Asian American voters are among Georgia’s fastest-growing voting blocs, which could make the difference in helping to tip the state in favor of Democrats should Vice President Kamala Harris become the party’s nominee.
Harris, whose mother is from India and father is a Black Jamaican, was endorsed by President Joe Biden and most of Georgia’s top Democratic officials on Sunday shortly after the incumbent announced he would not be accepting the party’s nomination next month.
It’s unclear who will become the Democratic nominee for president, but with the support of Biden and several top Democrats across the country, there’s a good chance it will be Harris.
If nominated, Harris will make history as the first Black woman and Indian American to top a major party’s ticket. That’s something that Asian Americans, Indian Americans and other South Asian Americans can be proud of, said Ajay Houde, an Alpharetta resident and regional director of the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies.
“At the end of the day, the (Democratic National Convention), which is happening next month, is going to decide (who will be the nominee),” he said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that Mr. Biden chose Kamala as his vice president in 2020 and now he’s endorsing her. And that’s exciting.”
Harris isn’t the only presidential political connection for Indian Americans. The wife of Republican nominee Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, Usha Vance, is also Indian American.
The number of voters who identify as Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders rose across the country between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. census, but the increase was among the biggest in Georgia, where participation rose by more than 80%. Only South Dakota, a much smaller state where participation more than doubled, saw a bigger increase by percentage.
Nearly a third of all such voters in Georgia live in Gwinnett County. There, Asian American and Pacific Islander voters went from about 6% of the voting electorate in 2016 to a little more than 9% in 2020, according to data from TargetSmart, a Democratic-leaning data firm.
And AAPI voter turnout in Georgia increased by 84% between 2016 and 2020, more than any state in the country, according to the research and policy organization AAPI Data.
In Georgia, 4.6% of the population is AAPI, according to U.S. census data. There are nearly 239,000 registered voters in Georgia who identify as AAPI. In 2020, Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in the state by less than 12,000 votes.
While AAPI voters skewed Democratic in the 2022 elections across the country, a higher proportion voted for Republicans that cycle than in 2018, according to exit polls.
State Rep. Soo Hong, a Lawrenceville Republican who was born in South Korea, said she doesn’t think Asian Americans are more or less likely to vote for Harris just because of a shared heritage.
“Asian Americans have suffered under the Biden-Harris administration for 3.5 years as historic inflation, illegal immigration and rising crime have put the American dream out of reach for their families,” she said. “They will not be voting for Kamala just because she checks a box related to identity politics.”
FBI data for the first quarter of 2024 showed a 15% nationwide drop in violent crime from the first quarter of last year. Also, while U.S. inflation under Biden rose to an average rate of 8% in 2022 coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, rates were higher several times in the ’70s and ’80s.
Murtaza Khwaja, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, called the potential of Harris being the presidential nominee historic, but he warned against lauding “representation for representation’s sake.” He pointed to the Biden-Harris administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas war, which he said disappointed his organization.
“What matters to our electorate is having someone who reflects our views on policies, not just someone who looks like us,” said Khwaja, who was born in Pakistan. “It’s incredibly exciting, but, as the saying goes, skin-folk isn’t necessarily kinfolk.”
Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood, who is Pakistani American and executive director of the Asian American Advocacy Fund, echoed Khwaja’s sentiments. She said the members of her organization are concerned with the administration’s stance on Gaza.
“We’re going to be looking to see what her platform is going to be, what her campaign promises look like and how much it looks like she’s willing to take a step to the (ideological) left,” Yaqoob Mahmoud said. “We’re looking for anyone who is going to be pushing for a more permanent cease-fire and a more permanent solution. Harris will bring some fresh air and a good opportunity for new blood in the White House, but people are still going to be looking at policy.”
Just as the AAPI electorate in Georgia has grown, so has the representation in the Legislature. The General Assembly has 11 lawmakers of Asian American or Pacific Islander descent.
In a statement directed at Biden, Georgia’s AAPI Caucus invoked the 2022 Atlanta-area shootings that left eight people dead, six of which were women of Asian descent.
“We will never forget how ... you and Vice President Harris came to meet with Georgia’s AAPI lawmakers and leaders, vowing that our voices would be heard, our communities seen and that you would never stop fighting to make sure we would be part of that more perfect union we fight for together,” stated the letter, signed by six members of the caucus.
State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, a Bangladeshi American and Duluth Democrat who last week gave birth to her first child, said she was proud that her son could share the heritage of the next Democratic presidential nominee — or president. Islam Parkes is of South Asian descent, which includes countries such as Bangladesh and India, and her husband is of Jamaican descent.
“My son will have representation in a very unique way if that were to happen,” she said. “Georgia is a swing state. I think with Harris at the top of the ticket, we have a stronger projection that the state will stay blue. She’s everything we need to defeat Trump this fall.”
