Asian Americans Are Often Invisible in Polling. That’s Changing.

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Race/related Without much survey data, there’s little information about what issues matter to Asian Americans. A voter in Westminster, Calif., in 2022. As of 2019, Asian Americans make up nearly […]

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Feb 25, 2024 - 02:30
Asian Americans Are Often Invisible in Polling. That’s Changing.

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Race/related

Without much survey data, there’s little information about what issues matter to Asian Americans.

A voter wearing a hat fills out a ballot inside a polling station.
A voter in Westminster, Calif., in 2022. As of 2019, Asian Americans make up nearly half the population of the city, which has the nation’s largest concentration of Vietnamese Americans.Credit…Alisha Jucevic for The New York Times

Saurabh Datar

By Saurabh Datar

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When Dr. Michelle Au ran for State Senate in Georgia in 2020, an experienced political operative told her: “Don’t waste too much time talking to Asian voters. They don’t vote.”

That same year in Georgia, turnout among Asian American voters, who as a group rarely receive dedicated attention from politicians, nearly doubled, according to data from Georgia’s secretary of state. Dr. Au, a Democrat, became the first Asian American woman to be elected to the State Senate. Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Bill Clinton, in 1992.

“People really started to realize that there is a large and growing and quite powerful Asian electorate in Georgia, but one that people have, up until now, not been paying attention to at all because of this sensibility that the Asian population is too small to make a difference,” said Dr. Au, who is now serving in the state’s House of Representatives.

Image

Dr. Michelle Au at a campaign event in Johns Creek, Ga., in 2022.Credit…Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times

Pollsters face a population problem when gathering public opinion research on Asian Americans: They are the fastest-growing racial group in the country but still make up a relatively small share of the population, so it is rare for pollsters to reach enough respondents in a typical poll to warrant breaking the group’s responses out as a distinct category.

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