Asians emerge as key swing voters in White House race

ASIANS have become a critical swing voter bloc in the US presidential election race, with rival parties courting them ahead of another intense White House contest.

“If this is a close election, then the ways in which the Asian-American vote swings could have a very decisive impact,” said Don Nakanishi, director of the Asian-American studies centre at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The top five states where Asian-Americans reside are California, New York, Texas, Hawaii and New Jersey, and all, with the exception of Hawaii, are “very, very significant” in the presidential elections because of the high number of electoral votes each carries, said Nakanishi.

Despite their significance, the voting power of Asian-Americans has been much less scrutinised than that of African-Americans and Hispanics, said The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress. Studies have shown Asians tend to vote mostly for the Democratic party, in which Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are in a close battle to be party flagbearer for the presidential race.

There are 14 million Asian-Americans in the US, making up 5% of the population. Their number is expected to nearly triple by 2050 to 41 million, government figures show. About seven million Asian-Americans are eligible to vote in the US and about 3.5 million have registered to vote in the presidential election.

The power of the Asian-American vote is overlooked, said Democratic lawmaker Mike Honda, chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

“It is time that due attention is paid to this rapidly growing and politically relevant community,” he said.

Honda has lobbied for more US media coverage of the Asia-Pacific vote saying they were “deeply concerned” about what they saw as a lack of coverage.

In the California Democratic nomination battle earlier this month, about 75% of Asian voters cast their ballots for Clinton, compared with 23% for Obama, according to reports.

That is almost as high as the percentage of the black vote of 78% that went for Obama. But in the run-up to the fight, Obama had narrowed Clinton’s lead in the state to such an extent the Asian vote became pivotal.

With the backing from Asians, Clinton carried 54% of the Democratic electorate in California, leading Obama by 14% and significantly increasing her electoral votes.

As the race intensifies, campaigners for Clinton and Obama, as well as those for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain, are casting their eyes on Asian-American voters.

McCain is quite popular among Asian-Americans, attracted by his immigration reforms and bipartisanship.