Gallup: Asian-Americans Lean Left Politically

By John | Sunday, February 7, 2010 | View Comments

This recent interesting polling data from Gallup finds Asian Americans more liberal or leans Democratic — after initially identifying as independents — than other racial/ethnic groups:

“Overall, 41% of Asians identify politically as Democrats, 41% as independents, and 16% as Republicans. As a result, Asians are above the national average in terms of the percentage of political independents (37% nationwide) and Democrats (34%), and below average in terms of the percentage of Republicans (27%).”

At first, I was kind of surprised by this given my experience growing up in the Northeast, where I found my parents and their peers tended to be at least fairly socially and fiscally conservative. But having now lived in California for over 10+ years, where a majority of Asian Americans do live, you kind of sort of expect those kind of results.

Additionally, Asian Americans tend to be highly educated compared to all other ethnic groups, showing a correlation with higher education and liberalism. But mostly, I have found in my experience is that Asian Americans tend to be fairly apathetic and not terribly involved in civic life and politics — ironically, they also vote to a lesser degree than most and thus a large percentage of Asian Americans are independent and not very ideological and more practical. The few Asian American Republicans I know tend to be small business owners, where Republicans tend to do well with.

What next?

Other posts you may be interested in:

NOTE: 8Asians.com is a community, and we thank you for being a part of it. While we welcome and appreciate differences in opinion, if you're rude or you're promoting spam, we have a right to edit or delete your comment. Read our comment policy for more information.

Big Red One

Yeah, because Asian Americans rightly support Affirmation Action which puts our own kids in the back seat in favor of other 'under represented minorities.'

Change? What change? As for the Republican Party - anyone who supports a political party that relies on fearmongering and the spread of misinformation really ought to have their brains checked out.
lxy

At least in terms of the Democrat/Republican distinction, this poll is somewhat suspect as there is very little difference between these two parties to begin with.

In terms of actual policy, they are a one-party system with different factions: one donkey, the other elephant.

That's the nature of cosmetic Change that You Can't Believe In.
johnklin

@mike_le - this is a good point you make, as I recall 40%+ of all Asian Americans were born originally outside the United States. I am assuming though that the polling asked if one was registered to vote and suspect that those who are registered to vote (i.e. U.S. citizens) have been in the U.S. long enough to have English fluency than the overall Asian American population.
mike_le

I'm actually a little suspicious of this poll. I think it's more accurate to say "Asian Americans who feel comfortable answering an ENGLISH LANGUAGE phone poll" lean left politically. THAT doesn't surprise me.

If you could somehow capture the entire community, including foreign-born Asian Americans who aren't as comfortable with an English language poll, I suspect the results would be very different.

8 Asians