Democrats are rapidly losing the support of voters from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, according to a survey conducted for a coalition of left-wing organizations released Monday.
Democrats, on the generic ballot, dropped 5% in terms of AAPI support, from 56% to 51%, while Republicans gained 2% from 34% to 36%, the survey showed. The survey was conducted by Garin-Hart-Yang Research and was initially forwarded to several major Democratic-affiliated political organizations, including Priorities USA Action (the largest Democrat-supporting Super PAC), Emily’s List and NARAL Pro-Choice America (which fund pro-abortion political candidates) and the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the United States.
The 7% change in alignment by AAPI voters is as much as was observed between the 2016 and 2020 elections, making for a 14% total shift since former President Donald Trump was elected, according to the survey. The shift arrives as the GOP has made significant investments in outreach to non-white communities in an effort to broaden its traditional electoral coalition.
Nearly 20 years after issuing a landmark decision upholding universities’ affirmative action policies, SCOTUS will consider new arguments in two cases alleging that such policies discriminate against Asian Americans. Grantee @kitroane for @RetroReport. https://t.co/eoDyvdE77F pic.twitter.com/CHJEvABJhJ
— Pulitzer Center (@pulitzercenter) October 15, 2022
Some of these efforts include Republican-branded ‘community centers’ for Asian/Pacific Americans, which have been opened in regions where they live in large numbers – e.g., Orange County and Westminster, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Issaquah, Washington, and Coppell, Texas – which are located in battleground states, according to William O’Grady, the RNC’s Deputy National Press Secretary, in an email to the Daily Caller News Foundation. In each of these communities, the Republican National Committee employs a staff member from within the community responsible for local outreach and voter registration. (RELATED: CNN Sounds The Alarm On Another Voting Bloc Fleeing The Democratic Party)
Overall, AAPI voters are the fastest-growing electoral demographic in the United States, with over 13.2 million voters being members of the community in 2022. While they are largely diffuse, they form a sizable number of voters in Georgia (253,000 voters) and Nevada (215,000 voters), where they comprise 10% of the electorate.
Many attribute the AAPI shift in support towards Republicans to the party’s position on matters related to education – specifically, support for greater parental rights and opposition to transgender teachings and affirmative action. “For people like my father, Democrats’ messages of inclusion and multiculturalism are leaving them cold,” wrote Geoffrey Mak, a Democratic-leaning author, in The Guardian.
“Republicans continue to make inroads” with the AAPI community, wrote Nainoa Johsens, an RNC spokesperson and its director of Asia Pacific Media, to the Daily Caller News Foundation, adding that it would “take back the House and Senate with APA voters providing the margin of victory in key races.”
The poll surveyed 1,955 AAPI voters across 10 states and did not specify a margin of error.
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