Poll: 72 percent of Indian American voters support Biden, Harris

A survey of nearly 1,000 Indian Americans indicated overwhelming support for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

Reuters reported Wednesday that a joint study from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the University of Pennsylvania found that 72 percent of Indian Americans plan to vote for the Biden-Harris ticket. 

Just 22 percent of Indian Americans indicated support for President Trump in the poll.

Harris is the first Indian American and first Black woman to be the vice presidential nominee of a major party; her mother was a biomedical scientist who immigrated from India, while her father, an economist, is originally from Jamaica.

A village in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, from which Harris’s mother traces her family roots, put up banners in support of Harris’s candidacy in August in honor of her selection as Biden’s vice presidential nominee.

“Kamala Harris — she is of Indian descent, she should win the election and also should be in favor of India,” said Ananthapadmanaba Sharma, a priest at the Ramanathaswamy temple that held prayers in support of Harris earlier this year.

Trump made his own overtures to the Indian American community with favorable comments about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent months and spoke Hindi in a 2016 campaign ad aimed at Indian Americans.

The poll, conducted in partnership with YouGov, surveyed 936 Indian Americans from Sept. 1 to 20 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.