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| Thousands of AANHPI women in Las Vegas came out to a recent Democratiic rally led by Vice President Kamala Harris. |
By a margin greater than 2 to. 1, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island Americans favor Vice President Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. Among AANHPI women, her support is even more commanding.
Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) and AAPI Data released the findings from a survey of Asian American and Pacific Islander adults during a press conference Monday. The survey is the first since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July and Harris became the Democratic nominee.
“These results reinforce what we’ve been hearing and seeing from the Asian American community since July: they are re-energized and poised to once again play a decisive role in the election,” says Christine Chen, Co-Founder and Executive Director of APIAVote.
“It’s also clear that the major parties and campaigns are no longer overlooking or taking AAPI voters for granted, but instead making concerted efforts to reach out and engage them on the issues that matter most to them,” she says.
The aggressive efforts of the Harris-Walz campaign reaching out to the Asian American communities appears to be paying off, according to the latest Asian American Voter Survey (AAVS).
The poll, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, shows a dramatic increase in support for the Democratic presidential ticket among Asian American voters since the release of the organizations’ bi-annualy survey released in July..
FYI: Full results from the survey are available here.
“When it comes to voter enthusiasm and intention to vote, we’re seeing levels on par with 2020, which was a historic election in terms of having record high turnout for Asian Americans," says Karthick Ramakrishnan, the executive director and founder of AAPI Data, one of the groups that conducted the survey. "All these ingredients point toward Asian Americans having a pretty powerful role in the Harris candidacy.”
Another interesting result found that despite being having a racial affinity with Harris, AANHPI voters say her identity as a woman is more important to them than her identity as Asian Indian or South Asian.
The results show a level of sophistication in their decision making. In other words, fact-based impactful issues are more important than those issues that might carry a more emotional weight. As a result, 38 percent of Asian American voters say Harris’ identity as a woman is “extremely” or “very” important to them, compared to 27 percent who say the same about her identity as an Asian Indian or South Asian.
“South Asians for Harris, Chinese Americans for Harris, Korean Americans for Harris — we saw such activation coming from the community and partially, I think it is because of her ethnicity, but it was also driven by the women in those communities,” Chen told The 19th.
Support among AANHPI women are stronger for Harris (70 percent) than support from AANHPI men (57 percent). Chen told The 19th has to do with how Asian American women are working with Black women and Latinas across organizing spaces, bringing together a racially diverse coalition of voters.
Other key findings among Asian American registered voters include:
Presidential Horse Race: Among Asian American voters, Harris leads Trump by 38 percentage points, expanding Biden’s 15-point lead by 23 percentage points since the Spring.
- 66 percent of Asian American voters plan on voting for Vice President Harris, compared to 28 percent who say they back former President Trump. Those who say they will support another candidate or are undecided account for 6 percent.
- That's a huge increase from the 2024 AAVS, conducted in April-May, 46 percent of Asian American voters backed Biden and 31 percent supported Trump, while 23 percent said they planned to vote for someone else or were undecided.
- Compared to the 2020 AAVS, which was conducted in July-September that year, 54 percent said they planned to vote for Biden, 30 percent for Trump, and 16 percent for someone else or were undecided.
Candidate Favorability: Vice President Harris’ favorability among Asian American voters increases 18 points since the Spring; Tim Walz is far more popular as a vice presidential candidate than JD Vance.
- 62 percent of Asian American voters say they have a favorable opinion of Kamala Harris, compared to 35 percent who have an unfavorable opinion of the Vice President.
- Again, the results show a big shift from the 2024 AAVS, conducted in April-May, 44 percent had a favorable view of Harris and 42 percent unfavorable.
- 28 percent of Asian American voters have a favorable opinion of Donald Trump, compared to 70 percent who have an unfavorable opinion of the former President.
- In the 2024 AAVS, conducted in April-May, 34 percent had a favorable view of Trump and 62 percent unfavorable.
- 56 percent of Asian American voters have a favorable opinion of Tim Walz, compared to 18 percent who have an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic nominee for vice president. 26 percent don’t know enough to have an opinion.
- Only 21 percent of Asian American voters have a favorable opinion of JD Vance, compared to 58 percent who have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican nominee for vice president. 22 percent don’t know enough to have an opinion.
Certainty of Voting: Asian American voters are more likely to say that they are absolutely certain they will vote compared to April-May of this year.
- 77 percent of Asian American voters said they are “absolutely certain” they will vote in the 2024 election, up from 68 percent who said the same in the 2024 AAVS conducted in April-May.
- In the 2020 AAVS, conducted in July-September of 2020, 82 percent of Asian American voters said they are “absolutely certain” they would vote in the 2020 election.
Voter Contact & Outreach: Asian American voters are far more likely to say they’ve been contacted by the Democratic Party than the GOP.
- 62 percent of Asian American voters say they’ve been contacted by the Democratic Party, compared to 46 percent who say the same for the Republican Party.
- In the 2024 AAVS, conducted in April-May, 45 percent of Asian American voters say they had been contacted by the Democratic Party, compared to 38 percent who say the same for the Republican Party.
- 27 percent of Asian American voters say they have still not been contacted by either party, down from 42 percent in the 2024 AAVS, conducted in April-May.
Harris’ Identity: Asian American voters say Harris’ identity as a woman is more important than her identity as Asian Indian or South Asian.
- 38 percent of Asian American voters say Harris’ identity as a woman is “extremely” or “very” important to them, compared to 27 percent who say the same about her identity as an Asian Indian or South Asian.
Asian Americans have been a rapidly growing group of eligible voters in the U.S. over the past two decades, growing by 15 percent in the last four years aloneand turning out in record numbers in every federal election since 2016. In 2020, a surge in Asian American voters – especially those voting for the very first time – in battleground states was crucial to Biden’s victory.
The 2024 AAPI Voter Survey was conducted between September 3-9, 2024 by NORC using NORC’s Amplify AAPI® Panel for the sample source. The survey was offered in English, Chinese dialects of Mandarin and Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Korean and was administered in two modes depending on the preference of the respondent provided during panel recruitments: 1) self-administered by the respondent online via the Web; or 2) administered over the telephone by a live interviewer. The surveys with a live interviewer were only conducted in English.
"Team Harris-Walz and Democrats know that Asian American voters are the margin of victory in this election – and we are working to earn every single vote. The choice for Asian American communities could not be clearer:," says Andrew Peng, AANHPI spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign. "While Donald Trump incites anti-Asian hate, vilifies immigrant communities, and attacks our freedoms, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will chart a new way forward to advance opportunity, dignity, and safety for the American people."
“Asian American and Pacific Islander voters are poised to play a pivotal role in this election,” says Ramakrishnan. “Instead of speculating about how AAPI voters and volunteers are reacting to the Harris, Walz, and Vance candidacies, we have nationally representative, in-language survey data to inform news coverage and public understanding.”
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