JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP) \u2014 A drive out to Atlanta\u2019s sprawling suburbs passes the cultural centers, schools and houses of worship that opened as this became\u00a0the nation\u2019s sixth-largest metropolitan area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Displaying the diversity within the growth, shops and brightly lit billboards advertise in\u00a0Chinese,\u00a0Korean,\u00a0Spanish\u00a0and\u00a0Hindi. The changes have been stark even for residents who experienced them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere were a handful of Indians around when I was growing up,\u201d said Hemant Ramachandran, an Atlanta attorney who grew up in Gwinnett County, a short drive from Atlanta and the heart of Georgia\u2019s fast-growing Asian American community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In some parts of Gwinnett, as well as neighboring Forsyth and Fulton counties, most of the census tracts and schools are now majority Asian American, according to county and Census Bureau data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s grown a lot since I was a kid. It definitely wasn\u2019t like there where I grew up or anywhere else in metro Atlanta,\u201d Ramachandran added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vice President Kamala Harris\u00a0comes to Georgia Tuesday for what aides bill as the biggest campaign rally since she became the probable Democratic nominee. The daughter of\u00a0Jamaican\u00a0and Indian immigrants will aim to court the votes of a region where Asian American voters \u2014 often Indian American communities in particular \u2014 stand to play a pivotal role in the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris\u2019 identity as a woman of Indian descent has sparked kitchen-table conversations in many Asian American and immigrant households in metropolitan Atlanta and energized local advocates. For many in Atlanta\u2019s Indian American community, Harris\u2019 story strikes a unique chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe South Asian community here is fairly excited because this is really unprecedented,\u201d said Ashwin Ramaswami, a 24-year-old technology entrepreneur and state senate candidate for a competitive seat that spans much of Atlanta\u2019s affluent northeastern suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris\u2019 ascent comes at a moment of especially high visibility and influence for Indian Americans in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Five Indian Americans serve in Congress. Usha Vance, the wife of Ohio senator and GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance, is Indian American, as were two of the most prominent candidates in the 2024 Republican primary, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was one of the first lawmakers Harris called for support after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indian Americans are now the largest population among Asian Americans,\u00a0according to a recent US Census survey. Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Michigan have relatively large Indian American communities that could prove pivotal in a tight race for the Oval Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Georgia legislature has seven lawmakers of Asian American descent from both parties. In north Fulton and Gwinnett counties, high-school auditoriums now regularly serve as venues for classical Indian dance recitals. Events like the Johns Creek International Festival garner thousands from across the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Buoyed by enthusiasm for the vice president\u2019s potential nomination among the Democratic base, Harris\u2019 campaign has ramped up events in Georgia. The campaign gathered 300 Harris supporters on Saturday in Forsyth County, a longtime Republican stronghold that has become more contested as it has grown and become more diverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be sure, Harris\u2019 identity as the first Asian American and Black American vice president does not necessarily translate to votes. Indian Americans, and Asian Americans at large, are a highly diverse bloc across every metric. In conversations with more than a dozen Indian American voters, many said they did not know much about the vice president\u2019s record and felt that her background was interesting but irrelevant to the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have much perspective so far (on) Kamala Harris,\u201d said Ashish Sahu, a software engineer from Alpharetta, an Atlanta-area city of about 65,000 people. Sahu said that he expected to \u201chear more about her in a few debates or during her campaign.\u201d He added that most people in his personal life and broader community in suburban Atlanta \u201care pretty educated and independent and wait to see who\u2019s the best candidate\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramachandran, the Atlanta attorney, said that, \u201cthe way I look at it, the more representation we have, the more I kind of feel like representation doesn\u2019t matter as much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He didn\u2019t feel that any prominent Indian American politicians especially centered their heritage and occupy at times starkly different political camps. He added, however, that many in the Indian diaspora, like many immigrant communities, find \u201ca sort of sense of pride, almost reflexively, that comes about where people go \u2018Look, that person came from, where I\u2019m from\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he and Harris had at least one experience in common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe same beach that she used to walk on when she was a kid, I used to walk on when I was a kid when I used to visit my grandparents,\u201d Ramachandran said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A group called South Asian Women for Harris organized a call last week that more than 4,000 women joined and more than $250,000 was raised over about two hours. The panelists on the call included celebrities like Mindy Kaling, as well as Jayapal. The congresswoman talked about working with Harris on legislation when Harris was in the Senate, and on Harris\u2019 strength in speaking out for reproductive rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those on the call were located across the country, many expressing their enthusiasm for supporting Harris, through fundraising or get out the vote efforts. Panelists urged them to stay involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organizers paid tribute to Win with Black Women, which kicked off the spate of support calls that drew tens of thousands of Black women attendees and raised well over $1 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of people are very excited. My photo album is strained by WhatsApp content right now, from like all corners (with) Kamala Harris stuff,\u201d said Tanbir Chowdhury, president of They See Blue New York, a Democratic group that engages South Asian voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to\u00a0an AAPI Data\/AP-NORC survey\u00a0conducted in May, about half of AAPI Americans identify as Democrats, while about one-quarter identify as Republicans. Around one-quarter identify as independents or don\u2019t identify with a political party. The findings were similar among AAPI adults of South Asian descent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than half of South Asian American adults had a positive view of Harris in the poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chowdhury cautioned that Democrats \u201chave a lot of work to do on that messaging on the border security\u201d with South Asian voters and that issues like the cost of living and other economic concerns are top of mind for South Asian voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramaswami, the tech entrepreneur whose mother grew up in Besant Nagar, Chennai, India, the same neighborhood as Harris\u2019 mother, said the vice president\u2019s campaign is personally significant. He hopes increased visibility for Indian Americans bodes well for increasing political and cultural influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to know that regardless of where you come from, or what your background is, or where your parents came from, this is a country where it really anything is possible, if you want to serve the people and do the right thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP) \u2014 A drive out to Atlanta\u2019s sprawl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3429,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427\/revisions\/3429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}