Post-Election Survey of Asian American Voters in 2012

By John | Tuesday, December 18, 2012 | 12 Comments

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Last week, The Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, along with Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) and the National Asian American Survey (NAAS), released preliminary findings of a post-election poll of Asian American voters: Behind the Numbers: Post-Election Survey of Asian American Voters in 2012 (373 kb, .PDF).

From the press release, the preliminary post-election poll report’s key findings include:

The Asian American electorate has been steadily growing with each presidential election and is projected to be close to 3 percent of all votes cast in the 2012 election. (pp. 3-4).
71% of Asian Americans voters in November 2012 cast their ballot for President Obama, and 28% voted for Governor Mitt Romney. (p. 5).
We estimate that about 3.2 million Asian Americans cast ballots in November 2012, with about 2.3 million for President Obama and 900,000 for Governor Romney. (p. 5).
President Obama’s total popular vote margin of victory is estimated at 4.7 million. The AAPI vote contributed a net 1.4 million votes to this margin. Without the AAPI vote, President Obama’s popular vote margin would have been 3.3 million. (p. 5).
In 2012, there was a significant increase in voter mobilization efforts by community organizations; still, most Asian American voters (65 percent) report that they received no contact about the election. (p. 7).
Among those who were contacted by political parties, contact by Democrats was more frequent than contact by Republicans. (p. 7).
On issues relevant to Asian American voters, the strongest gaps in support for President Obama over Governor Romney were on issues of immigration, racial discrimination, health and environment. The smallest gap was on national security issues. (p. 9).
Nearly one half of Asian American registered voters remain independent or undecided with respect to their party identification, pointing to the possibility that many remain open to persuasion and outreach in future elections. (pp. 9-10).

I think the most interesting new fact that I got from this preliminary report was that nearly 50% of those who voted were independents or not registered or affiliated with a particular party. Given what we blogged about back in September about the most non-partisan cities in California tended to have a large Asian American population, this is not too surprising.

Given how Asian Americans voted for Obama in 2012, it’s the Democrats to lose the Asian American vote for 2016. Not surprisingly given Romney’s policies on immigration and the anti-immigration rhetoric of the far Tea Party right, Asian Americans had the biggest differences with the Republicans on immigration and racial discrimination. I have my own thoughts as to why Asian Americans overwhelmingly voted for Obama as well as why our community has shifted from voting Republican to Democratic over the past 30 years and will blog about this in the near future.

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http://www.facebook.com/people/Ahmed-Sanchez-De-La-Cruz-Kim/58700922 Ahmed Sanchez De La Cruz Kim

There’s a few general sentiments I think why the AA community has shifted politics.

Pretty much, a lot of AAs (citizens, immigrants, any status) have gone to college or some type of higher education schooling in the States. Which to be very frank, is an environment that’s quite liberal and leaning towards the Democrats. Whether you like it or not, it rubs off on you.

And it’s true that the general image is that the Democrats are more inclusive. Whether it’s real or not, the image is what’s important and the Republicans and their sympathizers are at fault for not doing something about it. It’s not about being PC (which is ironic considering the word politics is in there) per se but being realistic about people’s thinking. People are gonna be turned off when they hear statements about not being included in.

Regarding the independent affiliations of AA voters, I think AAs are one of the most pragmatic groups. They voted for people that they’re familiar with and because the other choices didn’t seem practical at that time.

*slightly related note* I think IMHO this is actually why Jay Chen lost, not necessarily because of his race or the controversies with education. People went with the devil they knew whether than a new face.

There’s still AAs affiliated with the GOP and it’s sort of the same reasons as the others , fiscal policies, social conservatism (or at least they portrayed themselves to be), and for some of the older generation-mostly 1st generation and emigrants, the Republicans for several reasons did had good relations with their native countries.

Lots of reasons (for better or worst) why people overall are politically active.
LTE2

“And it’s true that the general image is that the Democrats are more inclusive. Whether it’s real or not, the image is what’s important and the Republicans and their sympathizers are at fault for not doing something about it.”

.
This is a heavily media driven thing. For instance, non whites that attended Tea Party rallies felt perfectly comfortable being there yet the left leaning media made it sound like every rally ended with cross burnings..
.
The Democrats have mastered the emotional media, but have not done well explaining how their policies will work. The vast majority of voters do not make a serious effort to study policy and the implications of policies. Many voters vote based on a “that sounds nice basis”.
.
As for 1st generation and older generation (I guess I am included in the last one), I grew up listening to dictators/leaders who spoke like Obama and now I see the policy wreckage of the people who spoke like Obama years ago.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ahmed-Sanchez-De-La-Cruz-Kim/58700922 Ahmed Sanchez De La Cruz Kim

I’ve attended Republican events before. It’s true that the media is kind of off with their portrayal but its’ possible to fix that. Overall, and I’m speaking from my own experiences, the general atmosphere I felt was similar with the Democratic events. There are jerks here and there and they do get taken care of pretty quickly if people actually stood up and call them out.

With regards to President Obama, and this was mainly in the midwest, some gatherings (I don’t know if they’re really affiliated officially with the GOP, but they self-associate with them-these weren’t covered by mainstream media) there were quite a few people who really didn’t like him for being black. Like at first, they would say stuff regarding how he’s weak with foreign bullies or bringing down our economy, at first it was kind of normal (justified or not it was a normal political convo) but then the more they talk the more they spoke about all the other “problems” they had with him. Even in 2012, there were still ppl who think he is Muslim. There were people who felt uncomfortable and wanted to speak out, but they were too few in number and simply left. That’s what happen so I left too. I think it was a Christian event, but I’m not 100% sure.

Ron Paul did had large enthusiastic somewhat diverse gatherings (so this is true how media portrayed him in that aspect, even though they kept trying to brush him off).

In the state, local governments, the representation of both parties kind of stayed the same, like those who were leaning towards either one stayed similar or those who could swing either way did so.
In Congress, the GOP got a lot members within the Representatives, but looking at it, I’m kind of leaning towards the idea that people went with familiarity over policies and resumes. But if you think about it, it’s kind of true that because of their 2 year election, some major projects is gonna take at least 2 terms for some of these Reps to handle it.

The senate and governors, several went with the Democrats. This presidential election, putting aside the electoral college, the overall popular individual vote both Romney and Obama were very close.
Fox drone

left leaning media is liberal? if that’s the case, I’d hate to see what true conservative media is beyond Faux News

even MSNBC and CNN is completely biased towards their corporate agendas.

if you want real left leaning media, then turn on the radio to non-NPR stations. even NPR has been bought out by the corporations.

stop talking your right leaning bias racism against Asians already; you’re getting to be a bore in any discussions – even beyond the dumb articles and comments already.
LTE2

“I’d hate to see what true conservative media is beyond Faux News”
.
“even MSNBC and CNN is completely biased towards their corporate agendas.”

“even NPR has been bought out by the corporations.”
.
All media has a bias.
.
“you’re getting to be a bore”

.
Imagine sitting next to me at some bar after I have a few drinks.
mingzi

TBH the democrats have caught the social justice disease, and sound more like “victimer-than-than” mentality every single day. Their entire support base cares about social issues and knows barely anything about the important things. Money. Strength. Diplomacy. They actually make these things sound shameful and evil.

The Republicans are just extremely out of touch, clinging onto the past and other nonsensical, unscientific BS.

That’s why I don’t vote.
http://www.facebook.com/kang.s.anthony Anthony Kang

Forgive
me if this is a little off-topic, but the picture above got me
going…”Tragedy” wouldn’t quite be the right word, considering Asians
are still far off from even being a swing vote, so let’s just call it
pathetically asinine that the Democratic Party has the Asians’ loyalty
just like every other minority group. How pathetic that so, so, sooo
many millions of citizens simply eat up the shameless, disgraceful,
vile, baseless
all-Republicans-are-racists-and-want-to-starve-your-children lie after
lie, myth after myth.

What…WHAT exactly is it that the liberal values and visions offer
Asian-Americans? What is it that have separated Asian-Americans’ from
that of most minority groups in America? The doctrines of hard work,
education, financial and personal responsibility, hard work, strong
family values/foundation, hard work and (for many groups) commitment to
God and Biblical values…ALL values espoused by conservatives. Liberals
preach the antithesis: blame the white man; blame The Man; it’s always
someone else’s fault; you don’t need a good education and career, just
let others work hard and live off their welfare checks and food stamps;
have 10 kids before you turn 10–there’s nooothing wrong with that!

HOW am I the only one who sees this (OK, not literally “only,” but
you get my point). It is mind-boggling to the soul how some of the
smartest, most rational, logical people in the world can be so
unbelievably ill-informed about such crucial issues in the world. I
repeat: the Democrats/liberals offer NOTHING to Asians or ANY group, for
that matter. If all the Asians acted and worked like they voted (like,
say…Hispanics or African-Americans), is someones actually going to
challenge me when I say that the Asian-American demographic would be
nowhere, NOOOWHERE near a success story as it is today?
http://www.facebook.com/kang.s.anthony Anthony Kang

Hey “Fox drone,” you’re obviously a recent college grad who’s had his mind brainwashed and indoctrinated the past four years with the usual run-of-the-mill “up is down, left is right, 1+1=Z” Leftist BS, and still living with your parents. Go run a small business with all your views on social justice and fiscal irresponsibility and see how long that lasts.
http://www.facebook.com/kang.s.anthony Anthony Kang

No, WAIT! I take that back. Please, please don’t listen to the last part. The last thing thins country needs is another irresponsible ingrate taking a 500K loan out with zero intent to pay back, and zero remorse when they don’t (or…”it’s all the The Man’s/white man’s/rich people’s fault” right?).
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