For some years Asian Americans have strongly favoured the Democratic Party with their votes. The main reasons for this were that when they came to America, they settled mostly in large cities run by the Democratic Party in Democrat states. The Democratic Party claimed them as minority people that were part of the Democratic coalition of voters, or the “Rainbow Coalition.” The Party organised to help newcomers and get them to vote. Finally, Asian Americans followed models including Asians that won elective office in the United States that were predominantly Democrats.
As a result, Asians mustered with the Democratic Party and voted for Democrats by a more than a two to one ratio over Republicans.
Who are these Asian Americans that aligned with the Democratic Party? The U.S. government defines them as people born in East, Southeast, South Asia and Pacific Islanders. In numbers, Chinese are the largest, followed by Indians, and Filipinos. Altogether there are 20 countries represented among Asian Americans. Including residents of Hawaii, they count 17.8 million and are 7 percent of the U.S. population.
Among them Indian Americans favoured Democrats the most followed by Filipinos and Koreans. Chinese favour Democrats, but less so. Vietnamese were the only Asians to fancy the Republican Party (owing to blaming Democrat leaders’ policies during the Vietnam War). Younger people favoured Democrats. Women were more strongly Democrat than Republicans by a big margin. Older arrivals have supported the Democratic Party somewhat less.
This began to change with the 2020 and 2022 elections. It was even more pronounced in 2023. This is important because Asians are the fastest growing minority group in the U.S. Also, whereas they did not have a high voter turnout rate in the past they are now registering to vote by a much higher rate–80 percent according to a recent Pew Research Center study. This is higher than the average American.
What are the reasons for this transformation? Asians report it is primarily President Biden and the Democratic Party’s policies on crime, education, and foreign policy.
Asian Americans suffer inordinately from crime in the United States: acts of violence, killings, robbing, and more. Why? Crime in the U.S. has increased in the last two or three years disproportionately in certain places. Asians live in high crime Democratic Party-controlled cities and states. They seldom possess guns to protect themselves. Defunding the police has made their situation worse.
Asian Americans say crime comports with leftist policies espoused by Democrats and Asians are victims in large measure also because they are portrayed in a highly negative way in the U.S. liberal media.
According to the Asian American Foundation, 80 per cent of Asian Americans do not now feel accepted in the United States and more than half fear being in public places. Both numbers have increased in the last two years or so. They perceive the Republican Party’s tough on crime is a good policy.
When Asian Americans are asked what their biggest complaint about America is, they say it is the bias against them and their children in college and university admissions especially in the best universities. Clearly there is discrimination. In his book An Inconvenient Minority, Kenny Xu notes that the percentage of Asian students at Harvard and most other top institutions would double if there were no racial sorting out. Since many Asians came to the United States to attend college or universities, this affects them for a long time.
Further, most Asians know a history and tradition of education that plays a special role in their culture. They thus rate their leaders, according to the colleges or universities they attended and their intellect. They also rate American leaders by their educational attainments.
Likewise, Asians are generally repulsed by the teaching of wokeness in schools in the United States. They see it as a distraction from serious intellectual debate and learning. To some, it reminds them of Mao degrading education with extreme leftist communism during the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976), which set education in China back a generation.
Finally, Asians have a strong positive opinion about school choice, which the Democrat Party opposes, and the Republican Party supports.
Asians agree with critics of the Biden administration’s foreign policy. In terms of its implementation, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan stands as a huge embarrassment for America that cannot be easily forgotten. Asians recall it vividly. Further, they do not concur with President Biden’s bipolar view of the world: the U.S. leading the democratic nations of the world against a China-led authoritarian bloc of countries. They see China as a challenge to the United States, not an enemy.
Asians also view Biden and the Democrats as pro-war. Asians prefer peace and link it to prosperity. This makes them lean Republican.
There are other factors…
More than half of Asian Americans came to America in recent years. Back home they believed America was the land of opportunity, democracy and freedom. They have been disappointed largely because of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party’s treatment of these ideals. They feel that democracy in the U.S. has been demeaned by cancel culture, the decline of rule by law and a two-tier system that favours the political left, plus restrictions imposed on basic freedoms by the government, the media, and big business.
Freedom House confirms their apprehensions, noting that democracy has declined worldwide for more than a decade, especially recently in the U.S.
In this connection, Asians, more than others, note that the United States is not doing well economically compared to most Asian countries. They ponder whether this comes from too much government and too much debt that Democrats brought.
Last, but not least, Asian Americans resent President Biden’s policy of opening the southern border to illegals. Asian Americans think they have earned the right to be in the U.S. because of their hard work, paying taxes, and more. They feel disrespected by current policies.
Is there proof in the pudding? Yes. Some. New York papers mention that Asian Americans vote shifted by 23 points in the 2022 governor’s race, though Republican Lee Zeldin did not win. In Texas, according to the Pew Foundation, the Asian American vote impacted the results of some elections recently. Likewise for local Asian American organisations in California and New York where voting has leaned somewhat more Republican.
In conclusion, it appears Asian Americans may seriously reconsider their allegiance to the Democratic Party. This could be important in November.
John F. Copper
John F. Copper is the Stanley J. Buckman Professor (emeritus) of International Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He is the author of more than thirty-five books on Taiwan and U.S. China/Taiwan policy, including the seventh edition of Taiwan: Nation-State or Province? (Routledge) just over a year ago and Taiwan’s Politics in Action (World Scientific) early in 2021.
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