By Mahrukh Siddiqui
A new poll conducted in battleground states of 600 South Asian American voters revealed the community enthusiastically supports Kamala Harris over Donald Trump.
The Indian American Impact Fund (IAIF) commissioned the survey conducted by GBAO, a public opinion research and political strategy firm.
The poll conducted in September asked if the election were held today, who would you vote for?
68% said they would vote for Harris and 20% said they would vote for Trump.
80% ranked their motivation to vote for Harris at a 10 with 10 being the highest while only 66% of Trump’s supporters said the same.
The goal of the poll according to IAIF, was to understand the voting preference of South Asian voters, understand their motivations to vote and understand what issues matter the most to these voters.
“We called voters off the voter file and screened for ethnicity,” Nisha Jain of GBAO said during the briefing attended by AsAmNews.
Jain said South Asian voters “are overwhelmingly Democratic leaning” with 46% saying they were Democrats and 9% saying they were Republicans.
Jain added that according to the polling, the top two issues for the South Asian community are inflation and abortion with abortion being a top issue for the Democratic party.
Polling also found that 71% of South Asian voters’ view Harris favorably while only 22% view Trump favorably.
Chintan Patel, the Executive Director of IAIF said there are over 400,000 eligible South Asian voters in Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina
“In a state like Georgia, where in 2020, the president and vice president won the state with just about 11,000 votes, there are nearly 100,000 South Asian voters in the state and they’re going to be the critical margin of victory,” Patel said at the briefing.
According to Patel, IAIF is doing what it can to reach as many South Asian and Asian Pacific Islander voters in these battleground states by launching a $3.5 million ad campaign.
“We’re communicating on channels and platforms, TV stations and radio stations where we know our community goes to consume media, so we can reach voters where they are,” Patel said. “And in messaging that is culturally resonant to them and on issues that are going to move them to vote.”
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
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We should pressure Harris, if she wins, to appoint at least one AsAm to a cabinet member position. Don’t give our support free. We should negotiate to gain something for ourselves.