JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP) — Driving into Atlanta’s sprawling suburbs, you’ll pass cultural centers, schools and houses of worship that opened when the area became the nation’s sixth-largest metropolitan area.
To demonstrate the diversity of growth, stores and bright signage advertise in Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Hindi. The changes were obvious even to the residents who experienced them.
“When I was growing up, there were a few Indians around me,” says Atlanta lawyer Hemant Ramachandran. Gwinnett County is a short drive from Atlanta and is the center of Georgia’s rapidly growing Asian American community.
Some Atlanta suburbs become Asian American
In parts of Gwinnett and neighboring Forsyth and Fulton counties, the majority of census tracts and schools are now majority Asian American, according to county and Census Bureau data.
“It’s grown a lot since I was a kid. It’s definitely different than where I grew up and other places in metro Atlanta,” Ramachandran added.
Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Georgia on Tuesday for aides to introduce legislation in her biggest campaign rally since she became the likely Democratic nominee. The daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, she will aim to win over Asian American voters, particularly in areas with large Indian American communities, which play a vital role in elections.
Harris’ identity as a woman of Indian descent sparked dinner table conversations in many Asian American and immigrant households in metro Atlanta and galvanized local advocates. For many in Atlanta’s Indian American community, Harris’ story strikes a unique chord.
“This is really unprecedented, so the South Asian community here is pretty excited,” said the tech entrepreneur and state senate candidate for a competitive seat that spans much of Atlanta’s affluent northeastern suburbs. said Ashwin Ramaswamy, 24.
Indian Americans in politics
Harris’ rise to power comes at a time when Indian Americans are particularly high profile and influential in politics.
Five Indian Americans serve in the House of Representatives. Usha Vance, wife of Ohio state senator and Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, is an Indian-American, as are two of the front-runners in the 2024 Republican primary, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. .
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was one of the first lawmakers Ms. Harris called for support after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race.
According to the most recent U.S. Census, Indian Americans are now the largest population of Asian Americans. Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Michigan have relatively large Indian-American communities that could be crucial in a tight race for the Oval Office.
There are seven Asian American elected officials from both parties in the Georgia state legislature. In North Fulton and Gwinnett counties, high school auditoriums are now regularly used as venues for Indian classical dance recitals. Events like the Johns Creek International Festival draw thousands of people from across the region.
Harris’ campaign is ramping up its events in Georgia due to enthusiasm among the Democratic base for the vice presidential nomination. On Saturday, the campaign drew 300 Harris supporters to Forsyth County. The county has long been a Republican stronghold, but as the party has grown and become more diverse, it has become more competitive.
Does shared identity equal voting?
To be sure, Harris’ identity as the first Asian American and Black American vice president doesn’t necessarily translate into votes. Indian Americans, and Asian Americans as a whole, are a very diverse group by every metric. In conversations with more than a dozen Indian-American voters, many said they didn’t know much about the vice president’s background and felt her background was interesting but irrelevant to the campaign.
What you need to know about the 2024 election
“Right now there’s not much visibility on Kamala Harris,” said Ashish Sahu, a software engineer in Alpharetta, a city of about 65,000 people near Atlanta. Sahu said he expects to “get to know more about her in a few debates and during the campaign.” He added that most of the people in the Atlanta suburbs’ private lives and the broader community are “well-educated, independent, and waiting to see who is the best candidate.”
“My feeling is that the more representation you have, the less important representation becomes,” said Ramachandran, an Atlanta lawyer.
He did not feel that prominent Indian American politicians were particularly committed to their heritage and sometimes occupied entirely different political camps. But like many immigrant communities, many in the Indian diaspora “have a kind of pride that comes almost reflexively from a place of, ‘Look, where is that person from? Where am I from?’ “I feel things,” he added. ”
And he and Harris had at least one experience in common.
“The same beach she walked to as a child, the same beach I used to walk to when I was a child visiting my grandparents,” Ramachandran said.
A group called South Asian Women for Harris organized the appeal last week, with more than 4,000 women participating and more than $250,000 raised in about two hours. Panelists on the conference call included not only Jayapal but also celebrities such as Mindy Kaling. The congressman spoke about his legislative collaboration with Harris when she was a senator and her strength in advocating for reproductive rights.
A country where anything is possible
Callers were from across the country, many of whom expressed their enthusiasm for supporting Ms. Harris through fundraising and voting efforts. Panelists encouraged continued participation.
Organizers saluted “Win with Black Women,” which sparked a series of support calls that engaged tens of thousands of Black women and raised well over $1 million.
“A lot of people are so excited. My photo albums are now strained with WhatsApp content and every inch of them is strained with Kamala Harris stuff,” says Democratic Party Engaging South Asian Voters said Tanvir Chowdhury, president of the group They See Blue New York.
About half of AAPI Americans identify as Democrats, and about a quarter identify as Republicans, according to an AAPI Data/AP-NORC survey conducted in May. About a quarter identify as independent or are not affiliated with a political party. These results were similar among AAPI adults of South Asian descent.
The poll found that more than half of South Asian American adults had a positive view of Harris.
Chaudhry warned that Democrats “have a lot of work to do to get the message on border security” to South Asian voters, noting that issues such as cost of living and other economic concerns are top of mind for South Asian voters. He warned that it was a matter of concern.
Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur whose mother grew up in Besant Nagar, Chennai, India, like Harris’s mother, said the vice presidential campaign was personally important to him. He hopes that increased visibility for Indian Americans will lead to increased political and cultural influence.
“No matter where you come from, no matter what your background is, no matter where your parents are from, if you want to serve people and do the right thing, this is truly a country where anything is possible. “I’m glad to know,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Deepti Hajera and video journalist Joseph Frederick in New York contributed.
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