Indian Americans still back Democratic Party but their attachment has declined: Survey

Survey shows shift in Indian American political attitudes, with Democrats losing support while Republicans remain steady.

A new survey of Indian American political attitudes finds that while members of this group generally support the Democratic Party, as they have historically, their attachment to the party has declined. The Indian American Attitude Survey (IAAS) finds that the proportion of respondents identifying as Democrats is 47%, down from 56% in 2020, when the survey was last conducted.

The proportion of those identifying as Independents (26%) has increased, while those identifying as Republican has remained steady (21%). The decline in numbers favoring the Democratic Party has been offset, the authors say, by a rise in Republican identifiers amongst the Independents, yet the total number of those identifying with the ideological left has grown since 2020.

The survey and its accompanying report, was published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) and authored by Sumitra Badrinathan, Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav. It was conducted online and in partnership with YouGov, by surveying 714 U.S. Citizen Indian American respondents between September 18 and October 15, 2024. The margin of error was +/- 3.7 percent

The survey finds that a majority (60%) of registered Indian American voters plan to vote for U.S. Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, while just under a third (32%) intends to vote for the Republican candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump.

The results of the IAAS survey are in line with several polls across demographics which reveal a gender gap in the support for both candidates, with women favouring Ms. Harris and men favouring Mr. Trump (particularly among younger populations). A larger proportion of Indian American women (67%) intend to vote for Ms Harris than their male counterparts (53%). On the flip side, a larger proportion (39%) of Indian American men intend to vote for Mr Trump than their female counterparts (22%).

The report says the respondents rate Indian American Republicans unfavorably (i.e., they are “lukewarm” to them). These Republicans are former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who is a daughter of Panjabi immigrants; former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a son of Tamil immigrants; and Usha Vance, a daughter of Telugu immigrants and wife of Mr. Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance.

However, the data show that the Republican party’s relative underperformance with Indian Americans is not because of these personalities, but because GOP policies are not aligned with Indian American values. The study says that Democrats, when asked why they do not identify as Republicans, cited the GOP’s “intolerance of minorities”. Abortion, which has emerged as a major issue for Democrats and women as well as the GOP’s ties to Christian evangelicalism top the list of issues that alienate Indian Americans from the party.