21-year-old Vasant Bhatt announced on social media that despite identifying with conservative politics so far, he voted for Democrat James Talarico in the Texas election against Republican candidate Ken Paxton to reject anti-India hatred in his state and in the US. Though he is a second-generation Indian-American, he was asked to leave the US after his post went viral. The Political Science student of the University of Houston was removed from Campus Reform’s correspondent program as an apparent fallout but he said he won’t retract his beliefs and neither would he abandon his community.MAGA had a problem with Bhatt putting Indian first in his hyphenated Indian-American identity and still considering Indian-American as his community.In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, he said the social media reactions to his post were disturbing but not shocking. He interned for Republican senator Ted Cruz’s 2024 campaign but now he considers himself as “politically homeless”, but his future votes would probably go to the Democrats.“My biggest concern is the extent to which politics has become organized around just resentment,” said Bhatt told Houston Chronicle’s Adrian Ashford.
Rising India hatred driving Indian-Americans to Democrats
The original post that Bhatt made was a request to every Indian-American with voting rights to go out and reject the anti-India hatred. “As a second-generation Indian American, I am thoroughly disgusted by the xenophobia, racial resentment, and increasingly brazen attacks on my identity. My family has contributed to the American story through hard work, sacrifice, and an unwavering belief in the opportunities this nation promises. I am every bit as American as anyone else, and I will not tolerate being treated as a perpetual foreigner in the country I call home,” Bhatt wrote.“I implore every eligible Texan to get out and vote. This election is about the kind of state and country we are prepared to defend—and the principles we refuse to surrender.”Indian Americans historically favored Democrats, but the community sided with Trump in 2024. HuffPost reported that a recent poll commissioned by an Indian American advocacy group found a quarter of Indian Americans who backed Trump in 2024 planned to vote for Democrats in the midterm elections. The poll revealed that the rising cost of living and healthcare were top issues for the community, like other voters. While Democrats led Republicans among likely voters at around 66%, nearly two-thirds of Independent South Asian voters said they were undecided ahead of the midterms, the report said. “There are a large chunk of [Indian American] voters who are, for lack of a better word, having buyers remorse,” Chintan Patel, the executive director of Indian American Impact, the company that conducted the survey, told HuffPost. “That’s something that is building across the community as we’re talking about hate and discrimination.”