Indian-Americans donate three times more to Democrats than Republicans, shows new study

A new study tracking two decades of Indian-American political campaign donations in the United States has found that the community overwhelmingly supports Democratic party candidates, giving them roughly three times more funding than Republicans.

The research by Karnav Popat and Vishnu Prakash of Ashoka University and Joyojeet Pal of the University of Michigan shows Indian-Americans contributed $46.6 million to Democrats as opposed to $16.3 million to Republicans in the 2020 US Presidential election cycle.

The data shows that Indian-American donors in all major industry sectors, with even traditionally conservative fields like finance, supported the Democrats

“Trump’s tariffs on India may be partially explained by the Indian-American community’s minimal financial support for Trump,” said lead researcher Joyojeet Pal in a social media post about the study.

US President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on India last month, his harshest trade penalties on any major economy. The research found Indian-Americans gave Trump just 0.6% of their political donations in 2016, among his weakest support from any ethnic group. The study did not encompass the donations in the run-up to the 2024 US Presidential elections.

The researchers analysed campaign donation records from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that compiles Federal Election Commission data on all political contributions, examining 22 years of filings from 2000 to 2022....

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