The Curious Case of the Indian Republicans

This month, another Southern state moved toward electing a governor of South Asian descent.  A runoff is scheduled for the Republican nominee for the South Carolina governorship, but it is likely that Nikki Haley will become the second South Asian American governor, making Haley and her fellow Republican Bobby Jindal the highest-ranking elected South Asians in the U.S. government.

The similarities in the biographies of these groundbreaking individuals have been widely noted, including here, here, and here. Both were born in the U.S. in the early 1970s to recent Indian immigrants. Both converted to Christianity.  Both have impeccable conservative credentials and names that are easily pronounceable to most Americans. Both have been hailed as the future of the GOP, and both are assumed to have an eye on the presidency.

Jindal’s election in 2007 was mystifying for many reasons. After all, this is a state that reported a total Asian population of 1% in the 2000 census and that usually elects Democratic governors…and where former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke earned 44% of the vote for governorship just 17 years prior to Jindal’s election.

Having chalked Jindal’s victory up to a fluke, I was shocked when Nikki Haley nearly won an outright majority of votes in the Republican gubernatorial primary earlier this month. South Carolina also reported around a 1% total Asian population in the last census (comparatively, California had 13%), and Haley was the target of a racial epithet from her own Republican colleague during the race.

In addition to the racial makeup of these states, studies show that South Asians largely affiliate with Democrats. So from a statistical standpoint, Jindal and Haley’s success stories don’t make sense. Data regarding Haley’s election are still forthcoming, but exit polls and shifting demographics in Louisiana provide some insight into Jindal’s victory:

• There was a significant decrease in voter turnout in the 2007 Louisiana election, with the most marked drop noted in the heavily Democratic New Orleans area after the Katrina exodus. Low voter turnout, especially by African Americans, shifted several parishes that have historically been Democratic strongholds to Republican hands. 2000 census data indicate Louisiana consists of 65% whites and 33% blacks, and exit polls reported a turnout of 51% of white voters and 35% of black voters.

• Exit polls also indicate that Jindal received 63% of the white vote and 10% of the black vote. His nearest competitor was a Democrat (Louisiana does not have party primaries), who won 14% of the white vote and 36% of the black vote (this was the extent of the vote breakdown available). Essentially, Jindal carried every parish in the state except New Orleans, even very conservative northern/eastern parishes that supported David Duke. In contrast, Barack Obama carried just 14% of the white vote in Louisiana in 2008.

That Jindal had much more success with white voters in Louisiana than Obama is not that surprising, given how conservative this voting bloc has historically been. And both he and Haley only speak of their ethnicity in the context of the added credibility their second-generation status gives them as fiscal conservatives, a great tactic in states where the Tea Party is flourishing. They may also benefit from the “model minority” perception of Asians in these states with high degrees of racial polarization.

I think there are many layers to this complex situation, only a couple of which I alluded to here.  As different as my politics may be from these two, I can’t help but feel a twinge of satisfaction when the Louisiana of David Duke and the South Carolina of Strom Thurmond move toward electing South Asian governors. A record-high six South Asians nationwide (all Democrats) are running for Congress this year—a notable shift for South Asians from fundraising and campaigning to candidacy.