The Asian Vote by Ethnic Group

[Landslide Lyndon]

http://aaldef.org/press-releases/press-release/new-findings-asian-american-vote-in-2012-varied-widely-by-ethnic-group-and-geographic-location.html

 In the Presidential Election, three-quarters (77%) of Asian Americans polled voted for Barack Obama for President and 21% voted for Mitt Romney. Support for each candidate varied by ethnic group, with a high of 54% of Vietnamese Americans voting for Romney, compared to 3% of Bangladeshi Americans.

The percentage of Asian Americans who voted for Obama by ethnic group are as follows (from highest to lowest): Bangladeshi American (96%); Pakistani American (91%); Indian American (84%); Chinese American (81%); Korean American (78%); Filipino American (65%); and Vietnamese American (44%).

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

What happened to Japanese-Americans?

[Sol]

I wonder how Tibetan-Americans voted- Did they vote like Cubans and Vietnamese?

[Benj]

What happened to Japanese-Americans?

No data. There are basically 0 Japanese-Americans outside of Hawaii, and they didn't poll Hawaii.

I doubt what few Tibetans there are in the US are fond of the Republican Party--it was Nixon who acknowledged the PRC, after all. But they're too few to be reasonably polled.

[Sbane]

Vietnamese Americans swung from 67% support for McCain to 54% support for Romney. Filipinos, another group with a significant number of Republicans, went from voting 39% for McCain to 32% for Romney. Koreans and Chinese also swung fairly hard going from 35% and 26% respectively for McCain to 20% and 17% respectively for Romney. Indians actually swung towards Romney though. Only 8% of Indians voted for McCain but it went up to 14% for Romney. I suppose it happened because taxes and the economy, not war and being anti-Bush, were the big issues.

Another thing I learned is that Vietnamese shrimpers in Louisiana vote like deep south whites.

[Landslide Lyndon]

What happened to Japanese-Americans?

No data. There are basically 0 Japanese-Americans outside of Hawaii, and they didn't poll Hawaii.

Huh? How about the West Coast?

[Sbane]

This poll isn't fool proof, especially if you look at the overall numbers. I highly doubt 9% of Asian voters were Bangladeshi.

[Benj]

What happened to Japanese-Americans?

No data. There are basically 0 Japanese-Americans outside of Hawaii, and they didn't poll Hawaii.

Huh? How about the West Coast?

You do see that the third-highest bracket for that map only goes up to 1.6%, and the only county above it outside Hawaii, Santa Clara, is the 1.6% Japanese county, right?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

That's out of all Americans. Surely they make up much more than 0% of all Asian-Americans.

[Badger]

What about all the reports that Romney got massacred in predominantly Vietnamese communities on the west coast? Surely the LA shrimpers and Viet communities elsewhere can't overtake the Cali Vietnamese vote?

Makes me suspect there are serious MoE issues here.

[Benj]

What about all the reports that Romney got massacred in predominantly Vietnamese communities on the west coast? Surely the LA shrimpers and Viet communities elsewhere can't overtake the Cali Vietnamese vote?

Makes me suspect there are serious MoE issues here.

Did anyone say he got massacred? I think the point was just that he did much, much worse than McCain did in 2008, or than Republicans have done traditionally. Some Vietnamese-heavy precincts in Orange County still voted for Romney (though most didn't because the non-Vietnamese vote is mostly Hispanic in a lot of such places).

[Sbane]

What about all the reports that Romney got massacred in predominantly Vietnamese communities on the west coast? Surely the LA shrimpers and Viet communities elsewhere can't overtake the Cali Vietnamese vote?

Makes me suspect there are serious MoE issues here.

No, no massacre. More like a major swing towards Obama. Since the Vietnamese heavy OC cities like Garden Grove and Westminster also have a fairly large Hispanic population, this led to them voting for Obama (especially Garden Grove which has a tiny anglo population). It could be the case that even in 2012 Vietnamese voted for the Republicans. But nothing like the margins you saw in 2008 or before.

Also, we might be overlooking the Korean vote. I think there might have been a swing to Obama there as well. OC Koreans are fairly Republican (but still voting Democrat as a whole) as many of them moved there after the LA riots. The cities to look at there would be Fullerton and Buena Park. I will try and look at the OC SOV later tonight to see if those cities swung to Obama.

[memphis]

Do the post 1949 Chinese people vote more like the Vietnamese?

[Sbane]

Do the post 1949 Chinese people vote more like the Vietnamese?

Nope. Most Chinese people are actually post 1949. Of course California has a long history of Chinese residents, but most have immigrated in the last 30-40 years.

[Devils30]

The Vietnamese vote and the Cuban vote have striking similarities. Both gave Obama a much better percentage this time but most likely Obama won higher Vietnamese voters too. Of course the Cuban vote influences a key state whereas the Vietnamese is unlikely to make much of a difference (maybe a tiny tiny bit in Virginia outside DC).

[mileslunn]

Interestingly enough Bush Sr., Reagan, and even Bob Dole in 1996 won the Asian vote.  I also wonder if the growing number of Asians coming from the Indian subcontinent as opposed to the Far East will make it harder for the GOP to win amongst the Asian community as usually those from the Indian subcontinent tend to vote more heavily Democrat than other Asian groups.  I am originally from British Columbia where you had two parties at a provincial level (BC Liberals who despite their name were the pro-free enterprise coalition) and the NDP (who were the social democratic party).  Usually the Chinese and others from the Far East would vote massively BC Liberal whereas the South Asians would vote massively NDP.  That is why Richmond which was once a swing area is now one of the BC Liberals safest areas (large Chinese population) while the northern parts of Surrey are now one of the most heavily NDP areas (large East Indian community).  Still interesting how badly the GOP has fallen here as Bob Dole got 48% of the Asian vote in 1996 while Romney only got 27%.  As much as people talk about ending the racial divisions, it seems they have widened in voting patterns as Romney had one of the worst GOP showings amongst minorities in quite a while whereas Obama despite winning did worse than Kerry and Gore and around the same as Dukakis amongst whites.

[Sbane]

What professions are Indians in British Columbia associated with?

[SPC]

The Vietnamese vote and the Cuban vote have striking similarities. Both gave Obama a much better percentage this time but most likely Obama won higher Vietnamese voters too.

I didn't think Washington or Colorado had substantial Vietnamese populations.

[mileslunn]

What professions are Indians in British Columbia associated with?

Their mixed, but many are blue collar workers.  You also have several in the service industry and some professionals too.

[Sbane]

What professions are Indians in British Columbia associated with?

Their mixed, but many are blue collar workers.  You also have several in the service industry and some professionals too.

I get the feeling that Indians in Canada are more blue collar than the US which would impact their voting habits, no? I think a lot of Indians in the US would feel more comfortable with the Liberals than NDP. Of course, I doubt many would vote for the Conservative party, which means not many will vote for the Republicans who are even more conservative than the Canadian party. Though didn't the Conservatives do well with Asians last time around? Or was that just the Chinese?

[mileslunn]

What professions are Indians in British Columbia associated with?

Their mixed, but many are blue collar workers.  You also have several in the service industry and some professionals too.

I get the feeling that Indians in Canada are more blue collar than the US which would impact their voting habits, no? I think a lot of Indians in the US would feel more comfortable with the Liberals than NDP. Of course, I doubt many would vote for the Conservative party, which means not many will vote for the Republicans who are even more conservative than the Canadian party. Though didn't the Conservatives do well with Asians last time around? Or was that just the Chinese?

The Conservatives did well with the Chinese, but not the East Indians.  Also the visible minority vote was lower for them than the white vote, but they didn't get clobbered like the GOP did.  It was 31% vs. the overall national average of 40%.  By contrast it was 59% for the GOP amongst whites while only 20% amongst minorities so a much smaller gap in Canada.  I should note in Britain also, the East Indians voted overwhelmingly for the Labour Party with Conservative support only in the teens.  Not sure how it breaks down in Australia although I am pretty sure Labor Party does better amongst minorities than the Liberals.

[Sbane]

What professions are Indians in British Columbia associated with?

Their mixed, but many are blue collar workers.  You also have several in the service industry and some professionals too.

I get the feeling that Indians in Canada are more blue collar than the US which would impact their voting habits, no? I think a lot of Indians in the US would feel more comfortable with the Liberals than NDP. Of course, I doubt many would vote for the Conservative party, which means not many will vote for the Republicans who are even more conservative than the Canadian party. Though didn't the Conservatives do well with Asians last time around? Or was that just the Chinese?

The Conservatives did well with the Chinese, but not the East Indians.  Also the visible minority vote was lower for them than the white vote, but they didn't get clobbered like the GOP did.  It was 31% vs. the overall national average of 40%.  By contrast it was 59% for the GOP amongst whites while only 20% amongst minorities so a much smaller gap in Canada.  I should note in Britain also, the East Indians voted overwhelmingly for the Labour Party with Conservative support only in the teens.  Not sure how it breaks down in Australia although I am pretty sure Labor Party does better amongst minorities than the Liberals.

Well, there are historical reasons for why Indians would not like the Tories in the UK. Interestingly, in some of the more well to do areas with a fair amount of Indians in them, the Lib Dems seemed to do well. Again, that makes sense to me. Anyways, just like Canada, Indians in the UK are much more working class.

[BaldEagle1991]

I'm just shocked to learn that in TX 57% of Asians voted for Obama, but yet right next door in Louisiana most of them (84%) voted for Romney. I'm guessing many of them are in the fishing industry and didn't like Obama's response during the 2010 BP oil spill.

[Sol]

My understanding is that Asians in the Mississippi delta area vote like whites.

[BaldEagle1991]

My understanding is that Asians in the Mississippi delta area vote like whites.

I'm guessing a lot of them are not also Asian but also White as well. You'd be surprised to see a lot of mixed Asian/White people in the region.