How are Presidential Candidates Appealing to AAPI Voters? Rutgers-Newark Expert Explains

In the final days before the presidential elections, when polls show candidates in a dead heat,  Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters have emerged as an important demographic, especially for the Harris campaign, which has successfully invested in winning them over. Polls show that more than half of AAPI voters support Harris, whose mother was South Asian. Diane Wong, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers-Newark and a scholar with the Sheila Y. Oliver Center for Politics and Race in America, shares her insights on voting patterns among AAPI voters and the issues that are important to them.

How are the Harris and Trump campaigns trying to appeal to AAPI voters? What campaign strategies have been successful in past elections? Which ones haven’t worked? 

The Harris campaign has been courting Asian American voters in key swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Harris campaign has spent over $90 million to air digital advertisements on outlets that cater to Asian Americans like The Filipino Channel, SBS Television Korea, and other ethnic media online platforms. The latest Harris television ad targeting Asian Americans spotlights her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher who immigrated from India at an early age. In contrast, the Trump campaign has done little to target Asian American voters, despite one of Trump senior advisors, Steven Cheung, being a Chinese American and raised by Chinese immigrant parents in Sacramento. 

What are the similarities and differences among the many communities of Asian American and Pacific Islander voters? 

A projected 15 million Asian American voters are eligible to vote in the November elections, and will play an important role in some of the battleground states. When asked about the greatest issue facing their community, Asian Americans across age cohorts overwhelmingly answered homelessness and housing affordability. In addition, Gen Z Asian American voters listed income inequality and high taxes as major issues of concern. When asked about which issues matter the most in the upcoming elections in November, Asian American voters listed a range of issues including gun control, economic growth, immigration, and poverty. Millennial and Gen Z AAPI voters also overwhelmingly listed abortion and reproductive care as an important issue. However, the Asian American electorate is incredibly diverse, and the issues that impact Southeast Asian refugee communities from Cambodian, Vietnam, and Laos will differ from the issues that impact other communities in the United States. 

How do you think Kamala Harris’s South Asian roots are influencing AAPI voters?

The August 2024 Genforward survey shows that Harris is more popular among Asian American voters, especially younger adults. For instance, 54% of Asian American Gen Z voters expressed that they would vote for Harris if the elections were being held today. Harris has worked to rally Asian American voters in swing states, and recently rolled out ads for Filipino Americans in Nevada for Filipino American History Month in September. While Harris has energized a large segment of Asian American voters, we have also seen some Asian American voters criticize the campaign for its stance on Israel. The Uncommitted campaign was initially created by Gen Z activists from Dearborn, Michigan, a city near Detroit with the highest population of Arab and Muslim Americans in the country. The campaign has announced that it will not endorse Harris for president after she declined to meet with Palestinian families in Michigan to discuss a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. 

How are AAPI voting patterns and political views related to how long voters or their parents have been citizens?

Each generation of voters are influenced by different life experiences that shape their political views and voting patterns. For example, Boomers were impacted by the Vietnam War and anti-war protests, and are a politicized group with significantly higher turnout rates. Gen Z are politically active on social media but we have yet to see their full potential as eligible voters. AAPI Gen Z voters will be a crucial part of the 40 million eligible Gen Z voters this November, accounting for nearly one fifth of the electorate.