Sumati Thomas, 42, has always leaned left, but struggling with fertility and requiring emergency reproductive care sealed the deal for her. The Mississippi resident and mother, who is Black and Indian American, will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris next week.
“I had to use IVF to have my youngest and so the thought that that possibly cannot be an option for many families is really devastating,” she said. “I’m hoping that with a Harris presidency, she can help work with Congress to bring Roe back.”
Thomas is part of a growing cohort of Asian American women whose support for the vice president has skyrocketed, creating a gender gap between Asian voters for the first time in the history of polling the racial group. Before Harris took over the Democratic ticket, Asian men and women supported President Joe Biden at 46% and 47% respectively, according to a report from AAPI Data released last month.
After Harris became the nominee, support from Asian American women jumped to 72%. Support from Asian American men also increased, but not as drastically, sitting now at 59%.
“In prior years, gender has played a very small and insignificant role, but this year, it’s playing a bigger role,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder of AAPI Data. “How we interpret the data is that it’s more about what attracts women to Harris.”
Those numbers track with that of the general population, in which women support Harris with a 14-point margin over men (55%-41%), according to an NBC News poll. But while significant gaps are common for white voters, they’re less common with minority communities, Ramakrishnan said.
He added that this kind of gender schism in support for a presidential candidate hasn’t been seen before in the Asian community.
There could be several reasons why Asian women are flocking to Harris in droves, he said. According to AAPI Data’s report, nearly half of them cited Harris’ being a woman as something important to them, which researchers didn’t expect.
“When we asked about what aspects of Harris’ identity are important to Asian American voters, we were surprised to see that her identity as an Indian or as a South Asian was not as high as her identity as a woman,” he said.
Though not nearly as strong as Harris’ pull on Asian women, there are factors that might be siphoning Asian men, Ramakrishnan said. Negative perceptions of the state of the economy are one possible factor, he said. Trump has made marginal gains among Asian men too, he said, but Harris’ draw on both groups far outweighs it.
“There has been no bigger advocate for the AAPI community than President Trump, as he created an environment where diversity, equal opportunity, and prosperity were afforded to everybody,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “The 2024 campaign is poised to build upon the strength and successes of Asian Americans during President Trump’s first term to propel him to a history second term victory.”
Reproductive care and Harris’ strong stances on securing it could also be major factors pulling in women, as abortion access is more important to Asian American women than men, experts said.
“AAPI women and South Asian women view abortion access as health care,” said Varun Nikore, executive director of the nonprofit AAPI Victory Alliance. “They see this as the fundamental right that they’ve always had in this country being taken away, and they don’t like it.”
Thomas said this issue is the main one driving her to the polls this year. In her home state of Mississippi, which has a near-total abortion ban punishable by jail time, she finds it all the more critical to vote for Harris.
“There’s health care that I was able to experience, that I feel like if I had those same medical emergencies trying to have kids now, I wouldn’t be able to experience the same quality health care in Mississippi that I did years ago now,” she said. “I feel like people miss the other side of the abortion talk when it comes to how it affects families who are trying to actively have kids.”
The Harris campaign declined to comment.
Thomas also feels connected to the vice president on an identity level, sharing a background as Black and Indian. Her family is multiracial, with members who are old, young, Indian, Black and white. But across the board, the women she’s close to are all more excited since the change in the Democratic ballot.
“For my kids to have a president that looks like them is amazing,” she said. “Seeing my family members, being able to have that representation is just really powerful.”
“I think they see themselves in Kamala Harris,” Nikore said.
