Overview
Welcome to AAPI Data’s 2024 Guide to Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Public Opinion. We have compiled timely insights from across a number of our survey data products to foster greater understanding of the distinct perspectives and viewpoints of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders on key issues and top political topics in a critical election year.
Last updated: October 10, 2024
Source(s): all of the insights below have been pulled from our historical monthly survey series in partnership with the Associated Press and NORC that began in October 2023 as well as our election year surveys: the Asian American Voter Survey conducted in partnership with APIAVote, AAJC and AARP as well as our AAPI Voter Survey conducted in partnership with APIAVote, published recently in September 2024.
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Presidential Race
Public opinion polling data released in late September revealed that Vice President Kamala Harris leads former president Donald Trump by 38 percentage points among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters expanding President Joe Biden’s 15-point lead held in April/May 2024 by a significant 23 percentage points.
The chart below, released alongside the AAPI Voter Survey, illustrates the shift in intention to vote for Kamala Harris amongst AAPI voters, when compared to those intending to vote for Joe Biden, when he was the Democratic candidate in April/May 2024. The widest shifts between Biden and Harris are seen amongst Indian American voters (23%) and Filipino American voters (28%), helping contribute to the overall change in 20 percentage points for AAPI voters:
When looking at similar trending data in reference to Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, we see far smaller shifts among AAPI voters, and in fact, see a slight decrease of 5 percentage points in AAPI voters indicating their intention to vote for Trump between April/May 2024 and the latest data available in September 2024.
This is illustrated in the chart below, also released alongside the AAPI Voter Survey. When disaggregated amongst some of the largest AAPI ethnic groups, we find that the intention to vote for Trump decreased among every ethnic subgroup, except for Korean American voters — shifting up 8 percentage points to over one-third of the group surveyed:
On Kamala Harris’ Race & Gender & Favorability
While there has been a large spotlight on Kamala Harris’ history-making opportunity as the potential first U.S. president of Asian or South Asian origin as a driving factor for propelling AAPI voter turnout this year, new survey findings point to a potentially even bigger factor — the promise of gender representation as a turbo-charging factor for AAPI voter interest, particularly among AAPI women.
Data from the AAPI Voter Survey published by AAPI Data and Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) in September indicate that gender representation plays a stronger role than racial representation in shaping voter support for her candidacy. The survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago in September asked respondents, “Thinking specifically about Kamala Harris, how important to you are the following aspects of her identity?” providing choices that included:“her identity as an African American,” “her identity as an Asian Indian or South Asian,” “her identity as a woman,” and “her age.”
Well over a third of Asian American voters (38%) say that Harris’ identity as a woman is “extremely important” or “very important” to them, with significantly smaller proportions indicating the same about her racial identities as Indian/South Asian (25%) and as an African American (24%) or about her age (25%). The findings were not statistically different among Indian American voters, who arguably share even closer ethnic affinity to Harris.
Notably, the “gender boost” in identity representation was driven entirely by the opinions of Asian American women. About a half (49%) of Asian American women said that Harris’s gender was important to them, nearly double the proportion among Asian American men (25%). This gender gap was also noticeable in questions about the importance of having more elected representatives who are women (56% of Asian American women said that this was extremely important or very important to them, when compared to 36% of Asian American men), and about their intention to vote for Harris (72% among Asian American women and 59% among Asian American men).
Importantly, the Harris candidacy has introduced a gender gap among Asian American voters for the first time in recorded polling history, including when compared to the Spring 2024 Asian American Voter Survey, where we found that 47% of Asian American women and 46% of Asian American men said they intended to vote for Biden. Thus, even as Harris improved the Democratic Party’s performance among Asian Americans overall, the gain was disproportionately large among Asian American women.
To learn more insights and explore further disaggregated findings for AAPI voters regarding the 2024 presidential race, visit the AAPI Voter Survey and 2024 Asian American Voter Survey pages on aapidata.com.
Single-Issue Voters
When looking at single-issue voters, most AAPI voters say they could not support a candidate who does not share their views on key issues, such as racism or discrimination (72%), abortion (63%), crime or violence (62%), gun policy (60%), or immigration (59%). (Source: AAPI Voter Survey)
Just over half of AAPI voters also say they could not support a candidate who does not share their views on the issues of the economy or climate change (both 54%). However, over six in 10 AAPI voters are open to voting for candidates with differing views on the Israel-Palestine conflict (61%).
When disaggregated, differences can be found among certain ethnic subgroups, including NHPIs indicating greater concern of a candidate’s views on issues of gun policy (74% vs. 59%) and the Israel-Palestine conflict (48% vs. 38%) when compared to Asian Americans.
Additionally, Filipino and Japanese American voters indicate a candidate’s views on racism and discrimination as more important to their support than the AAPI voter population overall (81% and 79%, respectively, vs. 72%).
Lastly, Filipino American voters also indicate greater concern for a candidate’s views on immigration (70% vs. 59%) and Vietnamese American voters place more importance on a candidate’s views on climate change (69% vs. 54%) when compared to the general AAPI voter population surveyed.
To learn more about these survey findings: explore the AAPI Voter Survey page to view the in-depth report; or review our briefing slides featuring deep dives and disaggregated insights (by ethnicity, age, gender, and party identification).
Top Policy Priorities
In our survey published in January 2024, we asked AAPI adults to name up to five issues that they wanted the government to address in 2024. This data collection used an innovative approach, using open-ended responses rather than close-ended responses, and translating responses where relevant. The results?
Inflation was the most commonly raised concern, mentioned by 31% of AAPI adults. The next top concerns were immigration (29%) the environment and climate change (25%), general economic concerns (24%), and health care reform (23%).
To learn more about this survey and its findings: view the in-depth report; review our briefing slides featuring deep dives and disaggregated insights (by ethnicity, age, and party identification); or read this blog post written by Janelle Wong, senior researcher at AAPI Data, contextualizing this data in this election year.
Concerns about Democracy
Our survey released in December 2023 explored how AAPI communities feel about the United States’ democracy and overall direction of the country.
The poll found that only 12% of AAPIs believe that democracy in the United States is working well. Additionally, over 4 in 5 (81%) believe the country is going in the wrong direction — this was particularly high among AAPI Republicans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, Korean Americans, and people born in the U.S. However, AAPI communities’ sense of pessimism is less pronounced than the general population (75% believe the U.S. is heading in the wrong direction).
When thinking about the upcoming 2024 U.S. election, 83% of AAPIs have concerns about misinformation in the U.S. election, surpassing concerns about voter suppression (46%), limitations on free speech (41%), and voter fraud (31%).
Digging a little deeper:
- Concerns about misinformation are particularly high among Filipino and Korean Americans
- Concerns about voter suppression are especially high among AAPI women; Japanese Americans and Filipino Americans
- Concerns about free speech are especially high among NHPIs, Japanese and Korean Americans; Concern is higher among AAPI Republicans than AAPI Democrats
- Concerns about voter fraud are higher among NHPIs, AAPI Republicans, and AAPIs 60 and older
To learn more about this survey and its findings: view the in-depth report; or review our briefing slides featuring deep dives and disaggregated insights (by ethnicity, age, and party identification).
Economic Issues
In our survey published in January 2024, AAPI adults were asked about their views on the economy and their financial outlook.
Overall, few AAPI adults are feeling very confident about their finances, with only 30% feeling confident in their ability to keep up with their expenses; nearly 1 in 4 (26%) feeling confident in paying for an unexpected medical expense; and just over 1 in 5 (22%) feeling confident in having enough retirement savings. These shares match those of U.S. adults.
The survey also reveals that 2 in 3 (66%) AAPI adults have seen their household expenses increase in the past year, while nearly half (44%) reported their savings have decreased. Nearly a third held off on a major purchase in the last year due to higher interest rates, matching the share of all U.S adults (31%) who said the same.
When looking ahead to the next year, there is little optimism with less than a third of both AAPI adults and the general public feeling their own personal finances (30% for both), the national economy (23% vs.18%), or the country overall (19% vs.15%) will improve.
To learn more about these survey findings: view the in-depth report and topline results.
Abortion Policy
Our survey published in March 2024 delved into AAPI viewpoints on abortion policy.
Nearly 8 in 10 of AAPI adults (79%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, significantly higher than the general public (64%). We see this support across Asian ethnic groups, and this trend is even more pronounced among AAPI Democrats (95%) compared to AAPI Republicans (57%).
Most AAPI adults (75%) support Congress passing a law guaranteeing access to abortion nationwide compared to US adults overall (60%). This trend is even higher for AAPI Democrats (91%) compared to AAPI Republicans (51%).
Across AAPI communities, about 9 in 10 support legal abortion in cases where a pregnant person’s health is at risk, for instances of rape or incest, or the presence of a fatal fetal abnormality, aligning with the general U.S. population. However, AAPI adults (68%) are more inclined to support legal abortion in all circumstances, compared to 54% of U.S. adults overall. AAPI Democrats are more than twice as likely than AAPI Republicans to say legal abortion should be allowed when the person does not want to be pregnant for any reason (87% vs 40%).
To learn more about these survey findings: view the in-depth report; or review our briefing slides featuring deep dives and disaggregated insights (by ethnicity, age, and party identification).
Climate Change & Environment
In our survey published in April 2024, AAPI adults were asked about their views on climate change and the environment.
Eight in 10 AAPI adults believe that climate change is happening, a slightly higher share than that of U.S. adults who said the same in September 2023, the last time the question was asked of the general population.
8 in 10 AAPI adults (79%) have been affected by at least one extreme weather event in the past five years. These experiences are similar to U.S. adults overall. 67% of AAPI adults say recent extreme weather events have heavily influenced their views on climate change compared to 52% of the general population. AAPI Democrats (84%) are more likely than AAPI Republicans (45%) to say extreme weather has influenced their climate views.
AAPI adults report higher levels of concern than the general population about the effects of climate change on future generations, coastal communities, and their own lives. Almost three-quarters of AAPI adults (73%) are very or extremely concerned about climate change’s impact on future generations compared to the general population (62%).
Digging a little deeper:
- Two-thirds of NHPIs (66%) and Filipinos (67%) are very or extremely concerned about climate change’s impact on their own lives
- A large share of NHPIs (70%), Asian Indians (75%), and Filipinos (70%) are concerned about climate change’s impact on coastal communities
7 in 10 of AAPI adults believe the US federal government (73%), other high-income countries (71%), and corporations (69%) bear significant responsibility for addressing climate change. In the long run, 75% of AAPI adults think environmental protection should be prioritized over economic growth.
To learn more about these survey findings: view the in-depth report; or review our briefing slides featuring deep dives and disaggregated insights (by ethnicity, age, and party identification).
The Israel-Palestinian Conflict
In our survey published in January 2024, AAPI adults were asked about foreign policy issues with particular focus on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
About half of AAPI adults (49%) believe that the US is not supportive enough of Palestinians in the conflict with Israelis, with nearly an identical share (48%) thinking it is too supportive of Israelis.
To learn more about this survey and its findings: view the in-depth report; or read the blog written by Janelle Wong, senior researcher at AAPI Data that dives deeper into AAPIs distinct views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict compared to U.S. adults more generally.