Asian-American Voters Pivot Toward the Democrats - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON ? The fastest-growing demographic group in America is highly educated, relatively affluent and, politically speaking, increasingly Democratic.

That group is Asian-Americans, who comprised 3 percent of this year?s electorate, a share that will keep growing. As I write in my latest Letter from Washington, President Barack Obama won 80 percent of the nonwhite vote and Asian-Americans voted almost three to one for Mr. Obama, according to exit polls.

Yet unlike African-Americans or Latinos, Asian-Americans are more highly educated than whites ? half have at least bachelor degrees ? and more affluent.

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Why then did they vote for the more liberal party?

James Lai, an associate professor of political science at Santa Clara University, offers
several explanations for this trend toward the Democrats in recent presidential contests.

Although polls show that immigration isn?t a top concern for Asian-Americans, Mr. Lai believes it may be a threshold test: Candidates who are seen as anti-immigration are disqualified from their consideration. In 2010, Asian-Americans accounted for more than a third of all new immigrants to the United States.

Mr. Lai suspects that Mitt Romney?s anti-China rhetoric may have affected some Chinese-Americans, who are the single largest bloc of Asian voters, followed closely by Filipinos.

Many, he believes, identify more with the values of fairness and opportunity articulated by Mr. Obama in the election. ?Most Asian-Americans identify with the middle class,? said Mr. Lai, who has written a book on Asian-Americans and politics.

He also said it was a mistake to stereotype Asian-Americans ? who come from at least 25 different ethnicities ? as a monolithic group.

Asian-American voters and their political influence are also spreading, no longer concentrated on the West Coast. States like Virginia, North Carolina and Florida have growing populations that are flexing their political muscles.

Source: http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/asian-american-voters-pivot-toward-the-democrats/

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