- Friday, October 18, 2024
A survey has found that 46% of Indian-Americans intend to vote for the incumbent president in the November 5 election this year as compared to 65% in 2020 when he defeated Trump.
By: Shubham Ghosh
US president Joe Biden, who is finding increasing pressure to quit the race to the White House following an uninspiring performance in the first presidential debate with challenger Donald Trump in Georgia last month, has found his support in the Indian-American community dropping sharply.
According to a bi-annual Asian American Voter Survey (AAVS), the oldest survey of Asian Americans which was released on Wednesday (10), support for the incumbent president among Indian Americans plummeted 19 per cent between the last election of 2020 and now.
The survey, conducted by by Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), AAPI Data, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) and AARP, showed that 46 per cent of Indian-Americans intend to vote for Biden in the November 5 election this year as compared to 65 per cent in 2020 when he defeated Trump.
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The drop is in fact the biggest among all Asian-American ethnic communities.
The survey, which was conducted ahead of the presidential election of June 27, 46 per cent Asian-Americans are likely to back Biden, eight percentage points less since 2020. Thirty-one per cent are likely to vote for Trump, gaining one point since the last election year.
However, Biden’s loss has not necessarily been Trump’s major gain. He has seen just two per cent rise in favourability rating (30 per cent this year compared to 28 per cent in 2020).
Read: Biden says only ‘Lord Almighty’ can make him quit presidential race
The fall in Indian-Americans’ support for Biden, 81, might be significant, given the fact that the community has a sizable presence in several battleground states.
The survey also pointed out that Biden has 55 per cent favourability rate among the Indian-Americans, as against Trump’s 35 per cent. Both the Democratic and Republican leaders have the identical 42 per cent unfavourability rate among the community.
Kamala Harris, the first Indian-American and a woman to become the vice president, has a favourability rating of 54 per cent and unfavourability rating of 38 per cent. Nikki Haley, another Indian-American politician who was in the race for the Republican nomination before quitting in March, has a favourability rating of 33 per cent and unfavourability rating of 46 per cent. Eleven per cent said they have never heard of Haley, who has served in top positions such as the governor of South Carolina and the US ambassador to the United Nations.
“Asian Americans are rapidly diversifying the American electorate and it is critical for us to update our understanding of what motivates them and informs their voting choices,” Karthick Ramakrishnan, executive director of AAPI Data, said.
“We see ongoing evidence of dynamism within the Asian-American electorate, including on matters pertaining to presidential vote choice and party preferences on key issues ranging from inflation to healthcare and immigration,” he said in a statement.
