Asian Americans favored Democratic candidates over Republicans by a two-to-one margin in the Midterm Congressional elections, according to a unique multi-language, multi-ethnic election eve poll targeting Asian Americans in California, Texas and Virginia.
The polling included interviews with 1,150 Asian Americans between Oct. 30th and Nov. 4th in the three key states, with a margin of error of 4 percent.
Asian Americans in those three states were more solidly Democratic than the general election pool, according to pollster Taeku Lee of Asian American Decisions, co-sponsors of the new poll with the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund.
The poll also found in Virginia, Asian Americans constituted a powerful swing vote, where they backed Democrat Mark Warner in his Senate race against Republican Ed Gillespie by 68% to 29%. That margin of support is far greater than Warner's actual margin of victory.
“Asian Americans are where some really important (political) changes are going on,” Lee told NBC News. “And if we didn’t collect this data, we wouldn’t notice it.”
On the issues, the community fell in line with the rest of the country: 32% called the economy "the most important issue." Seventy-three percent called health care "one of the most important" issues, immigration came in with 47%.
Looking ahead to 2016, 65% of voters in these three states said they'd support a Democratic candidate, 35% would vote Republican. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton scored a 62% favorable rating. Among GOP hopefuls, Jeb Bush was most favorable and recognizable among Asian Americans.