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NORTH AMERICAN Newsline NOVEMBER 21, 2025 | The Indian Eye 16

Indo-Caribbean & South Asian Voter Turnout

Increases by 350% in 2025 Election in NYC;

Bangladeshi Voter Turnout Quadruples

DRUM Beats Plays Key Role in Increasing Voter Turnout in South Asian

and Indo-Caribbean Neighborhoods in NYC

OUR BUREAU voters participating in the 2025 election. Bangla- DRUM Beats volunteers knocked on more than
deshi voters, in particular, quadrupled their turn- 18,000 doors, made over 66,000 calls and reached
NEW YORK, NY
out, with nearly half of all registered Bangladeshi approximately 700,000 New Yorkers across Park-
n November 4, New Yorkers once again voters casting ballots last week. Although South chester, Westchester Square, Kensington, Bor-
made history by delivering Zohran Mam- Asians and Muslims make up roughly 7% of total ough Park, Midwood, Jackson Heights, Woodside,
Odani over the finish line and securing his registered voters in NYC, they constituted 15% of Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Sunnyside, Queens Vil-
position as the mayor of New York City. Mamdani all votes cast in the general election. lage, Bellrose, Jamaica, City Line, Ozone Park,
won with a broad, multiracial, working-class coa- South Ozone Park and Richmond Hill. DRUM
lition in which Indo-Caribbean, South Asian and “Having endorsed Zohran from last year, we Beats also worked with the campaign on earned
Muslim voters played a decisive role. and paid ethnic media in Punjabi, Urdu, Bangla,
In September 2024, DRUM Beats leaders reached hundreds of thousands of South Asian Nepali, Hindi and Creolese, helping reach more
from the Bangladeshi, Indian, Guyanese, Paki- and Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers who turned out than 1.4 million people.
stani, Punjabi, Nepali, Tibetan and Trinidadian in historic and record numbers for this election,” These are historic levels of political partic-
communities undertook a multiday endorsement said Jagpreet Singh, DRUM Beats’ Political Direc- ipation for communities that, for more than two
process that culminated in a unanimous decision decades, have been largely excluded from New
to back Mamdani. DRUM Beats became a Day tor. “This campaign resonated with working-class York City’s political processes. In the wake of 9/11,
One endorser of the campaign, alongside CAAAV and immigrant voters who have never been spo- Muslim, Arab and South Asian New Yorkers were
Organizing Asian Communities, New York Com- ken to by the political establishment.” pushed into the shadows and treated as electoral-
munities for Change, the Democratic Socialists of ly insignificant. The election of Zohran Mamdani
America and Jewish Voice for Peace Action. as mayor-elect of NYC flips that narrative. Mam-
The 2025 general election in NYC saw histor- DRUM Beats is a sibling organization of dani’s campaign made a deliberate effort to engage
ic levels of voter turnout and engagement. With DRUM – Desis Rising Up & Moving. It builds voters long ignored by the political establishment.
more than 2 million votes cast by November 4, the on DRUM’s legacy of organizing working-class The campaign relied on DRUM Beats’ decades
number of voters who turned out nearly doubled Indo-Caribbean and South Asian communities to of organizing in South Asian and Indo-Caribbe-
compared to 2021. In South Asian and Indo-Carib- strengthen movements and develop the collective an neighborhoods, reaching voters with a mes-
bean communities, turnout percentages surpassed power needed to transform political systems so sage of affordability and hope — in their homes,
those of the general registered-voter population. they serve community needs. workplaces, places of worship, on the streets and
These communities recorded a 350% increase in Since the launch of Mamdani’s campaign, throughout ethnic media.

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