Will rise of Harris to top of presidential ticket reverse Indian Americans’ swing toward GOP?

WHEN AN EXTREMELY unpopular (no 50% or better approval rating since August 2021) president and Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Joe Biden, was unceremoniously forced off the ticket by party elites and replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris, many had hoped she would automatically lock in the most Indian American votes. After all, Harris is half-Indian, and as such, she is the first Indian American to be nominated as U.S. president. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a Hindu from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, came to the U.S. as a student. 

However, despite high-profile endorsements from some prominent Indian Americans (IA) — from author Salman Rushdie to tech entrepreneur Vinod Khosla and celebrity TV host Padma Lakshmi — Harris’s challenges in courting IA voters remain.