Both the Republican and Democrat Parties and their partisans have been making moves to encourage Asian American to vote their way in the coming mid-term elections. The Republican Party has reportedly invested millions in courting non-white voters, including Asian Americans through outreach centers in places such as Georgia. The Asian American Power Network has dedicated $10 million toward turning out Asian American voters.
Some numbers released by Democratic pollster Tom Bonier shows that about 44% of new voters are registering with the Democratic compared to around 16% voters with the republican party. 35% registered as unaffliated. Of course, these numbers count only newly registered voters, and once registered, they could vote either way. Still, the large unaffiliated numbers leaves plenty of leeway for Republicans to get votes even if these newly registered voters stick to their party affiliation.
I think that the Republicans sense an opening as Asian American voters have been active against a number of progressive officials and causes. San Francisco’s recall of school board members and city district attorney Chesa Bouldin were largely driven by Asian American voters. According to an Asian American voter survey, some Asian American ethnic groups, such as Vietnamese Americans, already have a majority that prefers to vote Republican.
Then again, these efforts for both party may fall very short. The same survey mentioned above shows that the majority of Asian American voters have never been contacted by anyone from any political party.
(photo credit: DonkeyHotey under Creative Commons 2.0 license)
