Asian Americans in Texas are heading to the polls this week as a cloud of anti-AAPI sentiment hangs over the state.
Texas has a long history of anti-Asian xenophobia, including bills in the State Legislature which would ban citizens from certain Asian countries from buying homes and agricultural land, and also from higher education. The current wave of attacks is largely focused on Indians and Muslims, according to speakers at an Oct. 22 Houston Community Media news briefing.
Last month, Bo French, a Republican running for the post of Texas railroad commissioner, posted a photo to the social media platform X of a group of Indian American students celebrating during a University of Texas Longhorns football game. “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” wrote French in his caption.
The post sparked widespread condemnation, including from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican. French refused to take down the post, and instead defended it, saying that the University of Texas favors foreign students of color in its admissions policy.
In June, a man identified as Clayton Walker tore down an Indian flag in front of City Hall in Frisco, Texas, which has a large Indian American population. Also, that month, a truck with a large LED screen bearing anti-Indian rhetoric started to appear in North Texas. The state also experienced backlash against the traditional Indian festival of Diwali last year.
A ‘boiling point’
The hostility has left some South Asian Texans questioning whether they can safely express their cultural and religious identities in public, Chanda Parbhoo, founder and president of the South Asian American Voter Empowerment of Texas Education Fund — SAVE Texas — told reporters.
“You can kind of imagine what that is doing to our community,” Parbhoo said. “It is coming to a boiling point where it is really affecting our community.”
Parbhoo also pointed to a Frisco City Council meeting shortly before a mayoral election earlier this year, where armed militia members appeared alongside large trucks displaying messages including “Deport all Hindus” and “White lives matter.” People chanted, “Don’t Sharia my Texas,” he added.
Parbhoo described canvassing a neighborhood and meeting a woman who said she no longer felt safe. “I wish our community wasn’t so out there celebrating in public with the religious holidays, wearing their fancy clothes,” the woman told her.
“That makes me very sad,” Parbhoo said, “and it is something that we are working on to make sure that people have a sense of belonging.”
Rising Islamophobia
Nabila Mansoor, executive director of Asian Texans for Justice, said anti-Muslim rhetoric is being used to scapegoat communities in a state where Muslims make up less than 1% of the population.
“We’re seeing a lot of anti-South Asian hate, and you’re seeing it bubble up in a lot of these really fast-growing suburbs, where the populations are booming, exponentially growing,” Mansoor said. “I think folks are scared. They don’t know what to make of the circumstances, their neighborhoods changing very rapidly, mosques coming up, temples coming up.”
This summer, in the months from May to July, mosques around the country saw a 183% rise in bias attacks, according to a report from the Council for American Islamic Relations.
But Mansoor said the hostility has also galvanized Asian American communities to participate in elections.
“These citizens are really activated to vote in a way that I have not seen them before,” Mansoor said. “They’re really galvanized to come out and vote.”
Barriers to voting in Texas
Voting in Texas can be difficult, noted speakers.
The state has strict voter identification requirements, no same-day voter registration, and a deadline to register 30 days before Election Day. Additionally, more than 2 million Texans have been placed on the state’s voter suspense list, which means they have to recertify their address via a form, an additional obstacle that could keep more people from the polls.
Kimberly Leong, a staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, said barriers to voting also include limited language assistance and inadequate outreach to AAPI communities. She noted that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have used mail-in ballots at higher rates than any other racial group: 67% in 2020 and 47% in 2024.
Leong noted the Trump Administration’s repeated attempts to restrict mail-in voting in this election cycle but added that courts across the country have pushed back. A recent report by the Brennan Center found that at least 34 federal district court decisions have either temporarily halted or permanently blocked efforts by the administration to interfere in elections. Eight judges appointed by President Donald Trump have ruled against him on this issue.
The attorney also warned that the federal administration’s efforts to use citizenship databases to scrutinize voter rolls threaten access to the ballot. She said the SAVE federal database — which verifies citizenship status — was not designed to provide accurate, timely citizenship verification and has incorrectly flagged U.S. citizens as noncitizens.
‘Accompanying my grandparents to the polls’
For Leong, the importance of voting access is personal. She recalled accompanying her grandparents to the polls when they were voting for the first time in their lives.
“One of my favorite Election Day experiences was back in the day, when I went with my grandparents, who were first-time voting in their life, to the polls, and translating the ballot for them to Chinese,” Leong said. “What a small story, but at the same time what a big story with impact. That experience has informed my trajectory, my professional choices.”
“Democracy is not a zero-sum game. The higher participation we have, the more people we have at the table, the stronger our democracy is,” said Leong.
Early voting
Despite the many barriers to voting, early voter turnout has jumped in Texas. On Oct. 19 — the first day of early voting — 104,660 people voted in person in Harris County, Texas. The previous midterm record for day one was 63,188, set in 2018. By Oct. 25, more than 620,000 people there had voted, according to the county elections office. That’s about 22.6% of the county’s registered voters. At the same point in 2022, it was 15.5%.
In Dallas County, turnout jumped from 14.9% to 24.9%. Across Texas, about 4.5 million people had voted by Oct. 25, according to the Texas Secretary of State, and in-person turnout was running about 58% ahead of four years ago.
Nina Oishi, a staff attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project’s Voting Rights Project, said voters can bring someone they trust to help them navigate the process, including a family member who can translate. The assistance can apply to voting in person and to mail ballots. “That is both legal and allowed, and we encourage it,” she said.
Voters with disabilities or mobility challenges can also ask for assistance, including help getting to the front of a line, Oishi said. Election materials in additional languages are required in certain counties: Harris County must provide Chinese and Vietnamese ballots, while Dallas and Tarrant counties must provide Vietnamese ballot information.
Help is available
Oishi urged voters who encounter problems — or simply have questions about registration, polling places or voting procedures — to contact the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE. She said calls can be referred to trained volunteers and escalated to legal teams when necessary.
“Some of the most common calls that we tend to get are just the really simple things,” Oishi said. “People calling and asking, ‘Where’s my polling place?’ ‘Can I bring someone with me?’”
Oishi also cautioned journalists against repeating unverified reports of immigration enforcement at polling places or other threats without first confirming them. Such reports can frighten voters and discourage participation, she said. Coverage should provide accurate information and explain what voters can do if they encounter a problem.
HCoM is a project of American Community Media.
