Marlon Meyer
Northwest Asia Weekly
Brad Jenkins, President and CEO, AAPI Victory Fund
According to a recent poll commissioned by the AAPI Victory Fund, today the AAPI community is highly engaged in voting.
Four in five, or a whopping 90 percent, are “very or very motivated to vote,” according to the poll released on October 17.
Not only that, but their voter turnout in the Nov. 8 election will significantly exceed the already high turnout levels during the 2020 election, even though many of the factors that contributed to the backlash are now missing.
Furthermore, the problems of motivating AAPI voters are astonishing and numerous, with different priorities for different racial groups.
According to Brad Jenkins, president and CEO of the AAPI Victory Fund, the poll, conducted by Garin-Hart-Yang Research, is one of the first attempts to address differences among the many communities widely considered to be part of the AAPI camp.
shifting priorities
Find among the average AAPI voter that while the Trump White House’s bigoted rhetoric and anti-Asian hate crimes have motivated voters in the past, today’s voters are primarily concerned with financial security.
“most [AAPI] The survey shows that issues affecting the cost of living are the most motivating to voters. “
AAPI voters also generally believe that many of the Biden administration’s moves will increase economic well-being. These include expanded access to health care, guaranteed social security, paid sick and family leave, and universal child and elderly care.
Still, a key takeaway from the polls is the key role that young AAPI voters will play, Jenkins said.
Take voter turnout for example. More people from the AAPI community are voting during the pandemic, in part because of the increase in mail-in ballots, extensions offered, and other mitigations.
More than half (53%) of AAPI voters now plan to vote in person.
But for young voters aged 18-34, that number rises to 60%.
Even on issues traditionally seen as primarily involving older voters, such as drug pricing reform, large numbers of younger AAPI voters support such moves, such as capping monthly insulin costs or allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug companies.
Those aged 18-34 supported these initiatives at 79%, while those aged 50-64 were actually slightly less enthusiastic, with 73% supporting these policies.
Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings also reflect the power of younger generations, who tend to be more politically active, and which make up a large portion of AAPI voters’ calculations.
Gun control is now the third most important issue. Second is a broad commitment to candidates who support abortion rights — 69 percent prefer them, while only 18 percent support a nationwide ban on abortion.
Likewise, most AAPI voters oppose any GOP plan to ban books from school libraries.
About three-quarters, or 75 percent, agreed with the statement that they want to give their children “an honest and accurate education so that they are prepared for success in a diverse society.”
Still, Democratic candidates don’t have complete control over AAPI voters.
In fact, while the community has traditionally supported Democrats, that support has declined slightly, while support for Republican candidates has increased, however slight, at the same time.
In 2020, 56% of AAPI voters support Democrats. By 2022, this proportion drops to 51%.
As for Republicans, in 2020, 34% of AAAI voters said they would. This year, that percentage has increased to 36 percent.
AAPI voters favor the Democratic Party by a large margin in areas where the Democratic Party has traditionally prevailed, such as environmental protection, abortion and gun control.
But in areas such as immigration, the economy and the cost of living, Republicans lead by narrow margins.
voting subgroup
The AAPI Victory Fund, a political action committee for the AAPI community, was founded seven years ago by a group that included the late Norman Mineta, the first Asian-American to hold a cabinet position.
The fund, along with a handful of other advocacy groups, commissioned the poll to obtain specific data not only on AAPI preferences in general, but many subgroups across the umbrella.
The poll focused on the three battleground states of Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. But it initially found that only 15 percent of voter data in those states could be broken down into sub-racial categories.
Voter outreach varies so widely by community that the data isn’t helpful.
“If it just says someone is Asian, that doesn’t say anything,” Jenkins said. “But if it says someone is Indian-American or Filipino-American, it says a lot.”
The AAPI Victory Fund and its partners engaged Catalyst to clarify data through data modeling, including making phone calls and examining public records.
Some diverse results showed that while the AAPI community voted positively overall, the least positive were East Asians who completed the survey in their native language—a sign of language barriers.
In addition, it was found that among voters in East, Southeast and South Asia, the most consistent issues were health care and prescription drug prices.
From outside to inside
Jenkins, who ended up running Will Ferrell’s production company, before starting his own company, said he first joined Obama’s campaign as a volunteer because “I saw myself in then-Senator Obama’s story. s story.”
With a black father and a Korean-American mother, he didn’t feel accepted in either world as a child.
“I’m an outsider,” he said.
A year ago, he was invited to become the President and CEO of the AAPI Victory Fund.
For a community that until recently was largely excluded from the conversation, “voting was one of the most important things we did this year,” he said.
Mahlon can reach info@nwasianweekly.com.
