A poll conducted from April 11 to May 17 by the Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) Vote, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) and AAPI Data provides some interesting results regarding the Republican project to increase influence in this demographic.
The poll included 1,212 registered Asian American voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. Here are the results for Asian Americans:
Figure 1: Candidate preference, % of Asian American registered voters. Source: Inclusion, Not Exclusion: Spring 2016 Asian American Voter Survey, Table 7. “Candidate Choice Among Asian American Registered Voters”.
Combined Republican (Trump + others) vote preference is 16%.
Out of (personal) interest, here are the results for Chinese Americans.
Figure 2: Candidate preference, % of Chinese American registered voters. Source: Inclusion, Not Exclusion: Spring 2016 Asian American Voter Survey, Table 7. “Candidate Choice Among Asian American Registered Voters”.
Previous data points for Asian Americans include 73% vote for Obama in 2012, vs. 26% for Romney, as noted in this post.
Nice summary from Politico:
Only 19 percent of Asian Americans hold a favorable view of the presumptive Republican nominee, according to a survey of more than 1,000 registered Asian Americans conducted by three Asian-American NGOs, while 61 percent view him unfavorably.
Menzie,
One thing that would help is for Republicans to point out that the overwhelmingly Democratic administrations at elite universities have a policy of systematically discriminating against Asians in the college admissions process. Moreover, when the victims of the discrimination complain to the Democrats that they overwhelmingly voted for, they are told they are just imagining it.
Rick, I suggest that the issue with Trump is a perception that he is a racist and a xenophobe and this is not going to play well with Asians or any other group which members see themselves as “different” from the majority. While it is true that eastern and southern Asians are enjoying a high median family income usually associated with Republicans (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/asian-americans-set-surpass-whites-median-family-wealth-n314341) , they are also now the largest (legal) immigrant group (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/asianamericans-graphics/).
So, while the issue of college admissions may be a sore point, I would guess that it is not enough to counteract Trump’s anti-Mexican and anti-Muslim positions which could be easily extrapolated to anti-non-white, whether or not that is valid. Most of the Chinese, Japanese, and Indians with whom I associate share a similar personality profile… engaging, cerebral, and focused. Now that may be because of similar interests, but I have seen that same profile in my grandson’s elementary school in San Francisco. These people are not going to be drawn to a person who is argumentative, antagonistic, and tends to over-simplify. They might not like the dubious integrity of Hillary Clinton or the boffo economics of Bernie Sanders, but I don’t believe they can be persuaded to like “The Apprentice” style of Trump.
This will be for Asians a difficult political year as it will be for millions of others.
Bruce,
You are no doubt right about this. It seems to me that Asian-Americans are a natural fit for the Republican party but Trump as the face of the party sure doesn’t help.
Yes, it’s a tough year as neither side is happy with its candidate. I think I’ve managed to come to terms with Trump although I wish the party had nominated someone else. I’ve talked with a number of Trump supporters and come to understand their motivation for supporting him. I’ve come to think his upsides are greater than his downsides but there is a lot of risk too. As much as I hate to admit it, Hillary scored some points on foreign policy yesterday.