Sunday Read: Asian American electorate doubles its number and increases its influence

US politicians, Democrats and Republicans, can no longer afford to ignore the Asian American voter. From 2000 to 2020, the number of Asian American eligible voters more than doubled, growing by 139%, according a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.
In the same two decades Hispanic voters grew at a similar rate (121%), but the black and white electorates grew far more slowly (33% and 7%).

"If candidates work to reach out to our communities — many of which have low English proficiency — and work to push issues they care about, we could definitely see an impact in November," AAPI Vote executive director Christine Chen told NBC Asian America.

More than 11 million Asian American voters will be able to cast their ballots this year, making up nearly 5% of the nation’s eligible voters. They are also the only major racial or ethnic group in which naturalized citizens – rather than the US born – make up a majority of eligible voters,

Because most Asian Americans are first-generation immigrants, there are about 4.5 million future voters waiting to become full-fledged US citizens and voters. Between 2000 and 2018 – the most recent year available – the number of Asian immigrant eligible voters doubled from 3.3 million to 6.9 million. As of 2018, naturalized citizens accounted for about two-thirds of all U.S. Asian eligible voters.

Since 2000, newcomers from Asia have made up the greatest number of immigrants to the US, surpassing immigrants coming from Mexico.

The Asian American electorate reflect the composition of entire Asian American communities with 85% coming from China, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan, according to the Pew analysis. 

More than half of the Asian Americans live in only three states. California is home for 3.6 million Asian American voters or 35% of the U.S. Asian electorate, followed by New York with 920,000 voters and Texas, 698,000. 

In the swing state of Texas, the growing Asian American electorate could turn the red state to blue for the Demcratic presidential candidate and possibly elect its first Asian American congressmembers -- Sri Preston Kulkarni and Gina Ortiz Jones.

Hawaii is the only state where Asian American voters make up the largest share, 38%, of the electorate. California Asian American voters with 14% of the electorate is an increasingly politically influential group.

Both Democrats and Republicans have increased outreach to the Asian American communities but according to AAPI Data, the majority of the Asian American electorate leans towards the Democratic Party. Vietnamese American voters tend to trend towards the GOP.

In the 2018 election, 77 percent of AAPI voters supported a Democratic House candidate. Support of Asian American voters was critical in the 2018 midterm elections delivering traditional Republican districts to the Democrats.

Meanwhile, only in Hawaii do Asian Americans account for a larger share of eligible voters than any racial or ethnic group. They make up 38% of the state’s eligible voters, by far the highest share in the country. California has the next highest share with 14%.

Immigrants from the Philippines has the highest rate of naturalization of all contributing countries with 82% of the permanent residents from the Philippines eligible for citizenship swore their allegiance to the US, according to an earlier Pew study.

As more of the newly arrived become US citizens, the influence and power of Asian American voters is expected to grow even more.