The 2016 presidential race saw the birth of a powerful Republican Indian-American voting bloc, reversing a long history of Democratic loyalty.
The 2010 Census pegged the U.S. Asian Indian population at over 2.8 million, a ten-year growth of 69 percent that makes this one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the nation.
Republican candidate Donald Trump endeared himself to many Indian Americans with his aggressive posture against radical Islamic terrorism and his warm remarks about India Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I look forward to working with Prime Minister Modi, who has been very energetic in reforming India's bureaucracy. Great man, I applaud him," Trump said in October 2016.
Aligning himself with Modi was a strategic move. Modi had built a popular brand in the U.S., stressing, over the course of four U.S. visits since he was elected in 2014, that the two nations are the world's largest democracies. In June 2016, Modi met with President Barack Obama for the seventh time and addressed a joint session of Congress.
In the 2012 presidential contest, post-election polling showed that only 16 percent of Indian Americans had voted for Republican Mitt Romney, in keeping with a long tradition of that group's overwhelming support for Democratic candidates.
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05.10.2024