NEW SURVEY REVEALS THE TOLL OF HATE ON SOUTH ASIANS IN TEXAS AND THEIR DETERMINATION TO BE HEARD
Despite 58% reporting experiences of hate and 64% saying elected officials don’t understand their concerns, 79% of South Asian registered voters in Texas say they are likely to vote in November
DALLAS, Oct. 28, 2026 — The South Asian American Voter Empowerment of Texas Education Fund (SAAVETX EF), one of Texas’ largest South Asian civic outreach organizations, commissioned a statewide survey to examine the challenges facing South Asian Texans, the realities of building civic presence in the American South, and concerns about belonging may discourage community members from participating in elections. Drawing on nearly a decade of SAAVETX EF’s on-the-ground community engagement, the survey comes as anti-South Asian hate makes national headlines and questions of belonging and political representation grow increasingly urgent.
Released in collaboration with UC San Diego, Belonging Under Pressure: SAAVETX EF South Asian Community Survey explores belonging, discrimination, political representation, and civic participation ahead of the November 3, 2026, midterm election. The findings reveal a stark contradiction: while 67% of South Asian respondents identify at least somewhat strongly as Texan, only 34% feel completely or mostly accepted in Texas.
Based on 1,000 South Asian Texan respondents, key findings include:
- Climate of Hate: 58% reported at least one experience of hate (including online harassment, threats of violence, and damage to places of worship) in Texas during the past year because of their race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, accent, or immigration background. 64% said they frequently or sometimes heard South Asians or immigrants described as “invaders” or “outsiders” in the past two years.
- Underrepresentation: 64% of respondents said their community’s concerns are not well understood or not understood at all by elected officials, and 54% believe their community holds little to no political power.
- Political Rhetoric: 62% of respondents believe political rhetoric contributes a great deal or somewhat to hostility toward South Asians, and 78% say they would be much or somewhat more likely to vote for a candidate who speaks out against discrimination toward South Asians.
- Civic Participation: Despite these concerns, 92% have participated in at least one civic activity other than voting, and 50% report feeling more motivated to vote in the November 2026 election because of the current political climate toward South Asians, immigrants, or religious communities.
- Electoral Preferences: Among registered voters, 66% preferred James Talarico over Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race, while 21% preferred Paxton. In the gubernatorial race, 63% preferred Gina Hinojosa over Greg Abbott, while 27% preferred Abbott. Separately, when asked about their 2024 presidential vote, 65% reported voting for Kamala Harris and 25% for Donald Trump.*
*These findings describe the reported preferences and intended voting behavior of survey respondents. They should not be interpreted as endorsements by SAAVETX EF or as representative of all South Asian Texans.
“We belong here. We are Texans. We are raising families, building businesses, contributing to our communities, and participating in the civic life of this state. Yet our survey shows a painful gap between identifying as Texan and feeling accepted,” says Chanda Parbhoo, founder and executive director of SAAVETX EF. “SAAVETX EF understands the unique challenges of organizing in the American South. Our community is tired of being treated as outsiders and used as political pawns. When elected officials and candidates fuel hostility, people feel less safe and less confident in the institutions meant to protect them. Candidates and elected leaders cannot afford to overlook our community. South Asian Texans deserve to be heard, represented, and able to participate in our democracy without fear.”
“The survey reveals a community confronting exclusion, but also highly civically engaged. Encouraging others to vote, organizing, and making their voices heard are just some of the ways that South Asian Texans are challenging the climate of hostility in their day-to-day lives. Participation gives communities a means to demand recognition, hold leaders accountable, and ultimately shape the decisions that affect their lives,” says Tom K. Wong, founding director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center (USIPC) at UC San Diego.
About the survey: The SAAVETX EF South Asian Community Survey includes 1,000 South Asian adults age 18 or older living in Texas. The survey was fielded in October 2026 using mixed-mode recruitment including online panels, text-to-survey, and traditional phones. South Asians were identified by Tom K. Wong of UC San Diego using BISFG plus a machine-learning ensemble trained on billions of genealogical records. Weights are calculated using iterative proportional fitting (“raking”) and ACS target proportions. The full adult sample includes 1,000 respondents. Adult weights range from 0.457 to 2.467, with a Kish weighting design effect of 1.248 and an effective sample size of approximately 801. The conventional 95% maximum margin-of-error approximation based on this effective sample size is ± 3.46 percentage points.
About SAAVETX Education Fund:
The South Asian American Voter Empowerment of Texas Education Fund (SAAVETX EF) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the civic engagement of the South Asian community in Texas. SAAVETX EF is a fiscally sponsored project of NEO Philanthropy.
Learn more at https://saavetxeducationfund.org/.
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Media contact
Chanda Parbhoo
Founder and Executive Director, SAAVETX EF
Cell214-457-3274