84/100: Democrats sweep districts with high concentration of Indian-American voters in midterms

The Democratic Party dominated congressional districts with large Indian-American populations in Tuesday’s midterm elections, winning 84 of the 100 seats with the largest concentrations of the community, an HT analysis of election data found. In addition to retaining many of these traditionally Democratic seats, the party wrested six from Republicans, whose tally fell to 15. Indian-American politician Amish Shah, whose race in Arizona’s 1st district has not yet been called, is leading in a Republican-held seat and could add to the Democratic tally.Ro Khanna greet supporters during a campaign rally in Los Angeles on October 5. (AP)HT’s analysis ranks all 435 House districts by their Asian Indian population, using the Census Bureau’s 2020–24 American Community Survey. The top 100 districts are home to more than half of the country’s Indian-American population. They stretch from Silicon Valley, where California’s 17th district alone has about 146,000, to New Jersey and the suburbs of Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and Seattle. Roughly 2.6 million Indian-Americans are eligible to vote in the country, according to the Carnegie Endowment’s Indian American Attitudes Survey released in 2024.To be sure, Indian-Americans do not constitute a majority in any of the 100 congressional seats analysed by HT. For example, they account for roughly a fifth of the population in California’s 17th district, which has the largest Indian population of any congressional district. However, their votes, particularly in tight elections, can be important for both Democrats and Republicans.Also read | What India will watch for: Immigration, tariffs in focus after US midterm resultsDemocratic dominance was strongest in California, where the party won 19 of the 20 seats on the top 100 list with the most Indian-Americans. These included the 17th district, the most heavily Indian-American seat in the country, which Congressman Ro Khanna won for a sixth consecutive term.Democrats also won every top-100 seat in New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Despite a poor night nationally that cost them both the House and the Senate, Republicans held their ground in Texas, winning nine of the 13 seats there with large Indian-American populations.Also read | Trump's party loses Congress; Democrats seize House, Senate in historic midterm sweepRepublican winners in Texas included Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne, whose district is home to nearly 23,000 Indian residents. Van Duyne has drawn criticism for her proximity to conservative media figures such as Sara Gonzales, who have played up local fears of H-1B visa fraud allegedly involving members of the Indian community. Republican Trever Nehls won Texas’s 22nd district, which has about 45,000 Indian residents. The district includes Sugar Land, where Texas Republican Senate candidate Alexander Duncan sparked outrage in 2025 by calling a 90-foot Hanuman statue at a local Hindu temple a “false statue of a false Hindu God”. Texas also delivered one of the Republicans’ few pickups: after the party redrew the state’s 32nd district, which is home to about 16,000 Indian residents, Republican Jace Yarbrough won the seat previously held by Democrat Julie Johnson.Also read | Samosa Caucus grows; bittersweet night for Indian-Americans in US midterm electionsThe Democratic wave also unseated two Republican members of the House India caucus: Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania and Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey.The results largely align with the community’s political leanings. A Carnegie Endowment–YouGov survey conducted in October found that 62% of Indian-American citizens planned to vote for Democratic House candidates, compared with 19% for Republicans. In Senate races, the split was 63% to 21%.Carnegie’s previous survey – conducted between November 2025 and January 2026 – helps explain the mood. Only 29% of Indian-American adults approved of US President Donald Trump’s job performance, while 71% disapproved. Inflation and prices topped the concerns, followed by jobs and the economy, health care and immigration. Nearly half said they often came across racist posts targeting Indians online, and almost a third said they had pulled back from political engagement on social media as a result. In 2024, Carnegie found that 31% of Indian-American registered voters had planned to vote for Trump.