And in other places…..
Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens and a democratic socialist, emerged victorious in the Democratic primary in June, fueled in part by a novel, diverse coalition that included broad swaths of South Asian voters in New York….
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Turnout among South Asian voters increased by 40 percent compared with the 2021 primary, according to a New York Times analysis of voter records and demographic estimates based on voters’ names and neighborhoods from a nonpartisan data firm, L2.
The community still only represents a small share of voters. There are roughly 450,000 South Asians in New York City, about 5 percent of the population. They have typically made up a smaller share of the electorate than other ethnic constituencies, in part because a large share of the community is made up of noncitizens or those too young to vote. But the community has been growing rapidly, including a Bangladeshi population that has nearly tripled in the last decade.
Thousands of these voters registered for the first time this election cycle.
“I have never seen so much energy around a mayoral candidate,” said Sonny Singh, a Brooklyn-based musician and volunteer for Mamdani’s campaign whose family comes from Pune, India. “Groups that have historically been less inclined to get too involved electorally are stepping up.”
DRUM Beats, or Desis Rising Up and Moving, and CAAAV Voice, the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, engaged more than 150,000 South Asian residents across all five boroughs in the months leading up to the June primary, their leaders said. By Election Day, more than one-third of the city’s South Asian residents had been canvassed by these groups or Mr. Mamdani’s campaign itself.
Prior election results have illustrated the difficulty of bringing these groups together. More than 20 South Asian Democratic candidates have unsuccessfully run for office over the last two decades. Few politicians from either party have tried meaningfully to engage South Asian voters: A 2022 Asian American Voter Survey found that 56 percent of respondents had “no or uncertain contact” from Democrats and two-thirds said the same of Republicans.
South Asian voters, like almost every other demographic group, have recently shown signs of a rightward shift. In 2024, more Indian Americans said that they would vote for Republicans than in 2020, according to research from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In New York last November, Donald Trump made gains in heavily East and South Asian neighborhoods in Queens, while Democrats underperformed citywide, unable to turn out voters to the same extent as in past elections.
But less than a year after Mr. Trump won the presidency on a campaign that exacerbated tensions between established immigrants and recent arrivals, Mr. Mamdani, a Uganda-born Indian American, has pushed a different political narrative in New York City, one that focuses on a collective struggle against issues of affordability and inequality….
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Mr. Mamdani’s steadfast criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been yet another galvanizing force in this electorate, at a time when a majority of the Democratic Party’s voters say they sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis. Many South Asian New Yorkers say they strongly disagree with the use of tax dollars to fund weapons for Israel….
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“He unites people,” said 29-year-old Sneha Jayaraj, a lawyer who had arranged the evening’s performances. “Not only New York City, the world needs that, you know?”
Note…
It WILL be difficult for Democrats to export Mamdani’s support outside left leaning urban centers….
Remember though…. Kamala Harris ‘s mother was of Indain extraction….
image…Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign seemed to drive South Asian voters to the primary polls in June, with many first-time voters participating…NY Times…