Texas organizers and candidates hope to engage a key voting bloc in 2020: South Asian Americans
When Chanda Parbhoo attended high school in Dallas’ Highland Park suburb in the early ’80s, there were only two South Asian American families in her school district, including her own.
“We didn't really have a voice,” Parbhoo, 54, said. “We were often overlooked, probably because there weren't that many of us.”
Now the Dallas-Fort Worth area is home to one of Texas’ largest South Asian American populations — one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the state and across the country. Parbhoo, a progressive organizer, hopes to turn out the vote in 2020 among an ethnic community that has long been ignored in Texas politics.
At least five Texan candidates of South Asian descent are running for county, state and federal office this year, including three who are vying to become the first Asian American congressperson from Texas.
Dr. Pritesh Gandhi is running against Mike Siegel in the Democratic primary runoff election in Texas’ 10th Congressional District, which is home to some 10,000 South Asian American voters, Parbhoo said, about 1.7% of the voting age population. The winner will face incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, in November.
In the 22nd Congressional District — which has the state’s largest share of Asian Americans among its voting population, at 15.4% — Sri Kulkarni is vying to flip the open seat blue this November. In 2018, he came within 5 points of unseating Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land.
And in the 31st Congressional District — which has a 3.3% Asian American voting population — Donna Imam is hoping to make it out of the Democratic runoff and face U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/11/texas-elections-south-asian-americans-2020/
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