Asian-Americans turned out in unprecedented numbers to vote in last year’s presidential election, with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton winning every segment of their vote, according to the 2016 National Asian American Survey.
The survey found, however, that some political differences are beginning to emerge. The Indian-American vote — including the Hindu-American vote— was overwhelmingly in favor of Clinton over Republican Donald Trump, the survey found, debunking the contention by Trump campaign surrogate and fund-raiser Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar that Hindu-Americans had voted in droves for him.
The survey was designed by a team of four researchers led by Karthick Ramakrishnan, professor of political science and associate dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of California at Riverside.
Ramakrishnan said Indian-Americans had voted for Clinton by an even greater percentage than the rest of the Asian-American community vote for Clinton — by 77 percent to 69 percent — and Bangladeshi and Pakistani voters also showed stronger support for Clinton at the polls.
“Looks like Clinton retained support among Indians and Kumar’s efforts to woo Republican support was not very effective,” he said. He said Kumar’s efforts, including a rally in Edison, New Jersey, “had no measurable impact” in convincing the majority of Indian-Americans to vote for Trump.
However, Trump made gains among Chinese-American voters, he said. The report found that in 2016, Asian-Americans posted record gains in their voting with more than 1.1 million new voters.
By comparison, in the three prior presidential cycles, the average increase was about 620,000 new voters per presidential cycle, with the largest prior increase of 723,000 voters occurring in 2004.
Other key findings: When compared to the 2012 Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Post-Election Study, Clinton did about as well as Obama did among Asian-American voters and won every segment of the Asian-American vote.
For the first time, the NAAS surveyed Bangladeshi and Pakistani American voters, and “these groups show among the strongest levels of Democratic party identification and strongest support for Clinton over Trump.”
Despite record gains in voters, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders were less likely than whites or blacks to be contacted by political parties. The most serious problems facing Asian-Americans include the affordability of college, health care, and elder care Asian-Americans are progressive on various aspects of economic policy, but are more split when it comes to policies relating to undocumented immigrants.
The survey was founded in 2008, and repeated in 2012 and 2016. It describes itself as “a scientific and nonpartisan effort to poll the opinions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, and is the only nationally representative academic survey of the political and social attitudes of this population.”
The methodology used was landline and cellphone calls, surveying 4,393 Asian-Americans and comparison samples of Pacific Islanders, whites, Latinos, and blacks conducted between Nov. 10, 2016 and March 2, 2017.
The researchers also pointed out that this 2016 Post-Election NAAS was also distinctive from other surveys in the following ways: 1) Unlike the National Exit Polls, which were conducted only in English and Spanish, the 2016 NAAS was conducted in the same languages, plus 11 Asian languages — Bangla, Cambodian, Cantonese, Hindi, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Urdu. The 2016 NAAS found higher support for Clinton among English-language respondents (74 percent) than among Asian-language respondents (61 percent).
2) Unlike the National Exit Poll, which is designed to be representative of the overall electorate, but not necessarily of smaller minority populations, the 2016 NAAS was designed to be nationally representative, with Asian respondents from 48 states and the District of Columbia. The 2016 NAAS found higher support for Clinton among English-language respondents (74 percent) than what the National Exit Poll found with respect to their English-language respondents (65 percent).
3) Unlike the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) exit poll of Asian-Americans, which was conducted in high-density precincts with significant Asian-American populations, the 2016 NAAS included respondents from suburban areas as well as central cities. While the 2016 AALDEF exit poll found that 79 percent of their respondents voted for Clinton, by contrast, the 2016 NAAS found that 69 percent of Asian-Americans voted for Clinton. The full survey can be found at http://www.naasurvey.com/
