group of Sikhs who want to separate from India and establish an ethno-religious sovereign state.
Dharni argued the Biden White House is quick to point fingers and raise human rights concerns in India when speaking with Modi. In September last year, Biden visited Modi in New Delhi. They had “substantial discussions” on the future of the U.S. and India partnership, “And, as I always do, I raised the important (subject) of respecting human rights and the vital role that civil society and a free press have in building a strong and prosperous country with Mr. Modi,” Biden said at the time.
Despite not liking Democratic policies, “I am sorry to say that I would love Kamala to be elected,” Dharni said. Harris’ heritage makes the election a win-win for conservatives like Dharni.
Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in India and moved to the U.S. for college in 1958. Harris grew up learning about the Hindi culture and often visited her mother’s homeland. Her name, “Kamala,” means lotus, and is closely associated with Goddess Lakshmi, who represents wealth, good fortune, happiness, youth and beauty.
The South Asian American population in key battleground states for 2024 — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — “is far larger than the closest arch of victory in statewide elections in the last few elections,” said Chintan Patel, the executive director at the Indian American Impact Fund, which endorsed Harris this year as well as in 2019.
“When you look at a state like Georgia, where in 2020 the Biden-Harris campaign won that state by 11,000 votes, there are close to 100,000 South Asian American voters eligible voters,” said Patel. The election is “going to swing based on a couple of thousand votes,” he said, adding, “Our community has the power to make the margin of victory.”
This voter bloc especially matters as polling numbers indicate a close matchup between Trump and Harris. The Deseret News/HarrisX national survey, conducted Aug. 2-3 among 1,011 registered U.S. voters, showed Donald Trump at 47% and Kamala Harris at 45%, with 9% of voters saying they were unsure.
“We saw a couple of weeks ago, on the floor of the national Republican convention, they were passing out these big posters, these rally signs and big bold letters declaring ‘mass deportations now,’” Patel said. “When members of our community take a look at those signs, what they see is a party and a candidate in Donald Trump, who is trying to tear apart hundreds of thousands of South Asian American families because this policy would affect them.”
Support for mass deportations has grown among Americans as of late. Nearly 6 in 10 voters endorse a hypothetical mass deportation effort, according to a CBS News poll from June.
Milan Vaishnav, the director and senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s South Asian program, pointed to a survey by the nonpartisan international affairs think tank in 2020, prior to that year’s presidential election.
Roughly “45% of Indian American citizen respondents reported that Harris’ addition to the Democratic ticket made them more likely to vote (while another 40% said it made no difference),” Vaishnav told the Deseret News in an email.
“Of those reporting they were more likely to vote, nearly half (49%) said Harris’ choice as Biden’s VP candidate made them more enthusiastic about the Democratic ticket. The number one reason given? Her Indian American heritage.”
Malavika Kirtane Deo, a Salt Lake City resident and a mother to three daughters, is also a business owner; her company Spice Symphony sells spice blends and food.
Deo recalled feeling confused about who to support during the Democratic primary in 2020. “Because I absolutely adore Joe Biden. But then it’s the same thing for Kamala Harris, again, more because I’m a woman. I wanted to see a woman president in my lifetime for the U.S.,” she said. “America is such a progressive country. … But every time there is a woman who tries to run we shut it down,” she said.
Deo said she didn’t want her children to follow along party lines. At the Deo household, each candidate is evaluated on their track records and policies. But when Trump came into office, “I decided, no more Republicans until they have the courage to stand up and say, ‘This is not a candidate for our party because he’s destroying the country,’” Deo said.
Deo has lived in the U.S. for 35 years after getting married. The couple moved to Utah in November 1989. Deo began following Harris a few years ago and observed her passion for working for the people. “Whether she had any Indian blood in her or not, it is still just as exciting in so many different ways.” If elected, Harris would become the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as commander in chief.
Her daughters, Deo said, also relate to Harris’ message about standing up for the underdog and not leaving people behind. “I think those things remind them of their own upbringing,” she said.
South Asian Women for Harris raised $250,000 in donations during a two-hour video call on Zoom in late July.
“Because most Indian Americans call the Democratic Party home, they are definitely more organized,” said Vaishnav. “However, Republicans have consistently tried to woo Indian and South Asian voters and, this election, both sides are making a big push to win over their votes,” he said. “But my sense is that the organizational, enthusiasm, and demographic advantages are with the Democrats right now.”
“I am a big fan of Hindus and I’m a big fan of India,” Trump said in 2016 at an event hosted by the Republican Hindu Coalition. He also hosted the “Howdy Modi” summit that took place in 2019. It featured a rally with Modi in Houston, Texas, that attracted a crowd of over 50,000.
Trump, in conversation on a podcast with wealthy Silicon Valley donors and venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, said he would support giving green cards to foreign students who graduate from an American university, a policy likely to be popular among South Asians in the U.S. and abroad.
Indian Americans are increasingly involved in civic life, especially politics. Apart from Harris, this election cycle, the Republican primary drew two candidates of Indian heritage — former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. While they have dropped out of the race, vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, also has Indian lineage. Her Yale degree and successful law career fall in line with the expectations and ambitions of South Asian parents.
“Typically, vice presidential candidates have had a modest impact on actual electoral outcomes. VP candidates’ spouses even less so,” Vaishnav said. “My sense is that most Indian Americans would view Usha Vance positively, but this current avatar of the Republican Party is ideologically out-of-step with where most Indian American voters are. That is the structural barrier facing the Republican Party today.”
“I think as time has gone on, this race has settled down and Indian American voters are strongly behind the Harris-Walz ticket. As incomes continue to rise and the diversity of the Indian diaspora grows, it is natural that more Indian Americans will support the Republican Party. But, ideologically, this version of the Republican Party is too extreme for most Indian Americans,” he said. For now, he expects Indian Americans to vote “for Harris in numbers equal to, or even greater than, 2020.”