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Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up roughly 3.35% of the electorate in Pennsylvania, a battleground state where former President Donald Trump (R) currently leads the polls over Vice President Kamala Harris (D) by just 0.3%.
The Keystone State clinched the presidency for President Joe Biden in 2020. It holds 19 electoral votes—one of the highest counts among all states—and is set to play a critical role deciding both the White House and Congress.
Voter demographics
Pennsylvania is home to over 333,000 AAPI voters, according to a 2024 report from APIA Vote and AAPI Data. The state has seen its number of AAPI voters grow by 32% since 2012. Its number of first-time AAPI voters has also increased 8.7% since 2022.
Over 166,000 Indian Americans reside in Pennsylvania, making them the largest AAPI ethnic group. The Chinese community follows with a population of over 130,000, while Filipinos are third with nearly 52,000.
Though Indians make up a larger portion of the population, Chinese is the only AAPI language in which the state’s voting materials are available. They’re also only offered in Philadelphia County.
In the campaigns
- Pennsylvania’s AAPI communities were among those in other battleground states targeted by ads from the Harris campaign, including one highlighting the Affordable Care Act and another focusing on Trump’s anti-Asian rhetoric.
- “We have to understand the needs within [the AANHPI community] and she understands that, which makes it amazing to have, at the very top of the ticket, someone who understands the nuance in the AANHPI community,” Philadelphia councilmember Nina Ahmad told the Philadelphia Inquirer ahead of the ad launch.
- Prior to Biden’s exit from the race, Harris spoke at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) presidential town hall in Philadelphia in July, telling AAPI voters that they were counting on their support.
- Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, recently celebrated Diwali—the Festival of Lights—at the Bharatiya Temple in Montgomery County in Pennsylvania. His visit was part of a larger campaign swing through the Philadelphia suburbs. About 8% of Philadelphia residents are of Asian heritage, according to 2022 Census data, making the city’s suburbs a key spot for courting AAPI voters.
- Trump similarly commemorated the cultural holiday on social media and also condemned violence against religious minorities in Bangladesh while claiming that Harris has ignored Hindus as vice president.
- Though he has yet to directly address AAPI voters in Pennsylvania, his campaign has held several rallies in the state, including one where an assassination attempt was made against him. Though he was invited, no one from his team showed up for the APIAVote town hall.
On the ground
The Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (APIPA), an AAPI political and civil rights organization that advocates for the needs of Asian Pacific Islanders in Pennsylvania, is working in 22 AAPI languages to reach and mobilize AAPI voters statewide.
“Language justice is core and central to access to democracy … it’s a matter of dignity to ensure that our communities are being met where they’re at, what languages they’re going to be most comfortable with,” Mohan Seshadri, executive director of APIPA, told The Yappie.
Other topics of interest for AAPI voters, according to APIPA, include healthcare—specifically access to reproductive care—gun violence, cost of living, immigration, and an end to Southeast Asian deportations.
A top issue for many AAPI folks in Pennsylvania is the need for a ceasefire in Gaza, Seshadri noted. He pointed out that it’s not just an issue of interest for Arabs and Muslims, but also for many Asian Americans, particularly Southeast Asians, who come from a refugee background.
To mobilize voters, APIPA has knocked on about 315,000 doors and made over 5.2 million calls in over 20 Asian languages. They’ve sent over one million mailing items in 10 languages, and published digital ads in six languages, Seshadri told The Yappie.
And for the first time, Montgomery County voter guides were translated and distributed in eight different languages, including Hindi and Korean, county commissioner Neil Makhija—who is Pennsylvania’s first ever AAPI commissioner—told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Woori Center, a Korean American organization in Montco that does nonpartisan civic engagement work, played a large role in getting the guides translated, according to Seshadri.=
Some South Asians in Pennsylvania are also finding connection and kinship in Harris’ Indian ethnicity—even going so far as to dub the Democratic nominee as “auntie,” a term of endearment.
“It is incredibly exciting as an Indian American to have someone who one day my kids can look at and say that’s our Auntie President, or President Auntie, as some folks are calling her,” Seshadri said in a separate interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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