Vice President Kamala Harris is significantly ahead of former President Donald Trump among Asian Americans, according to a poll earlier this month.
The poll found that 66% of Asian American voters plan to support Harris, while 28% say they will vote for Trump. When he was still in the race, President Joe Biden was losing Asian American voters by nearly 8 points compared to the 2020 presidential election cycle. previous request showed. But experts say Harris has more than reversed that decline.
“People have seen all the Zoom meetings for Harris for different Asian American groups, is that really coming out in terms of support? … The answer is yes,” said Karthik Ramakrishnan, who commissioned the AAPI Data survey with the Asian and Pacific Islander American Poll, a nonprofit organization. “Harris, Biden’s recovered much of the support he had experienced.”
Ramakrishan explained that the “energy and vitality” Harris brings to the election cycle is likely to make a big difference for the racial group.
“Biden’s disapproval and approval ratings have gone down a bit because they’ve seen another four years of a president who doesn’t seem up to the job,” Ramakrishnan said. “They see something very different than Harris.”
A poll released Tuesday found that while Harris’ race weighed heavily this election cycle, Asian American voters said her identity as a woman was more important. Thirty-eight percent of Asian American voters said their gender identity was “extremely” or “very” important to them. By comparison, 27% said the same about their racial identity as Indian or South Asian American.
Ramakrishnan said Harris’s outspokenness on reproductive rights, particularly Roe v. After the 2022 Dobbs decision that struck down federal abortion rights supported by Wade, it “made a difference” in giving more weight to her gender identity. But there is another powerful component for many women voters.
Ramakrishnan compared Harris’ historic run to Hillary Clinton’s, saying, “There are a lot of factors that motivate women in 2016 in terms of personally facing obstacles in the workplace.” “The feeling of having a woman as president like ‘Best CEO in America’ can be an inspiration.”
The Asian American voting population According to the Pew Research Center, it has grown 15% over the past four years, making them the fastest-growing electorate in the United States. This demographic places jobs and the economy as top priorities, with inflation and health care a close second. previous request.
A new poll was conducted earlier this month by the National Opinion Research Center in English and several Asian languages. It featured 1,105 Asian American registered voter respondents and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.
Before Harris entered the race, 46% of Asian American voters He said they would choose Biden. Fewer than 54% said they planned to 2020 election. During that period, less than a third said they would vote for Trump.
The survey showed that Harris’ overall favorability also increased. 62 percent of the participants said they have a positive opinion about the vice president, and 35 percent have a negative opinion. that’s it 18 percentage points Up from where it polled in the previous survey conducted in April and May. Ramakrishnan noted that the results show that Harris is doing better as the front-runner than Biden’s opponent.
Meanwhile, 28% of Asian American voters have a favorable opinion of Donald Trump, down slightly from the previous poll.
Looking at his fellow candidates, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has a favorable rating among 56% of Asian American voters, more than double the percentage of Republican Sen. JDVans.
The survey showed that turnout may also increase. Seventy-seven percent of Asian Americans say they are “absolutely sure” they will vote now, compared to 68 percent who said the same in April and May.
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