Daniel Wolfram
Escalating anti-immigrant rhetoric from right-wing figures has pushed key voters to reconsider their loyalty to the party.
Trump and the Republican Party won a significant amount of the Indian American votes during the 2024 elections. About one in three decided to vote for the president.
Since then, the political landscape has changed a lot. It has become more racist and hostile towards them.
The rhetoric from the right toward Indian Americans has turned downright hateful in just two years. The marginalized group is feeling it too and is abandoning the party ahead of the midterm elections.
Racism in Texas
After winning over historic numbers of Indian American voters in 2024, the GOP faces major backlash from the local communities.
It all escalated after conservative candidates and influencers began targeting Indian Americans online. In Texas, Railroad Commission candidate Bo French shared a photo of Indian students at a football game and claimed foreigners were displacing “real” Americans.
Political leaders offered little pushback, with Governor Greg Abbott making a non-committal comment that it was “not my message,” according to HuffPost.
The hate then spread beyond just social media. Federal agents recently stopped a planned mass shooting at a Hindu temple in Illinois, while a Sikh truck driver survived a stabbing in Wyoming.
For young conservative volunteers, this is starting to feel personal. Vasant Bhatt, a 21-year-old student who previously interned for Senator Ted Cruz, faced vicious online attacks after backing a local Democrat. “Right now, it’s very difficult for me to say if I could ever return to the GOP,” Bhatt told HuffPost.
Bhatt also said that he was “disgusted by the xenophobia, racial resentment, and increasingly brazen attacks on my identity.”
Indian American voters are having buyer’s remorse
The fallout could cause big changes in upcoming congressional races. According to an Indian American Impact survey, 25% of Indian American voters who backed Donald Trump in 2024 now plan to vote for Democrats.
Community leaders in the Houston suburbs report that buyer’s remorse is real. Judge Manpreet Monica Singh, the state’s first Sikh civil judge, told HuffPost that conservative voters are openly questioning their past loyalties.
“They’re questioning: What have we been backing, and why have we been OK with this?” Singh said. “I see regret and the regression of support,” Singh added.
