Indian Americans to overwhelmingly vote for Joe Biden: Survey

NEW DELHI: The Indian Americans plan to overwhelmingly vote in favour of former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris, according to a new survey published on Wednesday on the voting pattern of the community.
The survey, from polling and analytics firm YouGov, claimed that 72% of Indian-American voters who were polled are looking to vote for Biden, while 22% will favour the incumbent President Donald Trump.
The 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey was conducted with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Johns Hopkins University and YouGov.

Healthcare and the economy have emerged as important issues for the community. The presence of Harris, whose mother moved to the United States from Chennai, on the Democratic ticket has also mobilised a significant section of the population.

She has openly discussed her Indian roots and family on the campaign trail, including stories of visiting her grandfather in Besant Nagar. At the National Democratic Convention, she referred to her aunts as her “chithis”. Harris’ nomination for vice-president, as expected, the survey said, mobilised Indian Americans and pushed the community to go out and vote.

Indian Americans are the second-largest immigrant group in the US at present, with both high levels of education and income. The survey noted the population of Indian American voters in swing states was higher than the margin of victory in the 2016 presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Trump.

Indian Americans were also found to be polarised politically. “Just like the wider voting public, Republican and Democratic Indian American voters are politically polarised and hold markedly negative views of the opposing party and divergent positions on several contentious policy issues—from immigration to law enforcement,” the survey states. “Political participation by naturalised citizens is more muted, however, manifesting in lower rates of voter turnout and weaker partisan identification,” the survey said.