Four years ago, during Barack Obama’s first run for
president, the Asian American community was very excited. After all, Obama has
an Indonesian stepfather and has spent part of his childhood in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng married a Chinese
Canadian Konrad Ng (吴加儒). She was
instrumental in galvanizing the Asian American community leaders and soliciting
their support in 2008.
This time around,
there are far less reports of Soetoro-Ng or others in the Obama camp organizing
the Asian American community and courting their votes.
According to a
recent survey of Asian Americans, roughly 43% of them will vote for Obama, 24%
will vote for Mitt Romney, and 33% are undecided. Asian Americans are
predominantly Democratic (43% as opposed to 17% Republican).
Asian Americans,
a fast-growing racial group, are very diverse. Among them the Chinese are the
largest group (22%), followed by Indians (20%), Filipinos (18%), Vietnamese
(11%), Koreans (10%), Japanese (5%), and Pakstanis and Cambodians (6%).
Wei Bizhou, a
columnist of the World Journal Magazine, said that both the Democratic and
Republic Party have not campaigned hard among Asian Americans. Wei offered
several reasons for this. Asian Americans make up only about 4% of the
population and most of them are first-generation immigrants. Their low levels
of political participation hinder their political influence.
The
presidential contest has focused on a handful of swing states. Asian Americans
tend to live in metropolitan areas, such as New York and San Francisco, and the
population of Asian Americans in these swing states is rather small.
Wei reported that Indian Americans are most supportive of Obama (68%),
followed by Koreans and Japanese (both 49%), and Chinese (43%). In comparison,
38% of Filipinos support Romney, 29% Japanese, 21% Chinese, and 20 % Koreans.
Indian Americans have much less language barriers compared with other
Asian ethnic groups. They have increased their influences and visibilities in
American politics. The two Indian-American governors, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana
and Nikki Haley of South Carolina are considered Republican rising stars.
Jindal has even been suggested as a vice-presidential contender.
Very little is known about how religion has influenced Asian Americans’
political preferences. In her chapter on “Asian Americans, Religion, and the
American Presidency” in the book Religion, Race, and the American Presidency,
Professor So Young Kim offers some interesting observations. She notes that
Asian Americans are highly diverse in terms of religious beliefs and
associations. They are also the most secular racial group in American society
(20% compared to 4% for the whites, 2% for blacks, and 12% for Hispanics).
She notes that there is a high degree of correlation between the lack of
political party identification and secularism among Asian Americans. “For Asian
Americans, 37% of those who profess no religion are political nonidentifiers,”
she writes.
In the 2000 presidential election, the voting rate for Asian Americans
was 45%. The highest turnout rate was found among Christians (49%) and the
highest nonvoting rate was found among Muslims (78%). The support for Al Gore,
Kim says, was generally high among those with non-Christian religious beliefs
(Hindus and Buddhists), while George W. Bush won the biggest support from
evangelical Christians.
Another variable is that those who identify themselves as Asian
Americans rather than a specific Asian ethnic group (say Korean American) show
a significantly higher level of interest in American politics and activism.
In this current presidential election, Asian Americans can still affect
the outcome if they turn out to vote, especially in the swing states of Nevada
where Asian Americans make up 9% of the population, Florida (3%), and Virginia
(7%). After all, in 2008, Obama won Florida by only 2.5%.