The one minority group that both political parties are having trouble courting
In the 1990s, Asian-Americans were reliably Republican voters. Today, nearly half identify as independents, and in 2012, about three in four Asian-Americans voted Democrat. But the 2014 midterms saw a swing back to center — a switch which, when combined with Asian-Americans' status as the fastest-growing racial group in America, makes them a priority for the 2016 campaigns.
Except outreach isn't going so well. Asian-Americans are politically, ethnically, and linguistically diverse, which means the broader message targeting that might be effective with other minority groups is often ineffective here. While bilingual Hispanic voters typically speak English and Spanish, for instance, bilingual Asian voters might speak English and any one of dozens of Asian languages.
Nevertheless, both major parties are developing new efforts to woo this bloc of comparatively unclaimed voters. "We're the rising new electorate," says Christine Chen, of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote. "Hopefully, it means they can no longer take us for granted."
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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