ASIAN Americans tend to support Democratic candidates in congressional elections by more than a two-to-one margin, a pre-election poll conducted in three states found.
The study, called the 2014 Asian American Election Eve Poll, was conducted between Oct. 30 to Nov. 4 via landline and cellphone interviews with 1,150 of these voters in California, Texas, and Virginia.
Candidates
Poll results revealed that most Asian Americans supported the reelection of California Gov. Jerry Brown. In Texas, most were split down the middle between Republican candidate Greg Abbott or Democratic candidate Wendy Davis, with most Asian American women in support of Davis.
Voters were pivotal in the victory of Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, favoring him more than 2-1 compared to his opponent, Republican Ed Gillespie.
Among the community, 58 percent expressed approval of President Barack Obama’s performance in office, which is 15 percent higher than the national consensus.
Partisanship and issues
Despite the trend in Democratic support, 40 percent of Asian Americans did not identify as a Republican or Democrat, but instead as Independents. Additionally, the study found an increase in Republican voters, which was 34 percent in 2014, compared to 27 percent in 2012.
Of those who identified as Republicans one out of six still voted for Democrats.
General findings revealed that most Asian Americans are progressive on a diverse range of policy issues: 74 percent support increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour; 63 percent are in favor of Affirmative Action by increasing the number of minority students at schools; and 60 percent support immigration reform, including a path to citizenship.
Other poll findings included that 32 percent of Asian Americans stated that the economy and jobs are the most salient issues facing the community. Other pressing issues include education and schools, healthcare, and immigration reform.
Low-voter turnout, discrepancies in findings
Asian Americans currently account for nearly 6 percent of the US population and are the fastest growing segment of the electorate with potential to affect election outcomes.
Still, historically, Asian American voter turnout has been low, and findings in the election eve poll suggest that one reason for this could be that 56 percent of Asian Americans were not contacted about registering to vote.
Language barriers are also a contributing factor to low voter turnout.
On Nov. 4, Asian Americans Advancing Justice reminded voters to request for language assistance at the polls as part of the Voting Rights Act. The website cited that 32.65 percent of Asian American voters in North Carolina have limited English proficiency, as well as a post-2012 election survey that revealed a 9 percent lower turnout for those who aren’t as proficient in English.
Exit polls presented in the Washington Post and CNN show that about half of Asian American voters casted ballots for Republican candidates.
Similarly, a Gallup poll found that 51 percent of Asian Americans disapproved of President Obama’s performance, while only 43 percent supported it.
Taeku Lee, professor of political science at UC Berkeley and managing director of Asian American Decisions, pointed out that the Election Eve poll was conducted with a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual sample, while Asian Americans interviewed by national media outlets were conducted in English, leaving out non-English speaking voters. As a result, he said these polls do not accurately represent the voting behavior of this growing ethnic group.
However, Ninio Fetalvo, RNC AAPI spokesman, said the Asian American vote was significant in the victories of Republicans in the midterm election. The RNC ramped up its efforts to reach out to the Asian American community throughout the campaigning process.
“The RNC worked with Fil-Am community leaders in planning events to get out the vote for Republican candidates,” he told the Asian Journal via email. “For example, we hosted a Filipino-American Heritage Month celebration with US Senate nominee Ed Gillespie and Virginia Delegate Ron Villanueva.”
Asian Americans are the most rapidly rising swing vote in the United States, and the 40 percent of those who do not associate with either party is where Republicans look to come in, Third Way senior political analyst Michelle Diggles told The Daily Beast.
“We will continue to strengthen our engagement efforts with Asian Americans by being present in their communities year-round,” Fetalvo said.
2016 election
With two more years until the next presidential election, 65 percent of Asian Americans said they would vote for the Democratic presidential nominee if the election were held at the time the interviews were conducted, while 35 percent said they would vote for the Republican nominee.
Most Asian Americans are familiar with Hilary Clinton, who is a positive brand to the community.
However, a surprising finding, according to Lee, was that Republican party presidential hopefuls were largely unheard of among Asian Americans. However, the community was most likely to recognize and support former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush out of a lineup of Republicans including Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, and Rand Paul.
The poll was conducted by Asian American Decisions and the Asian American and Pacific Islander Civic Engagement Fund. (Agnes Constante/AJPress with reports from The Daily Beast)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(OCIE November 7-13, 2014 Sec. A pg.1)
