الوسم: voters

  • Voters in battleground Arizona to decide if local agencies can police illegal immigration

    Voters in battleground Arizona to decide if local agencies can police illegal immigration

    PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters are set to decide whether to let local police arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the state from Mexico, an authority that would encroach on the federal government’s power over immigration enforcement but would not take effect immediately, if ever.

    If Arizona voters approve Proposition 314, the state would become the latest to test the limits of what local authorities can do to curb illegal immigration. Within the past year, GOP lawmakers in Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma have passed immigration laws. In each case, federal courts have halted the states’ efforts to enforce them.

    The only presidential battleground state that borders Mexico, Arizona is no stranger to a bitter divide on the politics of immigration. Since the early 2000s, frustration over federal enforcement of Arizona’s border with Mexico has inspired a movement to draw local police departments, which had traditionally left border duties to the federal government, into immigration enforcement.

    The state Legislature approved an immigrant smuggling ban in 2005 that let then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio conduct immigration crackdowns, a 2007 prohibition on employers knowingly hiring people in the country illegally, and a landmark 2010 immigration law that required police, while enforcing other laws, to question the legal status of people suspected of being in the country without authorization.

    Arizona voters have been asked to decide matters related to immigration before. They approved a 2004 law denying some government benefits to people in the country illegally and a 2006 law declaring English to be Arizona’s official language. They also rejected a 2008 proposal that would have made business-friendly revisions to the state law barring employers from hiring people who are in the country without authorization.

    Arizona GOP lawmakers say the proposal is necessary to help secure the border, as they blame the Biden administration for an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration. Record levels of illegal crossings have plummeted in recent months, following moves by the White House to tighten asylum restrictions.

    Opponents of Proposition 314 argue it would harm Arizona’s economy and reputation, as well as lead to the racial profiling of Latinos. They cite the profiling Latinos endured when Arpaio led the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. In 2013, a federal judge ruled Latinos had been racially profiled in Arpaio’s traffic patrols that targeted immigrants, leading to a court-ordered overhaul of the agency that’s expected to cost taxpayers $314 million in legal and compliance costs by mid-summer 2025.

    Kelli Hykes, who works in health policy and volunteers for Greg Whitten, the Democratic nominee in the race for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, said she thought carefully about how to vote on the immigration measure but declined to share her choice.

    “It’s so polarizing, and there are folks in my family that are going to be voting one way and I’m voting another,” Hykes said.

    Proposition 314 would make it a state crime for people to illegally enter Arizona from Mexico outside official ports of entry, permitting local and state law enforcement officers to arrest them and state judges to order their deportations. Those who enforce the law would be shielded from civil lawsuits.

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    These provisions, however, wouldn’t be enforceable immediately. A violator couldn’t be prosecuted until a similar law in Texas or another state has been in effect for 60 consecutive days.

    The Arizona GOP lawmakers who voted to put the measure on the ballot were referring to Texas Senate Bill 4. The bill, signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in December, was supposed to allow local and state law enforcement to arrest people accused of entering Texas illegally from Mexico.

    A federal appeals court put it on hold in March. The following month, a panel of federal judges heard from a Texas attorney defending the law and Justice Department attorneys arguing it encroached on the federal government’s authority over enforcing immigration law. The panel has yet to release its decision.

    Other provisions of Proposition 314 aren’t contingent upon similar laws outside Arizona. If voters approve the measure, it would immediately make selling fentanyl that results in a person’s death a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and a crime for noncitizens to submit false documentation when applying for employment or attempting to receive benefits from local, state and federal programs.

    ___

    Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

  • Alaska voters deciding a hard-fought race for the state’s only U.S. House seat, election issues

    Alaska voters deciding a hard-fought race for the state’s only U.S. House seat, election issues

    JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska voters were deciding Tuesday a hard-fought race for the state’s only U.S. House seat that could help decide control of that chamber. They were also choosing whether to repeal the state’s system of open primaries and ranked choice general elections just four years after opting to give that system a go.

    Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola sought to fend off GOP efforts to wrest back the seat held for 49 years by Republican Rep. Don Young, who died in 2022. Peltola’s main challenger was Republican Nick Begich, who is from a family of prominent Democrats and was among the opponents she defeated in special and regular elections two years ago when Peltola, who is Yup’ik, became the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.

    In addition to the repeal initiative, the ballot included a measure that would raise the state’s minimum wage and require paid sick leave for many employees, a measure opposed by groups including several chambers of commerce and a seafood processors association.

    Fifty of the Legislature’s 60 seats were up for election, too, with control of the state House and Senate up for grabs. The closely divided House has struggled to organize following the last three election cycles. In Alaska, lawmakers don’t always organize according to party.

    In Alaska’s marquee House race, Peltola tried to distance herself from presidential politics, declining to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and dismissing any weight an endorsement from her might carry anyway in a state that last went for a Democratic presidential nominee in 1964. She cast herself as someone willing to work across party lines and played up her role in getting the Biden administration to approve the massive Willow oil project, which enjoys broad political support in Alaska.

    Begich, whose grandfather, the late Democrat Nick Begich, held the seat before Young, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump following his showing in the primary.

    Trump’s initial pick, Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, bowed to pressure from Republicans seeking to consolidate behind one candidate following her third-place finish in the primary and dropped out. Alaska’s open primaries allow the top four vote-getters to advance. The initial fourth place finisher, Republican Matthew Salisbury, also quit, leaving Alaskan Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe and Eric Hafner, a Democrat with no apparent ties to the state who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for threatening authorities and others in New Jersey, on the ballot.

    Begich, the founder of a software development company, sought to cast Peltola as ineffective in stopping actions taken by the Biden administration that limited resource development in a state dependent upon it, including the decision to cancel leases issued for oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

    Alaska is one of just two states that has adopted ranked voting — and would be the first to repeal it if the ballot initiative succeeds. In 2020, Alaskans in a narrow vote opted to scrap party primaries in favor of open primaries and ranked vote general elections. Most registered voters in Alaska aren’t affiliated with a party, and the new system was cast as a way to provide voters with more choice and to bring moderation to the election process. Critics, however, called it confusing.

    U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican and Trump critic who has been at odds with party leaders, appeared in an ad in support of keeping open primaries and ranked voting.

    Opponents of the system succeeded in getting enough signatures to qualify the repeal measure for the ballot — and withstood a monthslong legal fight to keep it on the ballot. Begich was among those who supported the repeal, and the state Republican Party also has endorsed repeal efforts.

  • Voters deciding ballot issues on marijuana, immigration, taxes and more

    Voters deciding ballot issues on marijuana, immigration, taxes and more

    While electing officials to make and enforce laws, voters in dozens of states are also deciding on more than 140 ballot proposals affecting the way people legally live, work and die.

    As 10 states consider measures related to abortion or reproductive rights on Tuesday’s ballots, about a half-dozen states are weighing the legalization of marijuana for either recreational or medical use. About two dozen measures are focused on future elections, including several specifically barring noncitizens voting. Other state measures affect wages, taxes, housing and education.

    Many of the ballot measures were initiated by citizen petitions that sidestep state legislatures, though others were placed before voters by lawmakers.

    Marijuana legalization

    Voters in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota are deciding whether to legalize recreational marijuana for adults. The election marks the third vote on the issue in both North Dakota and South Dakota. In Nebraska, voters are considering a pair of measures that would legalize medical marijuana and regulate the industry.

    About half the states currently allow recreational marijuana and about a dozen more allow medical marijuana.

    In Massachusetts, a ballot measure would legalize the possession and supervised use of natural psychedelics, including psilocybin mushrooms. It would be the third state to do so, following Oregon and Colorado.

    Immigration

    An Arizona measure crafted amid a surge in immigration would make it a state crime to enter from a foreign country except through official ports of entry, and for someone already in the U.S. illegally to apply for public benefits using false documents.

    The border crossing measure is similar to a challenged Texas law that the U.S. Justice Department says violates federal authority.

    School choice

    A proposed amendment to the Kentucky Constitution would allow lawmakers to use state funds for private schools. A Colorado measure would create a constitutional right to school choice for K-12 students.

    In Nebraska, voters are deciding whether to repeal a new state law that funds private school tuition with state dollars.

    A majority of states offers some sort of state-backed program to help cover private school costs.

    Sports betting

    Missouri voters are deciding whether to become the latest to legalize sports betting. A total of 38 states and Washington, D.C., already allow sports betting, which has expanded rapidly since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for it in 2018.

    Taxes

    A Colorado proposal would make it the second state after California to impose a sales tax on firearms and ammunition, with revenue going primarily to crime victims’ services. The federal government already taxes sales of guns and ammunition.

    North Dakota voters are considering a measure to eliminate property taxes. If approved, local governments could need more than $3 billion biennially in replacement revenue from the state.

    A South Dakota measure would repeal the state’s sales tax on groceries, a move already taken in most other states.

    An Oregon measure would raise the minimum tax on large corporations to fund a tax rebate for residents.

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    Housing

    California voters are deciding whether to repeal a 1995 law limiting local rent control ordinances. If approved, it would open the way for local governments to expand limitations on the rates that landlords could charge.

    A unique proposal in Arizona links property taxes with responses to homelessness. It would let property owners seek property tax refunds if they incur expenses because a local government declined to enforce ordinances against illegal camping, loitering, panhandling, public alcohol and drug use, and other things.

    Climate

    Voters in Washington state are considering whether to repeal a 2021 law that caps carbon emissions and creates a market for businesses exceeding the mark to purchase allowances from others. Washington was the second state to launch such a program, after California.

    Citizen voting

    Republican-led legislatures in eight states — Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin — have proposed state constitutional amendments declaring that only citizens can vote.

    A 1996 U.S. law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and many states already have similar laws. But Republicans have emphasized the potential of noncitizens voting after an influx of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexican border. Though noncitizen voting historically has been rare, voter roll reviews before the election flagged potential noncitizens registered in several states.

    Some municipalities in California, Maryland, Vermont and Washington, D.C., allow noncitizens to vote in certain local elections.

    Voting methods

    Connecticut voters are considering whether to authorize no-excuse absentee voting, joining most states that already allow it.

    Measures in Montana and South Dakota would create open primary elections in which candidates of all parties appear on the same ballot, with a certain number advancing to the general election. Measures in Colorado, Idaho and Nevada also propose open primaries featuring candidates from all parties, with a certain number advancing to a general election using ranked choice voting. An Oregon measure would required ranked choice voting in both primaries and general elections.

    Ranked choice voting is currently used in Alaska and Maine. But Alaska voters are considering whether to repeal provisions of a 2020 initiative that instituted open primaries and ranked choice general elections.

    Arizona voters are deciding between competing ballot proposals that would require either open primaries with candidates of all parties or the state’s current method of partisan primaries. If conflicting measures both pass, the provision receiving the most votes takes effect, but that could be up to a court to decide.

    Redistricting

    An Ohio initiative would create a citizens commission to handle redistricting for U.S. House and state legislative seats, taking the task away from elected officials.

    Minimum wage

    Ballot measures in Missouri and Alaska would gradually raise minimum wages to $15 an hour while also requiring paid sick leave. A California measure would incrementally raise the minimum wage for all employers to $18 an hour.

    A Nebraska measure would require many employers to provide sick leave but would not change wages.

    A Massachusetts measure would gradually raise the minimum wage for tipped employees until it matches the rate for other employees. By contrast, an Arizona measure would let tipped workers be paid 25% less than the minimum wage, so long as tips push their total pay beyond the minimum wage threshold.

    Assisted suicide

    West Virginia voters are deciding whether to amend the state constitution to prohibit medically assisted suicide. The measure would run counter to 10 states and Washington, D.C., where physician-assisted suicide is allowed.

  • Arizona voters to decide on expanding abortion access months after facing a potential near-total ban

    Arizona voters to decide on expanding abortion access months after facing a potential near-total ban

    PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters are set to decide whether to guarantee the right to abortion in the state constitution — a vote that could cement access after the presidential battleground came close to a near-total ban earlier this year.

    Arizona is one of nine states with abortion on the ballot.

    Abortion-rights advocates are hoping for a win that could expand access beyond the state’s current 15-week limit to the point of fetal viability, a term used by health care providers to describe whether a pregnancy is expected to continue developing normally or whether a fetus might survive outside the uterus. Doctors say it’s sometime after 21 weeks, though there’s no defined time frame.

    Advocates also are counting on the measure to drive interest among Democrats to vote the party line up and down the ballot. When Republicans running in tough races address the ballot measure, they generally don’t dissuade voters from supporting it, though some like Senate candidate Kari Lake say they’re personally voting against it. GOP U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, whose battleground congressional district encompasses Tucson, ran an ad saying he rejects “the extremes on abortion.”

    Arizona has been whipsawed by recent legal and legislative battles centered on abortion. In April, the state Supreme Court cleared the way for enforcement of a long-dormant 1864 law that banned nearly all abortions. The Legislature swiftly repealed it.

    In addition to the abortion ballot measure itself, the issue could sway state legislative races and lead to elimination of the voice voters have over retention of state Superior Court judges and Supreme Court justices.

    Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition leading the ballot measure campaign, has far outpaced the opposition campaign, It Goes Too Far, in fundraising. Opponents argue that the measure is too far-reaching because its physical and mental health exemption post-viability is so broad that it effectively legalizes abortion beyond viability. The measure allows post-viability abortions if they are necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the mother.

    Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion-rights supporters prevailed in all seven abortion ballot questions, including in conservative-leaning states.

    Voters in Arizona are divided on abortion. Maddy Pennell, a junior at Arizona State University, said the possibility of a near-total abortion ban made her “depressed” and strengthened her desire to vote for the abortion ballot measure.

    “I feel very strongly about having access to abortion,” she said.

    Kyle Lee, an independent Arizona voter, does not support the abortion ballot measure.

    “All abortion is pretty much, in my opinion, murder from beginning to end,” Lee said.

    The Civil War-era ban also shaped the contours of tight legislative races. State Sen. Shawnna Bolick and state Rep. Matt Gress are among the handful of vulnerable Republican incumbents in competitive districts who crossed party lines to give the repeal vote the final push — a vote that will be tested as both parties vie for control of the narrowly GOP-held state Legislature.

    Both of the Phoenix-area lawmakers were rebuked by some of their Republican colleagues for siding with Democrats. Gress made a motion on the House floor to initiate the repeal of the 1864 law. Bolick, explaining her repeal vote to her Senate colleagues, gave a 20-minute floor speech describing her three difficult pregnancies.

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    While Gress was first elected to his seat in 2022, Bolick is facing voters for the first time. She was appointed by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to fill a seat vacancy in 2023. She has not emphasized her role in the repeal vote as she has campaigned, instead playing up traditional conservative issues — one of her signs reads “Bolick Backs the Blue.”

    Another question before voters is whether to move away from retention elections for state Superior Court judges and Supreme Court justices, a measure put on the ballot by Republican legislators hoping to protect two justices who favored allowing the Civil War-era ban to be enforced.

    Under the existing system, voters decide every four to six years whether judges and justices should remain on the bench. The proposed measure would allow the judges and justices to stay on the bench without a popular vote unless one is triggered by felony convictions, crimes involving fraud and dishonesty, personal bankruptcy or mortgage foreclosure.

    Shawnna Bolick’s husband, Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, is one of two conservative justices up for a retention vote. Justice Bolick and Justice Kathryn Hackett King, who were both appointed by former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, sided with the high court’s majority to allow the enforcement of the 1864 near-total ban. Abortion-rights activists have campaigned for their ouster, but if the ballot measure passes they will keep their posts even if they don’t win the retention election.

  • US election: Why is Kamala Harris losing Indian American voters? | US Election 2024 News

    US election: Why is Kamala Harris losing Indian American voters? | US Election 2024 News

    Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is projected to lose a segment of her party’s traditional share of Indian American voters – who have historically sided with the Democrats – in the 2024 United States election, a new survey of the community’s political attitudes has found.

    Even though Harris could become the first ever Indian American president of the US, a survey by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has found that she is likely to secure fewer votes from the community than incumbent President Joe Biden did in 2020.

    An estimated 61 percent of respondents from the community will vote for Harris, the survey found, down by nearly 4 percent as compared to the last presidential election in 2020.

    The 5.2 million-strong Indian American community is the second-largest immigrant bloc in the US after Mexican Americans, with an estimated 2.6 million voters eligible for casting a ballot for the November 5 election.

    There has been a decline in the community’s attachment to Harris’s party as well, with 47 percent of respondents identifying as Democrats, down from 56 percent in 2020. Meanwhile, the researchers noted “a modest shift in the community’s preferences”, with a slight uptick in willingness to vote for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

    Small but influential

    Both parties have ramped up their outreach to the immigrant group in the last few years as the community continues to grow its political clout and influence. While Harris is today the face of the party, several Indian Americans have gained prominence on the Republican side too – from former presidential contender and ex-ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley to entrepreneur-turned-Trump surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy, and vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance.

    Four days before November 5, pollsters say the election is too close to call, with Harris’s national edge over Trump shrinking, according to FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker. And in all seven battleground states – Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada – the two candidates are separated by less than 2 percentage points, within the margin of error for polls.

    The result of the presidential race may come down to a few thousand votes in these crucial swing states, where smaller communities – like Indian Americans – could play a pivotal role, political analysts and observers told Al Jazeera.

    “Even though the Indian American community is not very big in absolute numbers, they can help swing the decision in one direction or another,” said Milan Vaishnav, the director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and co-author of the paper. “There are many states where the community’s population is larger than the margin of victory in the 2020 presidential election.”

    Indian Americans are the largest Asian American community in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. There are more than 150,000 Indian Americans in both Pennsylvania and Georgia – a number much higher than the margin by which Biden won these two states, with 35 Electoral College votes between them – in 2020.

    But why is the community’s vote drifting away from Democrats?

    Deepening gender divisions

    For Aishwarya Sethi, a 39-year-old Indian American voter based in California, Harris’s pitch to reclaim abortion rights in the country strikes a chord, she told Al Jazeera. But her husband, who works at a tech company in the state, she said, is increasingly tilting towards the Republican base. “I cannot understand why his politics is shifting but it is happening gradually,” she said. “I’ll still try to convince him to vote for greater sexual autonomy.”

    This gender-based partisan divide is reflected in several research papers and leading exit polls across the US. Within the Indian American community, as per the latest survey, 67 percent of women intend to vote for Harris while 53 percent of men, a smaller share, plan to vote for the vice president.

    “Reproductive freedom is a paramount concern for women across America, including South Asian women and the [female] support for Harris is not surprising given her position on abortion rights,” said Arjun Sethi, an Indian American lawyer based in Washington, DC.

    “Whereas a growing number of South Asian men favour strong border policies and a more friendly taxation regime, [therefore] aligning with Trump.”

    A closer look at the data reveals that the gender gap is starkest with younger voters.

    A majority of men and women above the age of 40 say they plan to pick Harris. Among voters below the age of 40, however, the male vote is split almost equally between Harris and Trump, while women overwhelmingly support Harris.

    “There is also a growing scepticism among some Indian American men voting for a female president,” added Vaishnav, co-author of the paper. The deepening gender gap in voting preference among the immigrant community is “a new cleavage that didn’t exist before, however, [it] is in line with the larger national trend in the US”.

    Trump’s tougher stance on “illegal and undocumented immigration and a very aggressive populist, nationalist politics” may find resonance among a segment of Indian American voters, said Sangay Mishra, an associate professor of international relations, with a specialisation in immigrants’ political incorporation, at Drew University.

    “This pitch is primarily aimed at white voters but also trickles down to minorities, especially among men.”

    However, at the same time, Mishra warns against reading too much into the reported shift in the survey. “This paper captures the dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party but it does not necessarily mean greater identification with the Republican Party,” he said, “because within the Indian American community, the Republicans are still associated with the Christian, or white, nationalist position”.

    No takers for Indian heritage?

    Harris’s mother was born in India and migrated to the US in 1958 for graduate studies at the University of California Berkeley, while her father is Black with Jamaican roots. The Democratic candidate has also identified herself as a Black woman in multiple instances.

    That identification with African American roots, rather than more openly embracing her Indian background, has also pushed away a few voters in the South Asian community, said Rohit Chopra, a professor of communication at Santa Clara University. “There is actually more enthusiasm for someone like Tulsi Gabbard or Usha Vance, than for Kamala Harris [in the Indian American community],” he said. “In the American mainstream, Harris is perceived as African American.”

    This “strategic decision” by her campaign is also driven by numbers, Chopra added. “The ‘Indianness’ does not have the same trade-off value [like Black voters], it’s strategically not worth it for them.”

    As per the new survey, Indian Americans (61 percent) are less inclined to vote for Harris than Black voters (77 percent), and marginally more so than Hispanic Americans (58 percent). However, Harris’s support is down among Black and Latino voters too, compared to the norm for the Democratic Party.

    Within the Indian American community, Harris’s position as a more liberal leader appeals to 26 percent of voters as compared to 7 percent who say they are enthusiastic about her Indian heritage. Meanwhile, 12 percent of the respondents in the survey said that they are less enthusiastic about the Democratic ticket because “Harris identifies more with her Black roots”.

    The Gaza heat

    There are other worrying signs for Democrats too: The number of Indian Americans who identify themselves as Democrats has dropped to 47 percent in 2024, down by nine points from 56 percent in 2020.

    Meanwhile, 21 percent identify themselves as Republicans – the same as in 2020 – while the percentage of Indian Americans who identify as independents has grown, up to 26 percent from 15 percent.

    One reason for this shift, say experts, is Israel’s war on Gaza, in which more than 43,000 people have been killed, and President Joe Biden’s administration’s steadfast support for Israel.

    Earlier in the year, more than 700,000 Americans voted “uncommitted” in state primaries as a message to Biden, the then-Democrat nominee, that he would lose significant support on the November 5 election day. As per recent polls, Trump is narrowly leading Harris among Arab Americans with a lead of 45 percent to 43 percent among the key demographic.

    “A large number of young people, particularly young Indian Americans, are disillusioned with the stance that the Democrats have taken on Gaza,” said Mishra of Drew University. “There is a lot of conversation about uncommitted voters, or giving a protest vote, to show that people are unhappy with what’s happening in Gaza – and that is influencing at least a section of Indian Americans.”

    Sethi, the Indian American lawyer based in DC, added that he is confident that “a growing number of younger South Asians are voting for a third-party candidate because they are deeply committed to ending the genocide in Gaza, and therefore refuse to vote for either Trump or Harris”.

    ‘Domestic issues over foreign policy’

    Multiple immigration experts and political analysts have said that a slight shift among the Indian American community towards Trump is also driven by his apparent friendship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist leader.

    In a message on Diwali, the Indian festival of light on Thursday, Trump tried to woo the Hindu American vote.

    “I strongly condemn the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh, which remains in a total state of chaos,” he said on X. “It would have never happened on my watch. Kamala and Joe have ignored Hindus across the world and in America.”

    “We will also protect Hindu Americans against the anti-religion agenda of the radical left. We will fight for your freedom. Under my administration, we will also strengthen our great partnership with India and my good friend, Prime Minister Modi.”

    However, Vaishnav, the co-author of the paper, claimed that it is a rather “common misperception that Indian Americans tend to vote in the presidential elections based on their assessment of US-India ties”.

    Vaishnav added that the last two surveys, in 2020 and 2024, on the political attitude of the community reveal that “foreign policy may be important to Indian Americans, but it is not a defining election issue” because of a bipartisan consensus that the US and India should grow together.

    Instead, the voters are more motivated by daily concerns like prices, jobs, healthcare, climate change and reproductive rights, Vaishnav said.

  • Key facts about Hispanic eligible voters in 2024

    Key facts about Hispanic eligible voters in 2024

    Latinos have grown at the second-fastest rate of any major racial and ethnic group in the U.S. electorate since the last presidential election. An estimated 36.2 million are eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million in 2020. This represents 50% of the total growth in eligible voters during this time.

    A chart showing that the Hispanic eligible voter population is projected at 36.2 million in 2024, up almost 4 million from 2020.

    Every year, about 1.4 million Hispanics in the U.S. become eligible to vote.

    Although then-President Donald Trump made gains among Hispanics in 2020, a majority of Latino voters (59%) voted for current President Joe Biden that year, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of validated voters. In presidential elections, turnout rates among Hispanic Americans have typically trailed those of some other groups.

    As the next presidential election approaches, here are five key facts about Hispanic eligible voters in the United States, based on our own projections for 2024, as well as Census Bureau data for previous years. (Eligible voters in this analysis are defined as citizens ages 18 and older residing in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Not all eligible voters are actually registered to vote. Detailed demographic information about Hispanic eligible voters is available in the drop-down box at the bottom of this post.)

    This post is one in a series that explores the eligible voter population in the United States in 2024. For this analysis, we examine the detailed demographics and geographic distribution of Hispanic Americans who were eligible to vote in the U.S. in 2022, with projections of the eligible voter population in November 2024.

    “Eligible voters” refers to U.S. citizens ages 18 and over. The analysis focuses on persons living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In this analysis, Hispanics are those who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino and can be of any race; the Black and Asian populations include persons identifying with only one race, more than one race and both Hispanics and non-Hispanics.  

    The analysis is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Surveys from 2022, 2020, 2016, 2012 and 2008, and the 2000 U.S. decennial census provided through Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) from the University of Minnesota.

    Projections for November 2024 are based on population projections by race, Hispanic origin and nativity developed by the Census Bureau together with data from the American Community Surveys (IPUMS) of 2010-2022. Projected values of the share who are U.S. citizens by age are based on trends drawn from the 2010-2022 American Community Surveys (IPUMS).

    Latinos are projected to account for 14.7% of all eligible voters in November 2024, a new high. This share has steadily increased over the past two decades and is up from 13.6% in 2020. In 2000, by comparison, Hispanics made up just 7.4% of U.S. eligible voters.

    Line and bar chart showing Latinos are projected to make up 14.7% of U.S. eligible voters in 2024, a new high

    The number of Hispanic eligible voters has increased from 32.3 million in 2020 to a projected 36.2 million in November 2024. This in turn is a 153% increase since 2000, when 14.3 million Hispanics were eligible.

    California is home to a quarter of all Hispanic eligible voters. Some 8.5 million out of the nation’s 33.7 million Hispanic eligible voters, or 25%, lived in California as of 2022. The next biggest states by number of Latino eligible voters are Texas (6.5 million), Florida (3.5 million), New York (2.2 million) and Arizona (1.3 million).

    Together, these five states hold about two-thirds (65%) of all Hispanic eligible voters.

    A bar chart showing that California and Texas were among states with the highest number and share of Hispanic eligible voters in 2022.

    In New Mexico, 45% of all eligible voters are Latino, the highest share of any state. New Mexico is also the only state in which Latinos make up a higher share of the total eligible voter population than any other racial or ethnic group. This includes Americans who are White alone and non-Hispanic, who account for 40% of New Mexico’s eligible voters.

    Heat map showing % of eligible voters who are Latino by state in 2022. New Mexico, California and Texas have the highest shares of eligible voters who are Latino

    In California and Texas, Hispanics are about a third of the eligible voter population (33% and 32%, respectively).

    California and Texas are also the only states where non-Hispanics who are White and no other race make up a plurality, but not a majority, of the eligible voter population (42% in California and 47% in Texas). In both states, Hispanics hold the second-highest share among major racial and ethnic groups.

    The states with the next-largest Latino shares of eligible voters are Arizona (25%), Nevada (22%), Florida (22%), Colorado (17%) and New Jersey (16%).

    A narrow majority of Latinos in the U.S. are eligible to vote. A little over half of all Latinos (53%) were eligible to vote in 2022.

    Bar chart showing % of Latinos eligible to vote, by states with highest and lowest shares in 2022. 53% of Latinos in the U.S. are eligible to vote, but the share varies widely by state

    But the share varies widely by states with a Latino population of 50,000 or more. In New Mexico, 66% of Hispanics are eligible to vote. By contrast, Tennessee (36%) and Maryland (39%) had the lowest percentage of Latinos among eligible voters.

    Latinos are considerably less likely than Americans overall to be eligible to vote (53% vs. 72%). This is partly because the nation’s Latino population includes a large number of people who are too young to vote or who are not U.S. citizens:

    • 29% of Latinos are under 18, compared with 22% of the U.S. overall.
    • 19% of Latinos are not U.S. citizens, compared with 6% of the total U.S. population.

    Latino immigrants who are not eligible to vote include permanent residents (green card holders) and those in the process of becoming permanent residents; those in the U.S. on temporary visas; and unauthorized immigrants.

    Hispanic eligible voters tend to be younger than eligible voters overall. Only 33% of Latino eligible voters are ages 50 and older, compared with 48% of all U.S. eligible voters.

    A table showing the demographics of Hispanic eligible voters vs. all eligible voters in 2022.

    Latino eligible voters differ from the broader electorate in other ways, too. For example, 21% of Hispanic eligible voters have a bachelor’s degree or more education, compared with 33% of U.S. eligible voters overall.

    Detailed data on Hispanic eligible voters by state in 2022

    A table showing detailed data on Hispanic eligible voters by state in 2022.
    A continuation of the detailed data on Hispanic eligible voters by state in 2022.
  • Harris small business tour launches in play for Latino, Black voters

    Harris small business tour launches in play for Latino, Black voters

    Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks onstage during a campaign event, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., September 29, 2024.

    Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

    Harris campaign surrogates are planning a series of stops with small businesses in at least six battleground states this week, according to a preview of the announcement first obtained by CNBC on Tuesday.

    Harris will not be attending these specific events herself. The campaign said “elected officials” and “community leaders” will go in her place, but did not specify who the surrogates will be.

    The campaign tour, titled “Small Business for Harris-Walz,” is billed in part as an appeal to Black and Latino communities, key voter demographics that were essential to Democrats’ 2020 victory but have begun to slip in favor of Republican nominee Donald Trump this election cycle.

    Trump has been working to capitalize on that momentum.

    “If you’re Black or Hispanic, thank you very much, vote for Trump. You’ll be in good shape,” he said at a Georgia rally last Tuesday.

    This week’s small business tour is the Harris campaign’s latest effort to quell Trump’s gains.

    President Joe Biden ran a similar playbook when he was expected to be the Democratic presidential nominee before he dropped out of the race in July.

    In December, for example, he touted the gains of Black-owned and Latino-owned small businesses under his administration as a way to highlight his efforts to close the racial wealth gap and to win back voters who felt nostalgic for the pre-pandemic economy that Trump oversaw.

    Harris is adopting that argument for her own campaign, working to draw a similar contrast with her Republican opponent.

    “Vice President Harris has proven that she will be a champion for small business,” Richard Garcia, the Harris campaign’s small business engagement director, wrote in a statement Tuesday. “Unlike Donald Trump who is only fighting for himself.”

    Over the next week, the Harris campaign will extend that pitch specifically to small businesses in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The campaign plans to host a variety of organizing events, volunteer trainings and house parties.

    So far, Harris has proposed giving small businesses a $50,000 tax deduction for their startup expenses, a tenfold expansion from the current $5,000 deduction. She has also floated a 28% tax on long-term capital gains, a lower rate than Biden’s 40% tax proposal in order to reward “investment in America’s innovators, founders and small businesses.”

    Read more CNBC politics coverage

  • Harris, Obamas and voting rights leaders work to turn out Black voters in run-up to Election Day

    Harris, Obamas and voting rights leaders work to turn out Black voters in run-up to Election Day

    MIAMI (AP) — Concerts and carnivals hosted at polling precincts. “Souls to the Polls” mobilizations after Sunday service. And star-studded rallies featuring Hollywood actors, business leaders, musical artists and activists.

    Such seemingly disparate efforts all have a single goal: boost Black voter turnout ahead of Election Day.

    How Black communities turn out in the 2024 election has been scrutinized due to the pivotal role Black voters have played in races for the White House, Congress and state legislatures across the country.

    Vice President Kamala Harris, who if elected would be the second Black president, has made engaging Black voters a priority of her messaging and policy platform. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump has sought to make inroads with Democrats’ most consistent voting bloc with unorthodox and at times controversial outreach.

    Image

    Democratic candidates, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, right, and unincorporated Miami-Dade voters dance to the sounds of the Bahamian Junkanoo band during a festive visit to the polls at the Joseph Caleb Center during the “Souls to the Polls” event on the last day of early voting Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Miami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)

    Image

    Voters and attendees gather around for t-shirts in support of the Harris-Walz ticket at the Joseph Caleb Center during the “Souls to the Polls” event on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, the last day of early voting in Miami. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)

    A key strategy in Harris and Democrats’ Black voter outreach includes dispatching the first Black president and his wife, the former first lady, to battleground states where winning may come down to how well the Obamas convince ambivalent or apathetic voters that they must not sit this one out.

    Democratic efforts have ranged from vigorous door-knocking campaigns in Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia this weekend to swing state rallies. Michelle Obama rallied voters in Norristown, Pennsylvania on Saturday alongside Grammy award-winning artist Alicia Keys while Barack Obama stumped in Milwaukee on Sunday. The former first lady also conducted her own scrupulously nonpartisan rally on Tuesday where speakers evoked the South’s Civil Rights history.

    “I’m always amazed at how little so many people really understand just how profoundly elections impact our daily lives,” Michelle Obama said. “Because that’s really what your vote is, it is your chance to tell folks in power what you want.”

    Efforts to boost Black voter turnout often start at the community level. In Miami, members of local churches gathered Sunday at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center and marched to a nearby early voting center as part of a Souls to the Polls event.

    “It helps a lot to encourage others to vote,” said Regina Tharpe, a Miami resident. She had voted earlier, but said people “get excited when they see us walking down the street. It encourages them to get out.”

    Sharina Perez, a first-time voter, brought her mother, Celina DeJesus, to vote on the last day of early voting in Florida. She said a number of issues inspired her to vote. “It was for myself, my future, my mom’s future and for the younger generation,” she said.

    Organizers focused on Black communities say they are often combating exhaustion and cynicism about politics, especially among younger Black voters and Black men. But they are cautiously optimistic that their efforts will bear fruit.

    “If you want the people who are going to be most impacted to come out, you have to go where they are,” said Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC, whose campaigns aimed at Black voters included live events in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The group has reached more than 8 million voters in those states through text messaging and digital in the last month, he said.

    ”We’ve been going to those precincts and communities, those new platforms and websites where there is so often misinformation targeting our communities,” Brown said.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Other events have had a more free-flowing structure. The Detroit Pistons, for instance, hosted a “Pistonsland” festival in a majority Black neighborhood featuring musical performances from rappers including Lil Baby, carnival games, food trucks and other fanfare alongside the opportunity to cast a ballot. The nonpartisan carnival was constructed next to an early voting polling place.

    “I don’t like neither one,” said Karl Patrick, a Detroit native who attended the festival. He strongly backed Harris, however, “because Trump wants to be a dictator.” Not all of his close friends had come to the same conclusion — at least one of his friends was fervently backing the former president, he said.

    Black voters are the most overwhelmingly Democratic voting demographic in the country. But the Trump campaign has made a more concerted pitch to win a greater share of Black voters this year, particularly Black men.

    The Trump campaign has similarly zeroed in on economic arguments. Trump has repeatedly argued that undocumented immigrants take “Black jobs,” despite economists finding the claim unfounded. The campaign believes the former president’s broader pitch on the economy, crime and traditional values has appeal in Black communities.

    “If Kamala wanted to turn our country around, then she would do it now,” said Janiyah Thomas, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign. “We deserve more than token gestures — we deserve a leader who respects us, empowers us, and backs it up with action.”

    GOP Reps. Byron Donalds and Wesley Hunt have emerged as key surrogates in Trump’s outreach to Black men. The campaign hosted a Black men’s barbershop roundtable with Donalds in Philadelphia in October. The Black Conservative Federation, which hosted a gala Trump attended earlier this year, held a “closing argument” event Sunday with Donalds and Hunt.

    Millions of Black voters, like many Americans, have already cast a ballot in the election, including in Georgia and North Carolina.

    Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, spoke about that state’s turnout at a Tuesday brunch and bus tour launch hosted by the Black Music Action Coalition.

    “The truth of the matter is that Trump has been advising his people who always vote on Election Day to get out early. So they’re the ones that are making these numbers look so big. On our behalf, Black people, we have been slightly underperforming,” Johnson said.

    Early Black voter turnout slightly lagged in North Carolina compared to 2020, though increased turnout at the close of early voting shrunk the gap. Whether Black voter turnout breaks records in 2020 hinges on Election Day. Many veteran Black leaders are confident the myriad strategies will bring voters out.

    “Now obviously, there’s always a group of people who still don’t believe that their vote makes a difference and they lag behind,” said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, a Detroit pastor and the president of the city’s NAACP chapter. But so far, he added, “the indicators to us are such that those people are going to turn out. They’re not going to miss this this historic moment.”

    ____

    Matt Brown reported from Wilmington, Delaware. Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed.

  • In the last day of 2024 election campaigning Harris asks voters: ‘Are we ready to do this?’

    In the last day of 2024 election campaigning Harris asks voters: ‘Are we ready to do this?’

    Intent on firing up volunteers in Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris chants: “Let’s get out the vote.” Harris spoke to her supporters in Scranton, a key area that could decide whether she or former President Donald Trump wins the state.

    Intent on firing up volunteers in Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris chants: “Let’s get out the vote.” Harris spoke to her supporters in Scranton, a key area that could decide whether she or former President Donald Trump wins the state.