Indian American Shuchita Patel takes on 16-year incumbent in Georgia county with dark racial past

• Shuchita Patel is the first Indian American to run for office in Forsyth County, Georgia
• She is challenging a Republican commissioner who has run unopposed for 16 years
• Forsyth’s Indian American population has grown from about 200 to 48,000 since 2000
• Patel says cost of living matters more to voters than culture-war issues

IN A Georgia county once synonymous with racial violence, Indian American Democrat Shuchita Patel is mounting an unlikely challenge in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Patel, 40, is running for Forsyth County commissioner against Republican Todd Levent, who has been elected unopposed for 16 years. She is the first Indian American to run for office in the county.

In 1912, white residents and Ku Klux Klan members drove out almost the entire Black population of Forsyth County, which remained all-white for much of the 20th century.

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The county, about an hour’s drive from Atlanta, is still about 61 percent white, but it has changed rapidly. Its Indian American population has grown from about 200 in 2000 to around 48,000, roughly 16 percent of its 280,000 residents.

‘No one cares about pronouns’

Patel, an accountant with no political experience, spent Sunday knocking on doors in a largely Latino neighborhood. She said voters’ main concern was the cost of living.

“To be clear, I strongly believe in supporting our transgender neighbors and constituents. I want to protect our immigrant community. But no one cares about pronouns, no one cares about immigration, no one cares about whether someone is illegal or not if they can’t pay for their groceries,” she said.

“There are the elites, the ruling class, the Epstein class … that is truly 1 percent that is wealthy, and there is the rest of us.”

Standing up to ‘a bully’

Patel said she decided to run after being approached by people who told her Levent had “intimidated and bullied” previous would-be challengers and that they needed “someone with thick skin.”

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“So I said, ‘You got the right girl!’” she said.

She believes she has a chance in a county that remains solidly Republican, arguing that the commissioner’s job comes down to local issues such as which roads to repair and which sports facilities to upgrade.

When her 7-year-old daughter asked why she was running if it was so hard, Patel said she told her: “I want this community to be better for you guys. I want you to have a beautiful community to grow up in.”

Midterm backdrop

Most polls predict Republicans will lose control of the House of Representatives on November 3, with voters frustrated over the cost of groceries, fuel and health care. Georgia, however, is expected to remain firmly Republican.

(With inputs from agencies)