Poll: Georgia's Asian American voters decisively cast their ballots for Warnock

Sen. Raphael Warnock

While the final talley for Georgia's US Senator seat was close by a 2% difference, Asian American voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots in favor of incumbent US Senator Raphael Warnock in the runoff election according to exit polls conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund

Asian American voters’ support for Warnock over football legend Herschel Walker in Georgia's runoff grew even stronger in the month since the Nov. 8 election and the runoff election on Dec. 6. In theNovember 8 General Election, 60.1% voted for the incumbent. For the Dec.  6 runoff, Warnock captured 78% of the Asian American vote.

“The Senate runoff in Georgia was a critical election, not just for the state but also for the entire country. Georgians have given Senate Democrats a 51 to 49 majority that will affect our national policy for the coming years. For Asian American voters in Georgia, health care and specifically abortion access proved to be a critical issue strongly influencing their vote,” said Margaret Fung, executive director of AALDEF.

AALDEF released results Thursday of its nonpartisan, multilingual survey of 337 Asian American voters.

The overwhelming support from Asian American voters may have tilted the final results in Warnock's favor. Among the give Asian American ethnicities polled, Bangladeshi, Asian Indian and Vietnamese were adamant who they preferred. South Asians are the largest Asian group in the state.

Polling was conducted at five key sites for Asian American voters in DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Voters were surveyed in English, as well as 4 Asian languages: Bengali, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

Volunteers also monitored for compliance with the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act, and to guard against anti-Asian discrimination and intimidation.

AALDEF attorneys and volunteers observed several problems on election day, such as voters being redirected to different poll sites, being sent to incorrect poll sites, and  voters not being provided provisional ballots.

Other results of the exit poll included:

The five largest Asian American national origin groups in the survey supported  Warnock:

• Bangladeshi: 96.3% Warnock, 3.7% Walker

• Asian Indian: 83.3% Warnock, 14.1% Walker

• Vietnamese: 80.0% Warnock, 20.0% Walker

• Korean: 64.8% Warnock, 35.2% Walker

• Chinese: 61.5% Warnock, 38.5% Walker

Warnock's support was strongest among all age groups. Younger voters were stronger in their support of Warnock and his support tapered off only slightly among older voters.

• Asian American voters aged 18-29 voted Warnock 92.0% and Walker 6.7%.

• Asian American voters aged 30-39 voted Warnock 87.5% and Walker 12.5%.

• Asian American voters aged 40-49 voted Warnock 84.9% and Walker 15.1%.

• Asian American voters aged 50-59 voted Warnock 66.1% and Walker 33.9%.

• Asian American voters aged 60-69 voted Warnock 71.9% and Walker 25.0%.

• Asian American voters aged 70 and over voted Warnock 37.5% and Walker 62.5%.

“Asian Americans were nearly unified in their support of Raphael Warnock for Senate and were likely the difference in this extremely close election. Unfortunately, too many Asian American voters were sent to the wrong poll site and were not given provisional ballots,” said Jerry Vattamala, director of AALDEF’s Democracy Program.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Democrats, Republicans focus in on Georgia's AAPI voters for key Senate contest

Georgia's AAPI voters will choose between Sen. Raphael Warnock, left, and Herschel Walker.

Early voting has already begun in some Georgia counties to determine who Georgians will send to the US Senate in a runoff election between Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican foe and former football player Herschel Walker.

Asian American voters could be the difference-makers in the runoff election after neither candidate was able to win the majority needed to declare victory last Nov. 8.

Asian American voters overwhelmingly voted Democrat in the 2020 Presidential election and is largely credited for providing the margin of victory and the state's electoral votes to Democrat President Biden. 

In the 2020 US Senate races, Asian Americans voted for the Democratic candidates over the Republicans by a margin of 61% to 34%, according to exit polls conducted by the Asian American Legal Education Fund.

In the 2022 campaign, Warnock garnered 49.44% of the vote to Walker's 48.49%, or difference of about 38,000votes. runoff contest, both Democrats and Republicans have focused more of their campaigns to woo this crucial demographic. The seat will determine whether the Democrats expands its thin 50-49 majority in the chamber after flipping a GOP seat in the Midterm Elections. If Warnock wins, the Democrats won't have to do the stiff negotiations with Republicans to pass Democratic policies.

Democrat State Representative Marvin Lim, the only Filipino American in elected office in Georgia, is hoping the Democratic party will do better in the days leading up to Dec. 6.

"I think for Democrats, it really hammers home the importance of meeting voters on the ground consistently, not just a month or week before an election," Lim told the Filipino American network ABS-CBN News, "and meeting on issues that they care about rather than the issues we think they should care about. I don’t think Democrats necessarily did that here."

"Senator Warnock has really been effective in actually getting things done on the issues people care about and showing that he has done that in a year and in a state where everything is swinging Republican, it’s going to be important to keep doing that leading up to the runoffs a month from now," he said.

“Our community needs to hear directly from leaders and from the candidate saying, ‘We have a real message of change that’s positive,’” Shekar Narasimhan, the founder of AAPI Victory Fund, told Politico. “And we think by doing what we’re doing and continuously doing it, we’re giving that message to them.”

Largest Asian American ethnic groups in Georgia include: Asian Indian (165,545), Korean (71,877), Chinese, except Taiwanese (71,388), Vietnamese (66,834), Filipino (46,601) and Japanese (21,078), according to APIAVote, a nonpartisan advocacy agency. All the communities, except for the Vietnamese, leaned heavily towards the Democrats.

Voting turnout among Asian Americans almost doubled in the state of Georgia from 2016 to 2020, and the number of ballots cast by Asian Americans in Georgia went up by 60,000 votes in 2020, according to the Democratic firm TargetSmart.

The deep political engagement of the AANHPI community in the political affairs of their state showed up in the Nov. 8 elections when six AANHPI first-time candidates won seats to the state's Senate and House of Representatives bringing the highest number of  AANHPI lawmakers in the state capitol, eight Democrats and two Republicans.

Republicans have learned from the 2020 election results that also gave the state two Democratic Senators, Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff.  Prior to the Nov. 8 election, Walker held a rally with the Indian American community in September ahead of Election Day.

“Republicans have been on the ground investing in Georgia’s Asian American community and earning votes all cycle,” said Nainoa Johsens, the RNC’s director of Asian Pacific American media.

Raymond Partolan, National Field Director of the Asian Pacific Islander American Vote, stressed to ABS-CBN News the important role Asian American voters might play in the the Senate race.

"In the runoff election which occurred in 2021, Raphael Warnock, who is now Senator Warnock, won the Georgia runoff by just 93,550 votes. And based on our counts, there are over 270,000 Asian American voters within the state of Georgia. So you can see Asian American voters can indeed be the margin of victory," Partolan told the Filipino American news outlet.

Both parties are bringing in money and people from around the nation to rally the Asian American electorate. Maryland Lt. Gov.-elect Aruna Miller, the first South Asian woman elected to the post, said she is planning to make calls to get Asian American voters to the polls for Warnock.

She told Politico: “Look, many South Asians left their country of origin to come to the United States to seek opportunities. But those opportunities come with being engaged civically, with coming out and voting. It doesn’t just happen overnight.”

Former President Obama is scheduled to campaign for Warnock this coming week, just before the Dec. 6 deadline.

The former US ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley told Republicans at a rally for Walker that Warnock, should be “deported.” a message that the GOP thinks rings with the majority immigrant communities of Asian Americans.

“I am the daughter of Indian immigrants,” Haley said. “They came here legally, they put in the time, they put in the price, they are offended by what’s happening on [the southern US] border.

“Legal immigrants are more patriotic than the leftists these days. They knew they worked to come into America, and they love America. They want the laws followed in America, so the only person we need to make sure we deport is Warnock.”

Her statements drew a sharp reaction from Black leaders.

Cornell William Brooks, a Harvard professor and pastor, tweeted: “Were it not for civil rights laws Black folks died for, Nikki Haley’s family might not be in America.

“Were it not for a HBCU [historically Black college and university] giving her father his first job in the US, Haley wouldn’t be in a position to insult Georgia’s first Black senator. Warnock’s history makes her story possible.”

Working against the Democrats this time around are the voting restrictions the GOP-led legislature passed in SB 202, such as the reduction of drop-off boxes, and a shorter time limit for mail-in ballots. Also, instead of the nine-weeks that was in effect in 2020 election runoff, the time between the election and runoff has been reduced to four weeks giving organizers a shorter time to organize, outreach and rally its voters.

Partolan expects money and volunteers to come pouring into Georgia right up until the Dec. 6 election day. Then, it will come down to which party has better ground game in getting their voters to the polls and withstand the long lines made longer by the reduction in places to vote, another result of SB 202.

"It’s going to be a mad scramble to get as many Asian American and Filipino American voters to go to the polling place to cast their ballots again on December 6th."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.