Indian Americans are now an influential voter bloc

When Raj Salwan first considered running for Fremont City Council in 1995, a longtime local politician, who was white, gave him some advice. “You can’t run with a name like Raj,” he told Salwan. “You need to change your name to Roger.”

Salwan said he responded, “I’d lose as Raj but I’m not changing my name to Roger.”

At the time, less than 10% of Fremont was Indian. But the city — and the Bay Area — was on the cusp of a seismic shift. Within 30 years, Fremont would be one-third Indian, the Bay Area Indian population would increase fourfold, and Salwan would be mayor.

Salwan’s rise to become the first Indian American mayor of Fremont reflects a remarkable shift in the Bay Area’s Indian American community, which is growing faster than any other major ethnic group in the region and now comprises 7% of the population.

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It’s gone from an outsider minority group to a vocal, diverse and influential voter base that has helped elect political heavyweights from former Vice President Kamala Harris to Congressman Ro Khanna. Among the region’s current Indian American officeholders are two mayors, five city council members, four school board members and one state Assembly member.

Indian Americans, Salwan said, are “thriving.” Their high political engagement reflects that. About 70% of Indian Americans voted in 2024 compared to 65% in the overall population, according to an analysis by demographic organization AAPI Data.

“They feel safe that they have elected officials in leadership that look like them and can listen to their concerns,” Salwan said.

But as Indian political power has grown, fissures have also emerged. While Indian Americans historically tended to lean Democratic and still do, the Republican party has gained modest support from the community since 2020. And key issues, from affirmative action to taxing tech leaders, are dividing these voters.

Perhaps no contest reflects the change in political dynamics more than the congressional race in which Khanna, whose district spans the most heavily Indian parts of Silicon Valley, is being challenged in the primary by two Indian American opponents — both to his right.

Rep. Ro Khanna visited the Milpitas Unified campus where he secured $500,000 in funding to build a workplace development center.

Salwan’s family immigrated from a village close to the India-Pakistan border when he was six. His Punjabi-speaking dad, a veterinarian in India, lacked the credentials and English proficiency to practice here, and had to take night shifts as a security guard. The family of five shared a one-bedroom apartment in Fremont.

Salwan studied hard and became a veterinarian himself. But he said he wanted to help others in his community share that “American Dream,” and started considering politics.

His first foray into City Hall was in 2005 as a human relations commissioner, addressing complaints of discrimination by residents, a position he described as being about building trust. He said he realized while in that job that public service wasn’t just about “big speeches or policies” but listening and showing up.

He was elected to the City Council in 2016.

Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan, right, checks in with Debbie Pease at City Hall.

When he ran for mayor in 2024, he was careful to position himself as not just an Indian American mayor. He ran on being a “Mayor for All” focused on affordable housing, public safety and infrastructure.

While Salwan appreciates how far the community has come, he says he still sees racism against newcomers, including social media comments accusing Indian immigrants of driving Fremont’s housing shortage and remarks about how the city has too many Indian restaurants now.

“It’s kind of disgusting,” Salwan said. “It makes me think: Is this where we’re headed?”

State Assembly Member Ash Kalra also had a long road to political success. Born in Canada to Indian immigrants who moved to the Bay Area in 1978, he struggled with his identity during high school in San Jose, where he was one of only 10 to 15 Indian students out of 2,500 kids.

During the Iran hostage crisis, classmates called him “Ayatollah,” driven by the “ignorance of lumping together anyone who’s brown,” he said. Others called him “sand n—,” he recalled.

In high school, he never imagined he’d one day run for elected office. But he eventually became a public defender, and was elected to the San Jose City Council in 2008 as its first South Asian member.

“The longer that Indians are here, the more we’ve evolved and matured as a community, the more we’ve wanted our voices heard in politics,” Kalra said.

Kalra’s path to the state Legislature wasn’t easy. His Vietnamese American opponent was backed by donors who raised about double what he did and was favored to win in the city with the most Vietnamese residents in the country.

But Kalra pulled off an upset victory in 2016, backed by Indian Americans, who comprised almost a third of his campaign donors, according to a Chronicle analysis of political donor names that used a Pennsylvania State University model based on Indian surnames.

State Assembly Member Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, shown in a file photo, never imagined he’d one day run for elected office. But he eventually became a public defender and was elected to the San Jose City Council in 2008 as its first South Asian member before going on to the state Legislature.

That year, Indian Americans also made historic breakthroughs in Congress with multiple politicians of Indian descent holding office, including Harris in the U.S. Senate and Khanna in Congress. Backed by Silicon Valley tech workers, Khanna won in a landslide against the incumbent, with Indians comprising about 38% of his donors, the Chronicle analysis found.

Since then, he’s won reelection by overwhelming margins and continued to enjoy significant Indian American support, with about 29% of his donors through last year of Indian descent.

When Kalra helped pass a law making Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, an official state holiday last October, he marveled at how far Indian Americans had come.

“There’s no doubt that younger people will see me, and see Ro Khanna and see there is a place for us in our democracy,” Kalra said.

Growing confidence, growing divisions

Khanna’s upcoming race reflects both the confidence of and divisions among South Bay Indian Americans. This June, he is being challenged in the nonpartisan primary by two Indian American tech entrepreneurs: Republican Ritesh Tandon and Democrat Ethan Agarwal.

The son of Indian immigrants, Agarwal grew up in Saratoga and Los Gatos, raised Hindu in a Hindi-speaking household. The Wharton business school graduate founded a fitness app and a private fund management platform.

Trump’s 2024 reelection was a “wake up call,” Agarwal said. He wanted to understand better why 40% of California had voted for Trump, which he thought was a sign that the Democratic Party was misunderstanding Californians.

Agarwal argues that Khanna is too far to the left for voters in his district, which is about 20% Indian. He’s called Khanna “anti-tech, anti-AI” in a “district that represents more tech workers than any other in the country.” He also criticized Khanna’s support for affirmative action, which Agarwal opposes.

A major flashpoint is the state proposal — which has not yet qualified for the ballot — to hit billionaires with a one-time wealth tax.

Khanna defended his stance on the tax, saying his district could model a “social contract where people do well, build innovation and wealth, and care about those who don’t have healthcare or childcare.”

He also said he thinks he’s represented Indian American constituents well by focusing on excellence in education, immigration, investment in scientific research and fighting tariffs.

Indian Americans, while holding diverse views, tend to support legal immigration, oppose arresting undocumented immigrants with no criminal record and rank the economy, jobs and inflation as top concerns, a 2026 survey found.

Foreign policy and issues in India have also crept into Khanna’s race, unsurprising given that two-thirds of Bay Area Indian Americans are foreign-born.

Congressional candidate Ethan Agarwal visits with constituents at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Sunnyvale. Agarwal, a tech entrepreneur and first-time congressional candidate, is challenging Rep. Ro Khanna in June’s primary.

For example, Agarwal has slammed Khanna for joining the congressional Pakistani caucus. Agarwal said Khanna has “sided much more with Pakistan than India,” a claim Khanna disputed. Khanna had called Pakistan’s army chief a “dictator” during clashes between the two long-time adversaries last year and urged both countries not to retaliate. Khanna is also the co-chair of the congressional caucus on India and Indian Americans.

Other concerns that are prevalent in India, such as the caste system, have also been controversial. A statewide 2023 caste-based discrimination bill divided Indian Americans in the Bay Area, with some Hindu groups arguing it stigmatized their religion because caste is associated with Hinduism. Others said it was essential to fight age-old prejudices.

Khanna supported the bill while Agarwal said it wasn’t necessary.

Khanna’s opponents’ messages have resonated with some voters. Hayward resident Som Sharma said he thought Khanna had not represented the Indian American community well because he hadn’t pushed hard enough for immigration reform to address long green card wait times and against anti-Indian racism.

But Malika Khan, who immigrated from India in 1961, said she plans to vote for Khanna in June.

Malika Khan makes pancakes for her grandson Sulaiman Khan, left, and son Sajid Khan at home in San Jose. Khan plans to vote for Rep. Ro Khanna in June’s primary.

Malika Khan fixes a sign on her front garden in San Jose supporting Rep. Ro Khanna.

Khan, who is Muslim, told the Chronicle at a recent Town Hall in Cupertino that she appreciated his opposition to atrocities in Gaza. She also values his criticism of Hindutva, the Hindu nationalist ideology of India’s ruling party, which has sparked violence at times. She appreciated that he worked to release the Epstein files and stood up “to the bullies” in the Trump administration.

“We want a politician who listens to you and is for human rights,” she said.

Another Khanna fan is Salwan, the Fremont mayor. Having first met years ago at a mutual friend’s house, long before either was elected to public office, the duo hit it off and have been friends since.

The two politicians met recently at a Yemeni coffee shop in Fremont to talk about the challenges facing the region, such as affordability, homelessness and public safety.Although Salwan had doubts when he first ran for office, he’s since come to believe he doesn’t need to be anyone other than himself.

“When I first started in politics, I felt kind of like an impostor,” Salwan said. “But now I feel like I own it. I’m the mayor of Fremont.”

Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan at City Hall. He said he realized while in his first job at City Hall that public service wasn’t just about “big speeches or policies” but listening and showing up.

Christian Leonard contributed to this report.