NEW YORK—Asian-Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the country. But despite the fact that 9.3 million Asian-Americans are eligible to vote—about a 1.3 million increase compared to 2012, according to Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)—the group is receiving little attention from the presidential candidates.
Advocacy groups say that the group is not only largely ignored, but that Asian-Americans also face challenges at polling places including discrimination and language barriers.
However, the dynamic of the 2016 race, and concerns over anti-immigration rhetoric, is making more Asian-Americans motivated to vote this year, says James Hong, interim executive director at the MinKwon Center for Community Action in New York City.
“They don’t feel welcome as a result of what has happened in this election cycle,” said Hong.
In an Asian-American voter survey conducted by AAJC last spring, over half of the Asian-Americans polled were “more enthusiastic” about voting in this election compared to previous elections (51 percent).
Leaning Democrat
A majority of Asian-Americans of Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino background are registered as democratic, while those with Chinese and Vietnamese backgrounds are primarily registered as independent or undecided, according to AAJC data.
The top five issues that Asian-Americans care about are education, health care, terror attacks, jobs and the economy, and retirement security.
