85% Indian-Americans support Barack Obama for second term: Survey

WASHINGTON: The Indian-American community has come out in strong support of US President Barack Obama, who kicked off his re-election campaign with two rallies in Ohio and Virginia, with an overwhelming 85 per cent of them favouring a second term for him.

About 85 per cent of the Indian-Americans support Obama for a second term, according to a latest survey conducted by Lake Research Partners, a DC-based political consultancy firm, with APIAVote. APIA stands for Asian American Pacific Islander.

"President Obama was strongest among Indian-American voters, leading Mitt Romney by a margin of 76 to eight per cent in the poll, and weakest among Filipino Americans, where the vote was 57 per cent to 20 per cent. Among Chinese Americans, it was 68 per cent for Obama, 8 per cent for Romney," said Toby Chaudhuri, veteran strategist and chair of APIAVote.

The result of the survey conducted by Lake Research Partners is similar to that of India in New England, an ethnic Indian-American publication, which in an online survey in February had said that 80 per cent of the Indian-Americans support Obama against Romney.

According to the Lake Research Partners survey, Indian Americans have the highest favourable opinions of Obama as compared to other Asian-Americans.

More than half (51 per cent) have very favourable views on Obama, and 85 per cent overall have favourable views - compared to 34 per cent of Asian-Americans who hold very favourable views.

Indian-Americans are also more negative towards Mitt Romney, with 56 per cent having unfavourable views on him (44 per cent of Asian-Americans have unfavorable views).