Asian Americans favored Harris but shifted right by 5 points

Asian American support for Donald Trump was 5 points higher this election cycle than in 2020, marking a slight shift to the right.

Asian American support for Donald Trump was 5 points higher this election cycle than in 2020, marking a slight shift to the right. 

The NBC News Exit Poll of early and Election Day voters indicated that 54% of Asian American voters chose Harris, while 39% voted for Trump. Harris lost seven points compared to Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) support for Biden in 2020. 

Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder of AAPI Data, said that the polling shows a continuing shift that began with the 2016 presidential election cycle and Trump’s entry into the political arena.  

“2012 represented the high-water mark in Asian American support for a Democratic presidential candidate, and it has been going down ever since,” he said. “The pendulum has started to swing back.”

Ramakrishan pointed out that previous polling showed that the economy was a major priority for the Asian American electorate. And it is also one that proved to be a challenge for the Democratic Party, particularly given the perception that the Republican Party is stronger economically. High inflation rates in the aftermath of Covid, he added, didn’t help. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/asian-americans-exit-poll-harris-trump-rcna179005

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