Some material cross-posted from Asian Americans for Obama.
UPDATE: I previously said AAPIs comprise 3.5% of the US population. It's actually 4.5%.
Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters don't get a lot of respect from pollsters and pundits generally. Most polls, election commentary and analysis ignore AAPI voters. You don't find a lot of discussion of AAPI voters on progressive blogs, either, except those devoted specifically to AAPI issues (and there really aren't very many of those).
There are some good reasons for this. AAPIs comprise about 4.5% of the US population, which makes them hard to poll accurately given the usual small sample sizes. AAPI is also a general label for a highly diverse community that includes Indian Americans, Samoan Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Chinese Americans, and more, whose views can be quite divergent. A significant number of AAPI voters also possess limited English proficiency, and the sheer number of languages spoken by the community makes AAPIs more difficult to survey.
On the other hand, Democrats and progressives neglect AAPIs at their own peril.
While only 3.5% of the population of United States, AAPIs are concentrated in particular areas, making them potentially powerful voting blocs. They comprise 14% of the population of California and within that state, they live in important swing districts. AAPIs also have significant voting power in key districts in Texas (comprising about a fifth of the population of a number of Congressional districts), New Jersey, Washington, Oregon, New York, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and even North Carolina and Georgia. In many areas, they are growing at an even faster rate than Latinos.
Other factors make AAPIs a potent force. AAPIs naturalize at a rate higher than virtually any other immigrant community. Though voter registration rates have previously been low, registered AAPI voters turn out at high rates, and AAPI registration rates have started to climb rapidly in recent elections. When mobilized, such as in the 2006 Senate race in Virginia, high AAPI turnout can make the decisive difference in a close election.
But the most important reason progressives need to act now with respect to the AAPI community is that AAPIs have never been more receptive to progressive values. In 1990, the conventional view was that AAPIs were split about evenly between Republicans and Democrats, with a smaller number of independents. Since then, however, AAPIs have been steadily voting more and more Democratic. An exit poll of nearly 17,000 voters conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund after this year's election found Democratic strength at an all time high. Democrats enjoyed a 58% to 14% registration advantage over Republicans among AAPIs. Overall, AAPIs voted nearly 3 to 1 for Obama, but even more astonishingly, AAPIs born in the US voted 87% (!) for Obama. The longer the tenure of naturalized citizens, the more likely they were to vote for Obama. Obama won every sub-constituency of AAPIs except Vietnamese Americans, but among US-born Vietnamese Americans (generally young), Democrats enjoy a 4 to 1 registration advantage. A Harvard study from earlier this year found that AAPIs 18-29 are now the most Democratic constituency in the country next to African Americans.
None of this means we can simply rest on our laurels, however. Studies also suggest that party identification has been historically more fluid among AAPIs, and many AAPIs are less strongly partisan. On the other hand, when parties reach out to the community and register them, AAPIs are likely to stick with the party that registered them first. One third of AAPI voters this year were first-time voters, and the unprecedented voter registration effort this year probably made a lot of new Democrats. AAPIs cannot continue to feel invisible in the Democratic Party or the progressive community, however. If we continue to be ignored in discussions of issues, activism, and political strategy, then the hard-won gains of the past twenty years may evaporate before our eyes. There are many talented, passionate, and dedicated progressive activists in the AAPI community waiting to be cultivated and put to work. It's my hope that we in the progressive blogosphere can lead the charge, pick up the slack where the party organizations fall short, and no longer treat the AAPI community as an afterthought, or worse, leave them out of our thoughts altogether.
One easy way to support AAPI progressives is to donate to a cause with which I'm involved - the APA Civic Project of Asian Pacific Americans for Progress (which grew out of APAs for Dean). Modeled after EMILY's List Campaign Corps, the Civic Project selects a certain number of talented young AAPIs interested in politics as fellows each year, sends them to the EMILY's List Campaign Corps training, then places the fellows in positions of responsibility in progressive campaigns. 2008 was our first year, and we placed five fellows with the campaigns of Darcy Burner, Ashwin Madia, Dina Titus, Dan Seals, and Texas State Representative Ellen Cohen (in partnership with Annie's List).
The complete AALDEF press release on the 2008 Exit Poll is provided below for further reading.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 7, 2009
CONTACT: Naomi T. Tacuyan / naomi@apiavote.org
APIAVOTE: AALDEF EXIT POLL RESULTS CONFIRMS GROWING INFLUENCE OF ASIAN AMERICAN VOTERS
First-Time Voters Voted Overwhelmingly for President-Elect Barack Obama
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) today hailed the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s (AALDEF) exit poll results as strong evidence of the growing strength of the Asian American vote.
The responses of nearly 17,000 Asian American voters in 11 states showed that they voted for Barack Obama by more than a 3 to 1 margin, and supported other Democratic candidates, making the differences in key contested states in the historic November 2008 presidential elections.
"The differences we make may be marginal compared to other constituency groups, but we are talking about a presidential race where the margins truly mattered," said Eunsook Lee, APIAVote board co-chair. "When we are mobilized, we can determine a race, whether local, state, or national. We applaud AALDEF’s efforts to capture the phenomenon of Asian American voters, and encourage media outlets and polling experts to work with us in ensuring that we are accurately represented in sampling and exit polling."
"AALDEF results indicate that AAPI voter turnout can determine whether or not a candidate wins or loses. The growing strength and increased participation of Asian Americans is evident in this exit poll," said Vida Benavides, APIAVote executive director. "These results also show that political parties can do much more in outreaching to our AAPI community needs, which are not very much different from other communities’ needs. We commend the political parties for their efforts, and will continue to be a resource to political parties so that they can more fully engage AAPIs in the political process.
The nonpartisan exit poll also found that 58% of Asian Americans were registered Democrats, while 26% were not enrolled in any political party, and 14% of Asian Americans were registered Republicans.
While non-random and conducted in precincts with significant AAPI populations, the AALDEF sample is representative of the national Asian American population. Significant findings include the following:
* Nearly one third of Asian Americans surveyed were first-time voters.
* 87% of respondents who were born in the U.S. voted for Obama.
* Four out of five Asian Americans are foreign-born citizens.
* One out of three respondents had limited English proficiency.
* Asian Americans shared common political interests across sub-ethnic lines.
* The longer the citizenship tenure of Asian Americans, the higher their rates of voting for Obama.
* All subethnic groups voted for Obama, with the exception of Vietnamese voters.
APIAVote is a national non-partisan, nonprofit organization that encourages and promotes civic participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the electoral and public policy processes at the national, state and local levels. APIAVote does not endorse parties or candidates. Please visit www.apiavote.org for more information.
More about the AALDEF Exit Poll:
The 2008 multilingual exit poll provides a unique snapshot of the voter preferences of Asian Americans at 113 poll sites in 9 cities in 11 states with large Asian American populations: New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Nevada, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington, DC. AALDEF has conducted exit polls of Asian American voters in every major election since 1988. The AALDEF exit poll collected information about the party enrollment, English proficiency and issue preferences of first-time voters, foreign-born voters, women voters, and young voters.
AALDEF worked with 60 co-sponsoring organizations (including APIAVote) to mobilize 1,500 attorneys, law students and community volunteers to conduct the multilingual exit poll and to monitor polling places for incidents of voter discrimination. Please visit www.aaldef.org for more information.
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