AAPI Survey and Elections

By Jennie L. Ilustre

 

In the future, historians will note that 2020 was the year when Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) –composed of diverse groups that have always identified themselves by their country of origin – began to achieve solidarity and political clout in the United States, which to them is home.

Home, where they and their families are supposed to feel safe: and particularly in this pandemic period, safe from hate crimes and discrimination.

The Moment is now a Movement, similar to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. And for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, having shown that their voter power in the 2020 presidential elections provided the margin of victory in crucial states, there is no looking back.

Remember the popular kungfu movies showing how a timid Asian, fed up with being bullied, fights back for justice and his deserved place in the sun…and triumphs? That’s what the Asian American Movement is like.

 

 

Survey

Throughout June, a team of Politico journalists teamed up with the paper’s polling partner Morning Consult to survey the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community about politics and identity.

The project surveyed 2,000 AAPI adults from 50 ethnic groups. Rishika Dugyala, with help from Beatrice Jin, Brakkton Booker and Teresa Wiltz, wrote about the survey’s findings. Below are the Big Picture and the nuances that stand out in the Politico/Morning Consult poll.

 

The Big Picture

This is the Big Picture: The findings present opportunities for both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in next year’s midterm elections, and in the 2024 elections.

The pandemic-related hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, including the killing of six East Asian women in Atlanta, Politico pointed out, sparked “national outrage.” The events “sparked a political solidarity unlike anything the community has seen before…”

Janelle Wong, a professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, was quoted as saying that it was “hugely significant to see that change in such a short time.”

The heightened sense of community, Politico noted, would change the way Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders vote, as well as how campaigns reach out to them, according to interviews with AAPI leaders and campaigns that reached out to AAPI voters.

Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, was quoted as saying that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders need to demonstrate enough voter power, so that people running for office “can’t ignore us and still get elected.”

 

Issues, not Parties

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders tend to vote based on issues, not political parties.

Christine Chen, executive director of the nonprofit APIAVote, pointed to the findings of its own 2020 Asian American Voter Survey in an email interview.

“We know many AAPIs are open to casting their ballots for those who are willing to listen to our communities’ issues and concerns,” she stressed.

She noted: “One of these is the issue of ending the fear of violence and discrimination our communities face. We also know that with our growing population and political power, reaching out to our communities can make all the difference in swing states, where just a few thousand votes make the difference. In the 2020 presidential elections, the AAPI vote exceeded the margin of victory in several states such as Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin.”

“Asian American voters exhibit tremendous diversity in terms of characteristics like national origin, geographic region, religion, and English-language proficiency,” she added. “At the same time, they demonstrate remarkable cohesion when it comes to their interest in health care and opinions related to immigration, the environment, guns and education.”

“On many of these issues, most Asian Americans lean progressive,” she said. “They favor a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, stronger environmental protections, gun control, and Affirmative Action. They are likely to believe that the Democratic Party handles most issues better than the Republican Party, with the exception of taxes and jobs and the economy.”

 

Numbers Tell the Story

The Politico/Morning Consult poll showed that about 2 in 10 AAPI adults (21%) said “they were more likely to identify with the AAPI community than they were before covid-19.”

Koreans were most likely to say they identified with the broader community more (30 percent). Others: Liberal respondents, 34 %; moderates, 16% and conservatives,14 %.

Many AAPI adults believe violence, discrimination and white supremacy are major threats during the pandemic. Over half (65%) of those surveyed respondents said violence was a major threat during the pandemic. 62% said discrimination; 50% said white supremacy.

Women were 6 percentage points more likely to cite violence as a major threat than men. According to Stop AAPI Hate, they also self-reported Covid-related hate crimes at higher rates. They were also deeply impacted by the Atlanta shootings.

Stop AAPI Hate began tracking anti-hate incidents and discrimination in March 2020, a month after the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the pandemic. It launched a website to receive reports by victims or advocates.

 

‘Xenophobic Terms’

The survey showed “71 % of AAPI adults blame Donald Trump for the discrimination against the community–the highest blame directed toward an individual.”

The survey noted that as the pandemic hit the country, Trump began to call Covid-19 “the Chinese virus,” “the China virus” and other xenophobic terms. In the week after he first tweeted it, studies show the number of Covid-related social media posts with anti-Asian hashtags rose steeply.

The survey showed 66% of Chinese Americans said Trump was “a major reason alone–the highest across ethnic groups.” Pacific Islanders were the least likely to blame him, though a little over half (55%) listed him as a major or minor reason.

Politico reported there’s a confusing data point, according to Professor Wong. The survey showed AAPI adults largely blame Trump. But between 2016 and 2020, there was a slight growth in his support among Asian Americans.