Are Democrats Losing the Asian-American Vote?

T he 2020 election cycle saw extensive media coverage of Hispanic voters and their surprisingly widespread support for conservatives. With midterms on the horizon, the Asian-American voting bloc could be the next one to watch. For the past 20 years, the Asian-American population has consistently voted for Democratic candidates and positions. However, thanks to hyper-progressive policies that are turning off many in those communities, another political shift may be under way.

An early indication of an Asian political backlash against Democrats was the San Francisco recall election of three members of the board of education. The recall occurred in the context of what many parents viewed as a dereliction of duty by the school board. In the previous year, the board had spent a considerable amount of time renaming a third of its schools instead of focusing on educating students and reopening classrooms during the pandemic. In addition, the board abolished the meritocratic system for entrance into the district’s highest-performing high school, Lowell High School, and reverted to a lottery admission system. Many of these changes to the educational system in San Francisco were disruptive and ineffectual, thereby impeding the education of students in the San Francisco area. This was particularly motivating for Asian Americans, given the importance the community places on education, and they helped deliver a rebuke to district officials for spending time on progressive politicking rather than their own jobs.

Asian-American voters did not stop there. On June 7, the city’s progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, lost his recall election, too. Asian Americans are thought to have played a major role in the result. One characteristic interview with a Chinese-American woman and San Francisco resident who had lived in the United States for 40 years revealed that she had voted only twice — in the Boudin and board of education recall elections — because she felt so strongly about the decline in educational prospects for her grandchildren and her own lack of safety under Democratic leadership. For the Boudin recall, the major issue for Asian voters was not education but crime. Rising rates and attacks on Asian residents precipitated greater Asian support for tougher law-enforcement policies, even in a Democratic stronghold.

The shift by Asian voters away from ultra-progressive politicians and policies is not a phenomenon exclusive to San Francisco. In Virginia’s Fairfax County, many Asian parents were angered when the meritocratic admission system at Thomas Jefferson High School — one of the most prestigious and competitive high schools in the country — was eliminated in favor of a more subjective system that results in fewer Asian students being accepted. This change was perceived by some Asian parents in the area as a means to achieve the optimal racial balance at Thomas Jefferson. Asra Nomani, a mother of a student at Thomas Jefferson and a leading voice against such changes, wrote in a USA Today column that the new admissions process was designed to “keep out too many Asian students.” Asian Americans feel that Democratic officials are punishing them for their academic success and work ethic in order to satisfy progressive ideals. At other competitive high schools, admission systems have pursued similar changes thought to harm Asian students. For instance, at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, Asians have pushed back against demands for reforms that reduce testing requirements and install more-subjective requirements. While Democratic officials claim that the intention behind these reforms is to provide more opportunities for low-income students, over 60 percent of students at Stuyvesant classify as economically disadvantaged, and Asians have the lowest median income in the city.

Another sign of a potential political shift is that we’re seeing these trend lines nationally, not just at the local level. President Biden’s approval rating has fallen significantly among Asian voters, even in comparison with the general electorate. Though he won the 2020 election by 44 points among that bloc, his 2022 net approval rating among them is now only seven points.

Kit Lam, a Chinese-American activist who helped organize the San Francisco school-board recall, in a San Francisco Examiner interview predicted that Asians will have a stronger role in politics in the future: “A lot of Asian immigrant parents were just too busy to pay attention to politics, but the recent events have provided us an opportunity and incentive to form a mechanism to organize and mobilize.”