SPECIAL • NOVEMBER 14, 2022
PRESENTED BY THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
👋 Good morning, and welcome to The Yappie's special briefing on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the 2022 election cycle. S
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— Edited by Shawna Chen
THE BIG STORY
Exit polls: Asian American voters mostly backed Democrats in battleground Senate contests
Nationally, a majority of Asian Americans voted for Democratic candidates in House, Senate, and gubernatorial races in critical battleground states this year, according to preliminary data from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s (AALDEF) nonpartisan, multilingual exit poll of 5,351 Asian American voters.
👀 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Among Asian American voters in Pennsylvania, 74.4% of those surveyed chose Senator-elect John Fetterman (D) compared to 21.8% who voted for Mehmet Oz (R). Fetterman won with 51% of the state’s overall vote to Oz’s 46.6%, according to the Associated Press.
In Georgia’s Senate election, which heads to a run-off in December, 60.1% of Asian Americans chose incumbent Rep. Raphael Warnock (D) while 33.3% voted for Herschel Walker (R), who came under fire in the last few months for campaigning against abortion while former partners accused him of asking them to have the procedure.
Data point: In a race where abortion took the spotlight, 59.2% of Asian American voters said they support access to legal abortion while 21% said they oppose it. 19.8% said they didn’t know.
In Nevada, where Asian American voters make up 10% of the state’s electorate, incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) enjoyed high support among Asian American voters despite winning the race by a razor-thin margin.
The breakdown: 66.9% of Asian Americans voted for Cortez Masto, while 25.6% chose Republican Adam Laxalt, who has rejected President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. Among states with the largest shares of eligible Asian American voters, Nevada ranks third-highest behind Hawai‘i and California, according to the Pew Research Center.
The Texas exception: A majority of Asian American voters chose Republican candidates in races for the state’s congressional seats. A narrow majority also voted for incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who defeated Democrat Beto O’Rourke to win a third term.
51.5% of voters chose to re-elect Abbott while 45.7% of voters chose his challenger, per AALDEF’s preliminary data.
Worth noting: The margin of votes among Asian American voters was thinner than the margin statewide, where Abbott won with 54.8% of overall votes compared to O’Rourke’s 43.8%, the Associated Press reports.
In House races across Texas, 52.6% of Asian Americans voted for Republican candidates, compared to 43.9% for Democratic ones.
Jobs and the economy, education, and health care were top factors influencing the House vote in the state.
— By
Mary Yang
A WARNING FOR DEMOCRATS
🚨 ASIAN AMERICANS SHIFT TO THE RIGHT: Compared to the 2018 midterm elections, Asian American support for the GOP jumped 17 points this November, writes POLITICO’s Marissa Martinez.
The Republican National Committee poured millions into their efforts to reach AAPI voters and into races supporting GOP AAPI candidates ahead of this year’s midterms.
Exit polls showed that 77% of Asian voters supported Democratic candidates in 2018, notes the Washington Post’s 2022 election analysis. Four years later, that number has dropped to about 6 in 10 based on network exit polls conducted by Edison Research and the Associated Press' VoteCast poll.
— By
Mary Yang
+
Shawna Chen
A MESSAGE FROM THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
Since 1996, the Kauffman Foundation has tracked entrepreneurial data to understand how it has evolved over time.
Important highlights from 2021 data include a notable shift toward older new entrepreneurs and the rise in the share of new Asian entrepreneurs – from 3.4% in 1996 to 7.3% in 2021.
MIDTERM ROUND-UP
Incumbents dominate in key House races as the GOP’s Asian American hopefuls are shut out
While Democrats secured a thin margin in the Senate, control of the House is still in limbo. Several races, including a face-off between two Asian American candidates in California’s 45th congressional district, remain too close to call.
🗳️ THE LATEST
THE NEWCOMERS
MICHIGAN
Thanedar, a longtime entrepreneur, campaigned on support for Medicare for All, reproductive rights, and equitable access to education, funneling millions of his own money into the race. His win makes him the fifth Indian American to hold a seat in Congress but leaves Detroit without Black representation on Capitol Hill for the first time in 70 years.
HAWAI‘I
Tokuda ran a platform focused on improving the quality of Hawai‘i’s health care and mental health services, especially increasing access for rural communities and neighboring islands.
🔎 SPOTLIGHT
Aruna Miller (D) won the race to serve as Maryland’s lieutenant governor, becoming the first-ever immigrant and first-ever Asian American elected statewide. Miller, who is Indian American and lives in Montgomery County, ran alongside Wes Moore (D), who also made history as the first Black governor elected in Maryland.
Photo courtesy of the Wes Moore campaign via Twitter.
THE INCUMBENTS
CALIFORNIA
Kim drew early support from the Republican National Committee, which launched its first Asian Pacific American community center in Orange County in a bid to target AAPI voters.
NEW JERSEY
Kim’s district was redrawn in 2022 to include more Democratic voters than it had in the two previous elections. Though he is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Kim portrayed himself as more moderate on the campaign trail.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
ONE RACE TO WATCH: Rep. Katie Porter (D-California), a longtime champion of climate justice and ally to Pacific Islanders in Congress, leads GOP challenger Scott Baugh by a little under three points as of Sunday night in her race to represent California’s redrawn 47th congressional district.
The face-off between Baugh and Porter, who has pressed the Biden administration on issues like the U.S.’s nuclear legacy in the Pacific and the Compact of Free Association negotiations, has come down to a margin much closer than expected.
Control of the House will likely come down to races including Porter’s and Steel’s, which could take weeks to call, the Los Angeles Times’ Hannah Fry and Tyrone Beason write.
THE CHALLENGERS DEFEATED
MASSACHUSETTS
INDIANA
RHODE ISLAND
VIRGINIA
GEORGIA
— Compiled by
Mary Yang
Additional writing by Shawna Chen
NOTABLE WINS
CATCH UP
Here are other election results from across America...
In Rhode Island, two Asian Americans were elected to the state legislature for the first time.
Chinese American Victoria Gu (D), a software-engineer-turned-politician, flipped a seat in the state Senate and will replace state Rep. Dennis Algiere (R), who has served in the legislature for almost three decades.
Meanwhile, Japanese American Linda Ujifusa (D), a town council member in Portsmouth and a former attorney in the Environmental Protection Agency, easily won her race for state Senate.
In Texas, Pakistani American corporate lawyer Salman Bhojani (D) and internal medicine physician Suleman Lalani (D) will become the first Muslims and South Asians ever elected to the Texas state legislature. Their wins reflect an upward trend in a midterm season with a record number of Muslim candidates, even in the face of continuing Islamophobia.
Rising power: The election outcomes are part of a growing number of progressive AAPI wins in the state, bolstered by organizing by groups like the Asian American Midwest Progressives. Illinois state Rep. Theresa Mah (D) celebrated the midterm results as progress from 2016, when she became the first Asian American elected to the General Assembly.
In Georgia, Bangladeshi American Nabilah Islam (D) and Palestinian American Ruwa Romman (D) became the first Muslim women elected to the state Senate and state House, respectively. Korean American lawyer Soo Hong (R) is also the first Republican Asian American woman elected to the state legislature, running on a platform that included eliminating the state income tax and protecting parents’ rights in education.
In Minnesota, educator and nonprofit leader Samantha Sencer-Mura (D) was elected the first Japanese American legislator in the state.
Also: Hmong American Liz Lee (D), a St. Paul native, won her race in the Minnesota state House, with a focus on serving working-class families through support for affordable housing, public school funding, and small businesses.
In Guam, James Moylan (R) flipped the island’s non-voting delegate seat in Congress from Democrat to Republican for the first time since 1993 after defeating former Guam Legislature Speaker Judi Won Pat (D).
In New York, Nepali American Sarahana Shrestha (D), a climate organizer and Democratic socialist, won her race to serve in the state Assembly representing Hudson Valley, becoming one of a handful of Nepali lawmakers across the country.
Focus on climate: Earlier this year, Shrestha earned a surprise victory against longtime Assemblymember Kevin Cahill (D) in the Democratic primary—a feat which her supporters attribute in part to voters’ desire to see climate action pushed forward.
In New Mexico, Reena Szczepanski (D), a policy organizer and public health advocate who previously served as chief of staff for the state House Speaker Brian Egolf (D), won her race unopposed to become the first Indian American woman elected to the state legislature. The chamber’s Democratic caucus has already nominated her as state House majority whip.
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— By
Cindy Xie
A MESSAGE FROM THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
The Kauffman Foundation helps unlock opportunity for all so that people can achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity – regardless of race, gender, or geography.