The moment Kannan Udayarajan decided to become politically active is seared into his memory.
It was four years ago when Republican Sen. David Perdue struck a mocking tone at a Donald Trump rally as he repeatedly mispronounced Kamala Harris’ name. The Middle Georgia crowd laughed right along as he stretched out his words: “Ka-MAL-a or what, Kamala or Ka-MAL-a, Ka-MAL-a, -mala, -mala, I don’t know, whatever.”
That remark became a call to action for Udayarajan, 42, who now leads the Forsyth County Democratic Party and is part of the changing face of Georgia.
“I saw some people rationalizing that mispronunciation, and I felt there was a need to stand up, to speak up, because we should not be normalizing this kind of behavior,” said Udayarajan, who moved to the US in 2007 after growing up in India. “That’s what initially triggered me to mobilize myself and my friends.”
That mobilization is on full display here in Forsyth County, about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, where the Asian American population has more than doubled in the past two decades, as it has in neighboring counties. Those voters are a critical piece of Harris’ game plan in her race against Trump.
“In 2020, when Joe Biden won Georgia by 11,780 votes, Forsyth County delivered 16,000 brand new Democratic votes,” Udayarajan said. “Now, four years have passed since then, and the demographics of the county have shifted considerably.”
Those shifts could hold critical clues for the outcome of November’s election.
With voter registration deadlines quickly approaching in many states and early voting already underway in several others, the Trump and Harris campaigns are scrambling to maximize their strengths among the nation’s various demographic groups in hopes of finding an advantage in their bitterly close duel.
Both sides see opportunity among Asian American voters, the fastest-growing segment of the eligible electorate of any major racial and ethnic group, with rising populations in Georgia, North Carolina and other battlegrounds. Far from a monolith, the voters hail from more than 20 national origins, each with their own view of politics.
“Our numbers are still small, but we could be the deciding factor in terms of margin of victory,” said James Woo of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an Atlanta nonpartisan group that helps register voters of all parties and encourages participation in elections. “We always mention that to our community members who see the difference every single vote can make.”
The razor-thin results of the last presidential election in Georgia – Biden won by less than a quarter of a percentage point, out of nearly 5 million ballots cast – bring to life the adage that every vote counts. Woo said there may be far less allegiance to political parties among many Asian Americans, yet people’s backgrounds often help inform voting decisions.
“The economy is a huge issue,” Woo said. “A lot of community members we work with are small-business owners. They are working seven days a week at mom-and-pop shops, so the economy really impacts them directly.”
Woo has witnessed the remarkable change in the Atlanta suburbs over the past two decades, where one Asian supermarket of his childhood has given way to bustling shopping malls, bakeries, shops, churches and countless restaurants. A diverse tapestry of backgrounds opens the door to very different politics, he said, with South Asians from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh often holding different views than members of the Korean, Vietnamese or Chinese communities.
An elderly man walking to his car in an upscale strip mall one morning last week said he was voting for Trump. A woman working at a nearby coffee shop said she supported Harris. They, along with several others here, declined to give their names to CNN to discuss politics.
“It’s not absolutely like black and white, about how immigrants vote one way or another,” Woo said. “We also have to look into a lot of issues and specific areas they are concerned about.”
National surveys show that Asian America voters tend to lean Democratic.
A poll released last week from AAPI Data, a data analytics firm that focuses on Asian Americans, found that 66% of Asian American voters plan to support Harris and 28% intend to back Trump. The same survey found that 62% of Asian American voters say they have a favorable opinion of Harris, compared with 35% who hold an unfavorable view.
About 15 million Asian Americans are projected to be eligible to vote in 2024, according to the Pew Research Center, which is up 15% from the 2020 election.
Georgia has about 328,000 Asian American and Pacific Islander eligible voters, according to AAPI Data, a significant number given the expected tight margins of the presidential race. It offers opportunities for both political parties, Woo said, even though he has seen markedly different outreach efforts from Democrats and Republicans.
“I definitely see the Democratic Party do AAPI specific outreach and events,” Woo said. “From the Trump campaign, I haven’t seen as much.”
A Republican Asian American community center that opened in 2021 and served as a backdrop for campaign events during the 2022 midterm elections is now closed. A novelty sex shop has moved into the space in Norcross, a city in Gwinnett County, which is home to the largest Asian American population in Georgia.
Republican officials declined to elaborate on efforts to win over Asian American voters.
“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 historic second term victory,” Steven Cheung, a senior campaign adviser, said in a statement.
The Harris campaign has three full-time staffers at the national headquarters dedicated to engaging Asian American voters, a spokeswoman said, with additional staff being deployed to Georgia and other battleground states.
Harris, who would be the first Black and South Asian woman elected president, is also leaning into her Indian American roots through paid television advertising. Her latest ad is a biographical spot featuring images of her mother, whom Harris described as “a brilliant, 5-foot tall, brown woman with an accent.”
Down-ballot candidates
Georgia’s Forsyth County is deep-red, which Trump carried in 2020 by more than 30 points. But that was down from his nearly 50-point win there four years earlier and for the first time in years, Democrats are fielding candidates up and down the ballot, including Ashwin Ramaswami, who grew up in the area.
Ramaswami is challenging Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still, a Republican who was indicted last year with Trump for allegedly trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. As he knocked on doors one day last week, Ramaswami said the excitement with Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket will reverberate among Asian American voters and beyond.
“The suburbs and the exurbs of Georgia have been the traditional power base for Republicans for such a long time,” he said. “It’s not a question of if Georgia will become blue, it’s a question of when.”
For the next five weeks, Sonjui Kumar and her “South Asians for Harris” group are working day and night to try to elect Harris and the rest of the Democratic ticket in Georgia.
As she presided over a virtual phone bank from her kitchen one night last week, she said she believed Asian American voters could make the difference in her Southern battleground state.
“Our community is not that big – it’s 4% of the state’s population,” Kumar said. “But in some counties, it’s 122,000, it’s 60,000. It’s enough to absolutely make a difference when you’re talking in those numbers.”
With an October 7 deadline looming to register new voters in Georgia and early voting two weeks away, Udayarajan splits his time between his information technology company and the Forsyth County Democratic headquarters, where organizers from the Harris campaign have descended upon.
“Forsyth County presents a huge opportunity for Democrats,” Udayarajan said. “It’s of strategic importance, just looking at the data.”
Beyond the data, the mocking of Harris’ name that first drew him into politics four years ago has only intensified since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket. He said it serves as a motivating force for him and so many other Indian Americans.
“A lot of people here, their aunts or their grandmothers or mothers might have that name,” Udayarajan said. “The mispronunciation of the name kind of triggered community involvement in the political process. More and more people just started showing up.”
