At the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night, two Indian Americans dominated the stage. Due to the rarity of their pairing and the intense media attention they received, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy’s ethnicity has received considerable attention. But according to recent data, Asian Americans don’t really give their identity much thought when they cast their votes.
According to a Pew Research Center poll published on Tuesday, the clear majority of Asian Americans gave little consideration to a candidate’s race while casting their ballots. According to the poll, up to 97% of Asian American voters responded that politicians’ policy stances were more important to them than their race or ethnicity.
Given that information, analysts opined that the two Republican celebrities weren’t likely to win over the neighborhood’s support based solely on their personas — and they weren’t necessarily attempting to.
“I think there might be an element of curiosity, novelty or even pride that Asian American voters feel with these two candidates doing as well as they’re doing,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder of nonprofit group AAPI Data. “But it’s very unlikely to translate into votes.”
According to the poll, 62% of registered Asian American voters identified more with the Democratic Party, while 34% favored the Republican Party. According to the 2022 Asian American Voter Survey, Indian Americans were among the most progressive even among Asian Americans, with 56% of them identifying as Democrats and 15% as Republicans.
“Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy stand very far to the right of where most Asian American voters are and where most Indian American voters are,” Ramakrishnan said. “It’s highly unlikely that an Asian American Democrat is going to cross the aisle and vote for an Asian American Republican candidate.”
Regardless of the candidates’ races, party lines typically keep steady for voters of all nationalities, he added. However, the poll also revealed that 68% of Asian American voters do support a president who champions the issues facing their community.
“While there may be some initial affinity because a person might look like them … it’s extremely important to voters that they’re right on the policies,” said Varun Nikore, executive director of the AAPI Victory Alliance, a nonprofit group representing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. “So people may like Nikki Haley, but at the end of the day, ‘What has she done for the community?’”
