How Indian Americans vote

Many aren't aware of the fact that Usha Vance, wife of Donald Trump’s VP pick JD Vance and daughter of Indian immigrants was once a Democrat. She turned into a  Republican after her marriage to JD Vance. Does it mean that most Indian Americans are going to vote Republican ? 

Don't think so. Indian Americans vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic party, though Republican party has been able to make some late inroads over a period of time, though marginal in nature. Nearly 80% of Indian Americans voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. That's a gargantuan gap there. But in 2020 it got reduced to 78%, which means the gap has narrowed down a bit by 2%, not by a substantial margin.

As seen from comments on social media many are of the opinion that Trump is good for India. Last time I was in India, I ran into our neighborhood grocery store. The owner of the store known to me for more than three decades was excited to see me. He welcomed asking me the standard question I get from all during my India trips - "When did you come and how long you will be here". After we exchanged pleasantries he told me - "TRAWMPAW AU BAIDENEY BHITARE PUNI KANA LADHEI HABA ! TRAWMPAW ASILE AMA DESHA PAI BHALA. Pakistan UPARE BOMA PAKEIBA. NA KANA APANA KAHUCHANTI (It seems Biden and Trump are going to fight again. It will be good for our country if Trump comes to power. He is going to bomb Pakistan. What do you say) ? I said - "APANA TA SABU JANICHANTI. MU ADHIKA KANA KAHIBI" (You are know everything. What more could I say) ? From his body language I could decipher that he took my response as a huge compliment. Nothing has changed since January except now Trump is going to fight Kamala Harris, not Biden.

American Presidents are good or bad to India or any nation per se depending on their country's national interest. Today India being an emerging economy America has business interest in it and strategist interest in containing China. Regardless who becomes the President, he or she will be good for India as long as it suits the American business and geopolitical goals. Foreign policy isn't governed by emotions, rather by pragmatism and crude reality. There no permanent friend or enemy in geopolitics where only permanent interest thrives.

There is another myth going around that only Republicans care about India. Let me counter it with some facts. In fact Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was the first US President to visit India after 24 years. The last President to visit India was another Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976. Between these trips the Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr never made a trip to India. While President Reagan went on arming Pakistan caring a hoot about India, another fellow Republican POTUS Richard Nixon went to the extent of referring to India's woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as "that Bitch". 

I haven't failed to notice that most persons of Indian origin in USA start as Democrats when they arrive in this country as nascent immigrants. But once they start making money their attitude becomes elitist and they start talking like Republicans, e.g. paying less tax, displaying anathema towards large government and advocate family values. But some Indian-American Republicans who talk about family values are perennial wife cheaters and notorious womanizers, champion hypocrites they are !

Let's do some Math here. Per latest census, number of folks of Indian origin in US is 4.5 million (1.5% of the total population). Out of them, American Citizens of Indian origin would be less than 3 million as there are lot of Indian diaspora on Green card, other work related visa and students who cannot vote in the US Elections. That makes Indian-Americans about 1% of the total Registered voters. For those who are eligible to vote, simply take a look at the demography. Among the Indians in the United States 51% are Hindus, 19% Christians, 11% Muslims, 5% Sikhs and 10% unaffiliated to any religion. Bulk of the support comes to the Republican party from the Hindus.

Majority of the Indian Americans live in the states of California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas. Out of these the first four are solidly Democrat and Texas Republican. The Indian American vote in these states won't make any difference to the outcome of the Election. However in swing states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and my home state of Georgia where election will be decided by few thousand votes, Indian American vote does matter. Even if the Indian-American votes for Democratic party goes down by a few percentage points due to our newly converted Republican Desis (a slang for Persons of Indian origin in America, of used in a derogatory sense), still Democrats won't get anything less than 2/3rd of Indian -Americans votes in this election. Let's see if will be able to make a difference in the outcome of US Election 2024.