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President Joe Biden’s win in Georgia marked the first time in close to three decades that a Democratic presidential candidate carried the vote—something made possible by the state’s AAPI community, which emerged as the margin of victory.
It remains a critical battleground state, with both campaigns conducting outreach in a bid to sway undecided voters—including AAPIs whose vote could lead to an upset win like the last presidential election.
Voter demographics
AAPI voters make up 4.71% of the electorate in Georgia and are among the state’s fastest-growing voter population, according to APIAVote and AAPI Data.
Former president Donald Trump is currently in the lead at 48.2%, per FiveThirtyEight's polling analyses. Vice President Kamala Harris is close behind him at 47.5%.
Voter contact has fallen short in previous election cycles, however, with language barriers and socioeconomic challenges serving as an obstacle to voting accessibility.
33.9% of Asian Americans in Georgia have limited English proficiency and more than 25% of AAPIs lack broadband access.
In their campaigns
- Harris has visited Georgia multiple times this year, including a stop at a reproductive care summit, while Trump was in Savannah in late September. It marked his first campaign visit to the state since his feud with Gov. Brian Kemp (R). His running mate JD Vance also made a visit to Macon among other events.
- Harris’ campaign also launched several ad buys focused on AAPI television channels and media platforms, including those in Georgia. These ads, which criticize Trump’s “anti-Asian” language and accuse him of attempting to “rip” away the Affordable Care Act, work in tandem with Asian American voter engagement staff hired in every battleground state.
- Trump campaign senior advisor Steven Cheung has since countered that there is “no bigger advocate for the AAPI community” than Trump in a statement.
- “The 2024 campaign is poised to build upon the strength and successes of Asian Americans during President Trump’s first term,” Cheung said.
- Trump has similarly visited Georgia multiple times. In his most recent event at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, he sought to court college, suburban voters with discussions on transgender women in sports, ending illegal immigration, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D) stock ownership.
- The state’s Republican officials have engaged the AAPI electorate on his behalf.
On the ground
The legal advocacy group Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta is continuing efforts to mobilize AAPI voters while combating voter suppression, which disproportionately affects non-English-speaking communities. The organization has mobilized election protection teams in 25 cities across 8 counties to focus on ensuring voters’ rights.
“The rising engagement of AAPI voters speaks volumes about their commitment to shaping the future of Georgia,” executive director Murtaza Kwaja said in a press release. “Advancing Justice-Atlanta is here to protect that commitment, ensuring that every voter—regardless of language—is able to cast their vote freely and confidently.”
Of note: Asian Americans in Gwinnett County, a battleground district where Asian American voters make up nearly 21% of eligible voters, lean more Republican than the they do at the national level. Many are new immigrants.
“The Asian American political community is younger, and I don’t mean age-wise,” Phi Nguyen, an Atlanta-based senior strategist with AAPI Victory Fund, told NBC News’ Kimmy Yam. “It’s more nascent in building power as Asian Americans in Georgia.”
While Nguyen sees a slight lean towards Harris, there is still widespread uncertainty about the final outcome. Harris’ own identity as an Asian American is not necessarily a defining factor for voters. Nguyen cites in-language materials and more Asian American faces in canvassing and campaigning as having the largest impacts.
Despite these challenges, Asian Americans are part of an electorate “that wants to see themselves represented and see candidates emerge from those communities,” Murtaza Khwaja, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, told Foreign Policy.
On the other side of the aisle, Republican Asian American voters have held events with the Trump campaign office in Atlanta. That included an Indians for Trump gathering where Georgia GOP chair Josh McKoon spoke about the need for legal immigration and pressed on the need for AAPIs to turn out to the polls for Trump.
New surveys, however, reveal that Harris holds the lead with Asian American voters, especially women.
“South Asians for Harris, Chinese Americans for Harris, Korean Americans for Harris—we saw such activation coming from the community and partially, I think it is because of her ethnicity, but it was also driven by the women in those communities,” Christine Chen, a co-founder and executive director of APIAVote, told The 19th.
Trump’s previous comments about Asian Americans also makes it increasingly difficult to win favor among AAPI voters, local advocates say.
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