Have Democrats Lost South Asians?

Since he was naturalized in 2014, Gaurav Sabnis, a New York-based marketing professor, has voted down the ballot for Democrats in every single election. But he wasn’t always a Democrat. “When I came to the country in 2006, I leaned more Republican and libertarian,” Sabnis told The Juggernaut — partly molded by his memory of India where, he claimed, “the government doesn’t do much.” By the time he became a citizen, he registered as a Democrat, citing how the government can uphold social justice, including immigration and abortion rights — and that was the party most likely to do so. And yet, though he voted for Kamala Harris last week, “It was the least enthusiastic I’ve been in my 10 years of casting that vote,” Sabnis said.

As South Asians flex their growing political muscle in swing states like Georgia and Michigan, one of the Democrats’ most reliable voting blocs appears increasingly unmoored. The overwhelming Republican win of 2024 — electoral votes, popular vote, the Senate, the House — has exposed a deeper realignment, with Democrats cementing their position as the party of elites while Republicans claimed the mantle of the working class. This has left many South Asian Americans — staunchly Republican only a few decades ago — questioning their very place in America’s binary political system.