On Wednesday, Democrats from Fort Bend County, south-west of Houston, gathered at an Indian restaurant for a presidential debate watch party. Fort Bend is a study in multiculturalism in modern suburban America and in the kind of trends that excite Democrats and alarm Republicans. Easy access to energy, medical and technology hubs has helped make Fort Bend one of the fastest-growing, most ethnically diverse, best-educated and affluent counties in the US. “We registered over 4,000 Muslim voters in Fort Bend County this year,” said Shapnik Khan, a 45-year-old law office manager who moved from Bangladesh to the US as a teenager to study and has been in Fort Bend for 20 years. “We’re not an island,” said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas.

Source: The Guardian October 22, 2016 10:00 UTC