Asian-American voters, once Republican, are turning Democrat
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Binh Ly, 26, talked about his, and his family’s, political beliefs at the family home in Woodbridge, Va. on Oct. 20. Vietnamese and other Asian-Americans have shifted from being majority Republican supporters to overwhelmingly Democrat.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kim Ha-Ly, 67, with her Buddhist shrine behind her, talked about her political beliefs in her Woodbridge, Va., home on Oct. 20. Vietnamese and other Asian-Americans have shifted from being majority Republican supporters to overwhelmingly Democrat.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. » At a shopping plaza in the Washington suburbs, the flag of the long-defunct South Vietnam flies beside the Stars and Stripes. Former refugees who congregate there hold fast to their roots, but their political allegiances are changing.
Though they are regarded as the most conservative of Asian-American voters, the Vietnamese are increasingly shifting their support to Democrats. That reflects a broader shift among Asian-Americans from being majority Republican supporters to overwhelmingly Democrat. Donald Trump’s polarizing rhetoric on issues like immigration could accelerate the trend.
That shift could have an effect on the presidential race. Though Asian-Americans represent only about 4 percent of the electorate and tend to have low turnout, they are a potentially significant bloc in battleground states like Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Asian-Americans comprise an array of ethnic nationalities: Chinese, Indians, Filipinos, Koreans, Japanese and others. Most of the Vietnamese arrived after the communist takeover of their homeland in 1975 and have settled mainly in California and Texas. But there’s a significant number in Fairfax County — a district in northern Virginia where nearly one-fifth of the population is of Asian origin.
At the Eden Center, a plaza of Vietnamese shops and restaurants, seniors who once supported the Republican Party for being strong on national security and fighting communism are increasingly leaning Democrat — as their more progressive children who were born in America tend to do.
Former teacher Kim-Ha Ly, 67, recounted that when she migrated to the U.S. in the early 1990s, she voted Republican like her husband who had arrived as a refugee one decade earlier. But she changed to the Democrats because she said that party was more in tune with the priorities of immigrants. In this election, she is volunteering for a group called Vietnamese-American Women for Hillary.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
“If we vote Democrat we can build a fairer and better country,” she said.
Her husband, Xuan Ly, 72, an electrical engineer who was interned in a camp after the communist takeover and later fled the country by boat, is now Democrat too. As the couple watched a non-partisan voter registration event in the plaza’s parking lot, where activists were urging fellow Asian-Americans to become politically engaged, Xuan spoke dismissively of Trump’s “bad behavior” and lack of government experience.
There’s still a diversity of political outlook among Asian-Americans, with Vietnamese, Chinese and Filipinos, for example, viewed as more conservative than Indians and Koreans. But Karthick Ramakrishnan, director of the National Asian American Survey, said that Asian-Americans, broadly speaking, back a liberal agenda supporting more social spending and universal health care.
Taeku Lee, a professor of political science and law at University of California, said there has been a change over time from Vietnamese viewing politics through “a post-Cold war lens” where strength in foreign policy was especially important to focusing more on domestic issues like education and health care. That makes them more likely to vote Democratic, even if they don’t have a strong allegiance to the party.
Today, Asian-Americans are often perceived as high achievers, but language and cultural barriers persist. In the 2012 election, turnout by Asian-American voters was just 47 percent — 17 percentage points less than the turnout among non-Hispanic white voters, according to a Census Bureau survey.
Still, it is one of the fastest-growing segments of the electorate.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is running multi-lingual phone banks and sending volunteers from neighboring states to help out in battlegrounds like Nevada and Pennsylvania. The Clinton website carries campaign material in 11 Asian languages: Cambodian, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Urdu and Vietnamese.
The Republican party has also stepped up outreach to Asian-Americans to reverse a generation of Democratic gains. When Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992 he won just 31 percent of the Asian vote. When President Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012, he won 73 percent.
“I’m a big believer that the core beliefs of a lot of Asian-American communities are similar to the Republican Party’s core principals,” said Jason Chung, who leads the Republican outreach effort and cited as evidence an even split between the parties for the Asian vote in 2014 congressional elections.
Trump’s hard line on immigration is likely to be a significant turn-off to that same constituency, as could allegations of inappropriate conduct toward women.
Staunch Republican voter Hong Nguyen, 66, a former service member of the South Vietnam air force, is undeterred. He’s backing Trump to be strong on defense, immigration and the economy. He said the groping allegations against Trump won’t alter that.
“It happened a long time ago,” Nguyen said. “Why did these women wait 10, 15 years to talk?”
77 responses to “Asian-American voters, once Republican, are turning Democrat”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
How could they vote for Corrupt lying Hillary Clinton is beyond me.
and I could surmise that they “vote” for their gain in lieu of a corrupt power leader.
Liberal Icon Michael Moore Finally Exposes Donald Trump; What Michael Moore has to say about Donald Trump:
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/10/25/goes-viral-trump-will-win-michael-moore-leaves-internet-dazed-confused-fire-404653
if this link isn’t active – you must cut and paste the entire string (from http to 404653) in your browser
liar liar pants on fire. lol
Everyone knows he is firmly behind sweet Hillary.
Hellary’s pants must be on fire.
hiLIARy’s pants on fire would be equivalent to the HINDENBURGH!
Yes, more welfare and free everything. Remeber refuges get it free. That is what will happen when she get in with syrians. More them and less for us. Maybe more for the foundation?
What the heck are you talking about? Compared to ALL other demographic groups, Asians are the highest educated, have the highest per capita income and the lowest, on a per capita basis, enrolled in either state or federal welfare programs!
You need to get back to that trailer park and see if Meemaw, will let you finish middle school.
This story is a total crock. Fabricated by the left-wing media. Total bs.
Peanut, this was derived from Pew. It’s not a political enitity. I can only imagine your name is an ode to the size of your brain.
How could they not? Hillary or vote for a corrupt, ignorant, bankrupt clown? Choice should be obvious!
Peter Thiel defends Donald Trump, saying we should stop taking the GOP nominee so literally…http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/30/politics/poll-clinton-trump-florida-north-carolina/index.html
The raw power of the position is literal, the profound obligations of the office are literal, the responsibilities we hold in the free world are literal–but somehow, we should not take him literally??
Absolutely asinine….
So vote for Hillary or vote for Hillary? Well I guess she’s not bankrupt given all the money she and Bill have taken in their pay for play schemes.
Funny you calling Trump ignorant.
We all have to vote for Hillary. She has never been indicted, much less convicted of any crime. Meanwhile, Trump is being sued left and right by exploited workers and victimized women. No room for a racist like Trump in Hawaii. And yes, intelligent Asians are leaving the horrible Republican Party.
“”She has never been indicted, much less convicted of any crime.””
OJ SImpson was acquitted of double murder. Anyone really think he was innocent
“”Trump is being sued left and right by exploited workers and victimized women””
Has Trump been convicted of any crime?
Well, in November he will be on trial for fraud, and in December he will be on trial for rape of a 13 year old girl. With witnesses. But before that hopefully his treasonous association with the Russian government and Russian media will see justice served. How any rational Republican, or anyone really, could even consider this unfit ignorant narcissist with the attention span of a Zika mosquito for the highest office of the United States government is beyond me. He will sell your useful idiot butt out 8:00 day one should he have a chance. Fortunately, most American voters are bright enough to know a con man when they see one ad will vote accordingly. Comrade.
hahahahahahahah, OMG!
Hey Allie…I’m just curious to your thoughts on the matter. Would it be okay if I’m fed the actual test questions to my final exam at UH about a week before I take the exam?
You have to be totally biased to not believe or at least have suspicions about Hillary’s honesty. Yes, she hasn’t been indicted, yet. On the other hand there is absolutely clear evidence that she’s lied, lied, lied on just about everything. How do you account for going from being broke to being worth $100M in just eight years after leaving the White House? Nobody makes that kind of money giving speeches. I dislike Trump but let’s at least be open to Hillary’s faults.
Agree, poor Hillary did claim they were flat broke. Yet as you state even hedge fund managers have a hard time stashing closer $200 million net worth. Check their real estate holdings. One doesn’t need 3 manors, 2 homes maybe?
Because they don’t want to vote for white supremacist Trump.
Interestingly, in my own experience, with friends and family, I find that filipinos and viet, especially tend to go repub, for no logical, arguable reason, as if they think that because they are poor or middle class, just by aligning with repubs, they can be as wealthy as some of these evil, rotten (R) folks. This was a issue in our family from the ‘dubya’ daze… As if, aligning with wealthy, ignorant people, like George W, will make them become rich as well…
Hawaii apparently didn’t have much weight in the data. Locally, we have only a couple of R’s. I personally don’t like Sam Slom, but I’m really concerned about Stanley Chang. How does someone that young have an address in such a wealthy neighborhood. His only job was working as an intern for a law firm for a short time before being elected to the City Council. I heard he lives with his PARENTS! Shouldn’t a law maker know how to live on their own before they write laws that affect our lives? I personally feel that in any line of work life experience matters. If you don’t do your own laundry, make your own meals, buy your own car, pay your own rent, what do you know about real life???
Both of Chang’s parents are rich and influential union bosses that helped to get his son a Harvard law degree after a private school education (either Punahou or Iolani) then a seat on the City Council as an automatic YES vote for all rail measures. Chang and his parents reward was that he got union backing and money for his run for Congress but that failed. His parents fallback strategy was for him to volunteer at Earth Justice and run for Stste legislature to oust Slom, the last Repub in the State senate and further solidify union influence in thr State legislature. You are probably right Chang has not worked a day in his life that has required him to pay for outstanding student loans, massive mortgage,..It appear he has had advisors that has helped him with public speaking and messaging to be more presentable as a political candidate. When he boasts about how he has visited over 10,000 homes I believe him as without having to take a real job to earn income to survive living in Hawaii, he has the time to pursue such a political feat of spending countless hours going from home to home to try to get people to know him and his name. I am not a fan of Slom who is RINO who aligns himself with Aiona and the rest of the Repub religious fanatics. Wouldn’t choose either one of them so voters need to make up their own minds. Of course Chang’s parents will never give up on their son to maybe one day be a congressman, Mayor of Honolulu or Governor of Hawaii after hopefully spending a few years as a state legislature like Ige.
Apparently these Asians are smart enough to know that the political propaganda put forth by dishonest Republicans is meaningless, made up to gain control over the undereducated.
They’re also smart enough to see that Trump and his followers want to send this country back to a time when people of color knew their place in society, at the back of the bus. Make America Pre-Civil Rights Again!
Asian Republicans? This is a joke right? Not in Hawaii. Asians are sheeps. They only believe what their parents tell them. Believing in that the Democrats are for the poor and middle class. HA! Democrats are only for themselves! They use that belief to promote their party but once they’re in office, they only represent what the unions want. Asians has always been Democrats in Hawaii.
No it just shows that republicans are not friends to minorities. There are reasons why Asians are members of the democratic party. I suggest you review history a bit.
Sadly republicans have only gotten worse. Today they are the party of racists and big government. No thanks.
I actually agree on one of your points. I believe Republicans have not been good to minorities. However, I also believe the Democratic party is also racist and for even bigger government. Now with our ability to see their emails, it’s obvious that the Democratic party has been cleaver about making it appear that they support minorities but in fact they are just as racist as the Republicans.
Excuse me bootie. Check out Obama and see kf he is not doing what you say the rebup are doing. And your zweet hillary will do the same
From http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=f000245
FONG, Hiram Leong, (1906 – 2004)
Senate Years of Service: 1959-1977
Party: Republican elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1959 upon the admission of Hawaii as a State; reelected in 1964 and again in 1970 and served from August 21, 1959, to January 3, 1977;
I think you said it all right there.
No, this has nothing to do with Hawaii demographics/politics. In recent history (since around the 1950s) asians (remember, in census data the sub-groups were not broken out individually) had been very strongly republican voters in the mainland U.S.
agree
Headlines are a bit strange. Living in Hawaii most of my life, I have seen that it was the Asian Americans who shifted Hawaii to the democratic party.
For once I have to agree
Hawaii was controlled in every way by the Big Five. This resulted in a caste system based on race, with the dominant Republican whites on top. The G.I. Bill allowed the Japanese American G.I.’s returning from the war to go to college. They helped to win the war but returned home to the same discrimination. With the leadership of John Burns the Democratic Party won the majority in the Territorial legislator for the first time in 1954. You pine for the “good old days?” Not me. I was here and remember it well.
Umm..not quite. Hawaiians voted Republican in huge majorities for the first half of the 20th century. Many still do. The Big 5 myth was really created by the unions. The real political history is much more complicated.
Big Five a myth? Maybe you should speak with Drs. Ogawa and Okamoto and read Gavin Daws’ Shoal of Time. Besides, I lived through it so don’t try to sanitize an important part of Hawaiian history to relieve your guilt.
Go help your tribe at the Pipeline in ND.
Allie, you came from the mainland a short while ago, trying to be an expert on this matter like many others is not your strong point given it’s false. Please put down the pizza and go hit the books some more. Your history of HI is severely flawed. If you have proof otherwise, please post your sources.
Actually I agree with Tanuki. It was the Big Five and the Republicans who initially controlled and took advantage of all minorities. What Tanuki doesn’t state is that after the Democrats took over, many in the newly powerful party vowed to do exactly what the Republicans did to them. Effectively, they then became the new evil powerful empire, which they remain today.
What? As a twenty something female from North Dakota attending UH and working part time in Waikiki slinging pizza, I am going go with the old timer who has lived through that era and believe the Big Five was not a myth and a time of bad racial descrimation that included the internment of AJA’s during WW2. Also realize Inouye played a major role in shifting the balance of power. Balance is the key and when things are out of whack with current total domination of union control in Hawaii that is just as bad as during the time of Big Five control in Hawaii with those in power having a Trump mentality.
Guys, this article is not about the Hawaii demographic. It has nothing to do with Hawaii. The data refer exclusively to mainland voters of various “asian” descent. Hawaii was different to the point of being unique in the decade leading to statehood.
IRT CelloDad, the article relates to Americans of Asian ancestry in the United States. The polls data source is normally: White 75%, Black 12%, Hispanic 5%, and Asian 2%. The 2% American’s of Asian ancestry has leaned Republican and continue to remain the same. During my term with the GOP Party, met many Asian Republican, and continue to communicate with them. Orange County in CA has a very active GOP Asian group, similar to the Texas Eastern Coastline. 2% of the National registered voters is a number equivalent to Americans who volunteer and serve in the military.
The correct numbers are 5.6% of the population and 3.8% of voters identify as being of Asian descent.
More than half of those voters identify as Democrats.
Facts matter.
Klastri, 5.6% Americans of Pacific Asian ancestry, total. Voting age Americans of Asian ancestry 2% of the 3.8% American of Pacific Asian ancestry. From the 2%, 58% identify as Republican.
Hillary deserves what every other American would get for what she did. Fines and jail. No one else would get off without any charges for even just 1 classified message. As Secretary of State, she was probably a Classification Origination Authority and signed Non-Disclosure Agreement. She had training, should have known, and violated every rule due to her arrogance. Put her in JAIL.
Remember the show “Fear Factor” ? Well this is what AP is doing “Fear Tactics”!. Yes The Asian population is HUGE,but I don’t think they are that ignorant to vote for Hillary ,especially with the recent FBI investigating Huma Abedin’s Lap Top Computer. Now They find “650K emails on her Computer?? And DNC’s Ms Brazille “Rigging” the town hall debates with CNN,by feeding the debate questions to Hillary before the debates? Naughty , naughty! Haaaaaaaaaaaa!
This recent FBI investigation is extremely damaging and will only put the “Icing ” on Donald Trump’s Cake,& ultimately will cost her the election! Why isn’t SA reporting this story,about the 650 emails and the warrant the FBI issued for HUMA?
Yep I don’t think Asians are that “ignorant” in fact they are pretty Smart! “Believe Me ” I know!
Off Grid. Polls: Donald Trump. UP 4
Where is the coverage about the new emails regarding the lying lady and her top aide’s criminal investigation. Yes this is the reopening of the criminal investigation. All of a sudden no more articles and pictures of this lying lady.
They place many Japanese Americans in “Internment Camps” during World War II … That’s the kind of talk that comes form Donald Trumps mouth … Trump should never be the president of ANYTHING!!!
Asians vote DEMOCRTE in all races up for Election!
When Trump was asked whether or not if it was wrong for the US government to intern Japanese Americans during WW2 because of their race alone, Trump said he didn’t know he had to be there and review the information first before making a decision.
Get your facts straight Inverse! That’s not what Trump said at all, he said that he thought the internment of Japanese Americans was the right decision at the time.
how can Asians support a bigot, a tax cheat, a sexual predator, a dufus and a pathological liar with serious mental problems? trumpy wants to make America white again, Asians are not white so they will be left out if he becomes president.
Exact description of the Clinton’s, Bill & Hillary. Hey, tomorrow there will be a press conference at the Washington DC Press Bldg by Mr. Danney Williams (Clinton) the hapa son of Gov./Pres. Bill Clinton. It will be interesting. And, we all wait for the news from the FBI on the 650,000 emails from Weiners computer.
With all of the corruption and lying that she has done, this is a sad state of where “Asian Americans” stand or at least view the country. Too often people play political parties, but mature voters need to look beyond party and see the corruption that has infected our politics for far too long.
This article doesn’t address the leanings of Hawaii’s late-Territorial days and most of Statehood. Chinese citizens of Hawaii tended to vote Republican while Japanese leaned Dem.
Not only did they vote along party lines, they campaigned. We elected members of both groups to Congress from the earliest days (Hiram Fong; Dan Inouye).
I feel these party preferences have faded in the 21st century, but they were pretty obvious back in those days.
After the plantations segregated the worker camps along racial lines and pay was based on race, after the Territory tried to abolish Japanese language schools as “unAmerican”, after General John DeWitt said “A Jap is a Jap and cannot be trusted,” after the president of the University of Hawaii, David Crawford tells Asians to not look to education to improve their lives because their place is working in the fields, after Japanese are imprisoned just because they are Japanese, some of you now say that voting along Democratic Party (not racial) lines and against the Big Five controlled Republican party was racist? Give me a break. Now let’s talk about today. Asians simply don’t like Trump because his crude behavior contradicts basic Asian values much more than Clinton. He epitomizes the Ugly American.
Vote for Trump.
Interesting… I was once a Democrat and now I’m a True-Blue Republican.
Donald may not be the “best” choice… but he’s much better than Bill Clinton’s wife.
Ole Bill wants to in charge of young, female, impressionable, interns.
Obama want’s us to end up like his adopted and dearly cherished hometown, Chicago! Chicago has the most murders of any city in the country!
What do the following 4 highest murder rate cities in the entire US have in common?
1. Chicago
2. Detroit
3. Washington, D.C
4. Baltimore, Maryland
They are all 100% “D” run cities cities with 3rd world country communist mindset voters that keep electing S_T_U_P_I_D time and time again. So, if in fact, the Vietnamese are increasingly shifting their support to Democrats then it only proves my point that ex-communist Vietnamese still miss their old Communist style policies like back home in Vietnam which happens to be Communist to this very day and chose to turn our country into a socialist/communist welfare state to bankrupt the hard working middle class.
Not so for Filipino Americans. Especially that labor class….non-college Filipinos. They love them some Trump.
Asian Americans or recent immigrant Asians? If you are a recent immigrant you would understandably be influenced by the left leaning propaganda from the biased media that the GOP is anti immigrant. When Asian Americans think hard about who impacted them the most, you find it was a Democrat President FDR who interned them illegally, based on race, and not a Republican. This was executive order 9066 by Democrat President FDR which authorized the immediate internment and deportation of anybody of Japanese ancestry. Really a bad mark in American history, all brought about by a corrupt Democrat Party action.
another campaign blurb for the dems. haven’t shifted
I hope that folks are not presuming that Asian American will vote for candidates just because they have a (D) after their name. Personally, as an Asian American, initially I supported the Democratic Party which stood on a rather moderate platform. As years went by, I realized that partisan politics of the Party overshadowed objectivity and it you did conform you were ostracized…just like being in high school! I then supported the Republican Party as a conservative which was more to my liking. However, with the internal politics of Republican party I figured I would simply vote as an “independent conservative”. Not a member of the Independent Party but as an “independent voter”. I’ve already voted in the General Election and I voted across party lines for who I thought was best. So…just because you’re a Democrat or Republican you can either party…I hope most know this…just saying 🙂
The Republican Party cannot grasp the fact that the United States is less white every day. Republicans peddle their nonsense to poorly educated whites (just read comments here to gauge the education level) but as their percentage of the electorate drops, the less likely it is that Republicans will remain in power.
Good riddance to them.
And may I add the fact that the White voters elected a BLACK president over WHITE HitLIARy the last time she ran. Where is your racism now, you racist?
I’m sorry you are so slow that you think this way. This is sad, even by your pathetic standard.
Mrs. Clinton is going to win the election. Get used to it.
Same to you
Why are you so nasty? From my vantage point, you alienate more people every time you post.I’m beginning to believe you’re a paid blogger, because it appears you don’t have a life besides posts on this side. That, is pathetic, Dr. Klastri. Can’t wait to hear another medical diagnosis over the net. You’re pretty good at that.
Sure, Klastri, get rid of all parties but Democrat. That’s worked well for Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, etc. Any other bright ideas?
there’s the lie again, Donald trump has said nothing rhetoric about immigration its about illegal immigration can’t you press people get it right what’s the difference between immigration and illegal immigration he wants to stop the illegal’s coming into this country if these Asian people want to turn traitor and vote for Hillary be my guess.
One of Trump’s huuuge promises is to implement “extreme vetting” for all immigrants.
He’s going to vet immigrants like he did with his Trump University “professors,” a bunch of bankrupt felons. In other words, he’s going to let a bunch of rapists, murderers, and terrorists into this country.
64hoo, don’t believe Donald’s thoughtless, meaningless promises. NEVER TRUMP! 😀
wrong mm stop spinning your phony lies its Hillary and nerobama who wants to bring in those terrorist, they already are bringing in those Syrian refugees, trump wants more vetting and background checks to make sure they did not come from terrorist countries get your facts straight.
These women are talking because they are paid to lie.
Credible article? Strange . . . . . I was once a democrat who’s morphed into a republican. How can anyone support a blatant liar such as Hillary?