As poll looms, electoral heft of Asian Americans grows

Asian Americans have become the fastest-growing group of eligible voters in the United States over the past 20 years, creating a crucial voting bloc for the candidates in this year's presidential election.

Over the past four years the number of eligible voters who are Asian American rose by about 15 percent, or 2 million people, compared with a rise of 3 percent for all other eligible voters, according to the Pew Research Center in Washington.

Christine Chen, executive director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, a nonpartisan nonprofit group in Washington dedicated to "engaging, educating and empowering Asian American and Pacific Islander communities", said: "Political parties could be doing more outreach to court the crucial AAPI voting bloc… While there has been some improvement, the data shows AAPI voters are still being underestimated and overlooked by many campaigns."

Both the Democratic and Republican national committees have announced plans to court AAPI voters this year.

This month President Joe Biden's reelection campaign launched a $14 million advertising blitz, saying at least $1 million of the funds will be used to target AAPI, black and Latino voters via the media.

The Biden campaign sees some areas such as the Midwest, the Sun Belt and the Southwest as crucial to win against the presumptive Republican nominee, former president Donald Trump. The Biden administration is also touting several economic successes that it says have benefited AAPI voters.

"We have lowered the Asian American unemployment rate to pre-pandemic levels," the White House said last year. "(We have) achieved the highest Asian American employment rates since 2008."

A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee said it would spend millions of dollars on communicating with AAPI communities in key states.

However, Chen said: "According to our most recent survey, around 50 percent of Asian American voters polled say they were not contacted, or were unsure if they were, by either the Democrats or the Republicans. More needs to be done to bridge this gap, especially as AAPIs become the margin of victory in an increasing number of districts and states."

It is estimated that at least 15 million Asian Americans will be eligible to vote in this year's general election. The group is 6.1 percent of all eligible voters, according to Pew Research Center projections. Many of these voters live in California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Texas.

The US Census in 2020 put the number of Asian Americans in the country at 24 million.

Wayne Au, Interim Dean and Professor at the University of Washington Bothell School of Educational Studies, said the term Asian American grew out of mobilization against racial injustice in the late 1960s.

Political analysts are closely watching the history of the group's voting patterns after Asian American voter turnout surged in the 2020 election.

Chen said that high turnout was not by chance but was "years in the making".