By Emily Laycock
As the 2024 presidential election comes into the final week, nine AAPI students at the University of Georgia share who they are voting for, key issues impacting their vote, and how this election season has felt.
Hitanshi Shah
4th year, MS and Marketing
Ethnicity: Indian
Hometown: Alpharetta, GA
First-time voter? Yes
Have you voted? Yes
Who for? Harris
What key issues impacted your vote?
I would say one is obviously abortion. Roe v Wade is a really, really big one. I feel like that’s impacted a lot of my friends firsthand, which is why it’s super important to me. Also stuff about immigration. I am an immigrant. I got my citizenship 4 years ago, and so it’s a big issue in my life. My grandparents are currently trying to come here and they’ve had issues with getting green cards and everything. I know that Kamala Harris is a little bit more chill, especially with Asian Americans. Also, this is kind of a funny one, but the decriminalization of marijuana. I feel like that definitely impacts people our age and also I feel like it wrongfully convicts a lot of people.
How has this election cycle felt for you?
It’s been stressful, but I feel confident in my vote and who I support, which is really nice. I feel like in the past election, it was more like people voted for Joe Biden because he was the lesser of two evils. But in my opinion, I see Harris as a really good candidate and I feel like it’s not voting for the lesser of 2 evils. I actually do support what she’s doing and what she’s saying, and the things that she’s done in her past.
Haley Paramoure
4th year, Film Studies and Music Business
Ethnicity: Chinese
Hometown: Marietta, GA
First-time voter? No
Have you voted? Not yet, but plan to vote
Who for? Harris.
What key issues impacted your vote?
Social issues are normally the most important thing to me. I think mainly just because I haven’t had to pay taxes yet or deal with actual financials fully yet. So I think, maybe my opinions could change. I think it’s also by the candidate. But yeah, right now, the biggest issues I say are social issues. Trans rights and LGBTQ rights are very important to me and also nondiscrimination laws.
How has this election season felt for you?
It’s not as stressful as the last election in my opinion. I feel like I know who’s gonna win. Yeah, it hasn’t felt too stressful because I’ve known who I was gonna vote for.
Rayyan Shaikh
3rd year, Physics
Ethnicity: Indian
Have you voted? Not yet, planning to vote
Who for? Harris
What key issues impacted your vote?
The economy and then also the Palestine situation.
How has this election season felt for you?
I’m kind of meh on the candidates. I don’t like Trump, but I also don’t like Harris. I’m just voting for her because she’s a Democrat.
Max Trinh
2nd year, Management Information Systems and International Business
First-time voter? No
Ethnicity? Vietnamese
Hometown: Norcross, GA
Have you voted? Yes
Who for? Harris
What key issues impacted your vote?
One of my biggest identities is being a POC. And I know Kamala Harris also talks a lot about coming from a class and a position where she wants to help under-resourced businesses, and that’s one of my biggest passions. I’m really excited to see the kind of things that she wants to pursue. So that just resonated really well with me. I definitely thought she was the better candidate personally and for my situation as well.
How has this election season felt for you?
It’s very high stakes right now. It was my first time being able to vote in a presidential election, so I definitely wanted to be very knowledgeable about that and then also make sure that everyone around me was just as knowledgeable as well.
Kate Duong
1st year, Biology
Ethnicity: Vietnamese
Hometown: Marietta, GA
First-time voter? Yes
Have you voted? Yes
Who for? Harris
What key issues impacted your vote?
Well, there was not really a reason not to vote for Kamala for me, because I didn’t wanna vote for Trump. Yeah, like, settle for Kamala. But I don’t think she’s a terrible candidate. I just don’t want to vote for Trump.
How has this election season felt for you?
It’s just very brutal, I feel like. After the presidential debate, I don’t know how people are still voting for Trump. I think we’re very split right now. We’re very divided. Like what happened to good candidates, what happened to civil debates, like why are we name calling in debates? It’s so unprofessional and it’s not productive discussion at all.
Anshuman Dash
Graduate student, Business Analytics
Ethnicity: Indian
Hometown: Cumming, GA
Have you voted? Yes
Who for? Trump
What key issues impacted your vote?
I would say tax cuts and inflation would be the primary issues as well as border control. Also I didn’t really support the very large amounts of money for say child tax cuts, which is given for people with simply large numbers of children.
How has this election season felt for you?
I think we put a lot of weight on our entire lives will change based on this election, but usually it doesn’t. Even if Kamala Harris wins, I don’t think she’ll destroy the economy or anything like that. But I think if I compare the past 4 years. I think Trump did a better job. So that’s what I’m going based on.
Rachel Zhu
4th year, Risk Management
Ethnicity: Chinese
Hometown: Johns Creek, GA
Have you voted? Yes
Who for? Harris
What key issues impacted your vote?
So Trump as a person is a felon, and he is in general just a terrible person. All his policies are working towards helping himself and the rich stay rich and not like us as middle class or even like people that aren’t of white descent.
How has this election season felt for you?
I think that people are voting a lot based on the person instead of off policies. So that worries me because there are so many people that still like Trump even though as a person he isn’t good and his policies aren’t good. So it’s very stressful.
Nolan Pham
3rd year, Mechanical Engineering
Ethnicity: Vietnamese and Lao
Hometown: Cumming, GA
Have you voted? Not, but plan to vote
Who for? Harris
What key issues impacted your vote?
Climate is a big thing for me, and I know that it’s not totally great. But that’s sort of the situation with both parties. I still remember when Trump pulled out of the Paris Accords. That was a big red flag for me personally. I’m a big environmental person.
How has this election season felt for you?
It felt a little daunting, honestly, because I think I’m in a similar boat with a lot of people where I don’t feel like there’s a very clear, strong reason why I’m voting for one candidate over the other. Like sure I have my reasons why I’m voting for Kamala, but also I feel like I’m voting for the least worst candidate.
Jazmine
3rd year, Fashion Merchandising
Hometown: Atlanta, GA
Ethnicity: Korean
Have you voted? No, but plan to vote
Who for? Harris
What key issues impacted your vote?
I mean one of the biggest ones for me was my rights as a woman and a human being in this country. I’m also not the biggest fan of Trump per se, for how he views immigrants for one. My family are immigrants, so I’m not the biggest fan of his views on any person of color or minorities in this country.
How has this election season felt for you?
Very tense. It’s very chaotic. I can definitely feel a lot of tension between a lot of groups, between family members and friends for sure. So it’s very tense, especially with the events that are going on in Gaza. So it’s been very tense for sure.
