Three leaders from the Indian American community took the stage before the 4,765 national delegates and the national media as the Democratic Party Convention turned the spotlight on the community, recognising its rising role.
The president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Neera Tanden, made an impassioned speech in support of the party candidate for President Hillary Clinton, declaring: "Hillary will always have our backing."
She spoke of her family's travails after her father divorced her mother when she was five and how the public safety net saved them and helped her eventually get an Ivy League law degree and to become Clinton's adviser.
Congressman Ami Bera of California was presented as a leader reflecting the diversity of the Democratic Party in Congress.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is running for Congress from Illinois, came on stage as a "New Leader of Tomorrow." If elected, Krishnamoorthi will be the fourth Indian-American to serve in the House of Representatives.
Krishnamoorthi, a lawyer and a technology and environmental entrepreneur, joked that he probably had a "mutant gene" that made him turn to politics in a community that focuses on careers in medicine, technology and education.
He said his family was in "dire economic straits" and had a difficult time when he was a baby, but the "generosity" of the United States helped them come out of it.
Reflecting the rise of the Indian-American millennial, an 18-year-old delegate from Iowa, Sruthi Palaniyappan, introduced her state delegation's announcement of its votes during the Convention roll call Tuesday. She said that she "definitely" plans to run for public affairs.
A Hillary delegate, she said she started at the local precinct level and worked her way up to get elected as a national delegate.
Among the young Indian-Americans starting out in politics is Neil Makhija, a candidate for State Representative in Pennsylvania. The 29-year-old said that while people are more focused on the presidential elections, issues that directly affect the people like education are decided at the state and local levels.
Samai Kindra from Maryland has taken a year off after high school to work as an intern with the state Democratic Party working on mobilising people to register to vote.
While an exact count of Indian-American delegates was not available, according to party sources there were about 300 Asian American delegates and a "sizable" number of them were Asian Indians. There were also scores of Indian-Americans volunteering at the convention.
Even though Indians are less than 1% of the US population, they can play a crucial role in the "battleground states"—the six or so states such as Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio where both parties are almost evenly balanced—according to Toby Chudhuri, a former White House strategy and communications adviser.