Harris leads Trump by almost 40 points among Asian American voters, a new poll shows

Vice President Kamala Harris has a significant lead over former President Donald Trump among Asian Americans, according to a poll conducted earlier this month. 

The poll showed that 66% of Asian American voters plan on backing Harris, while 28% say they’ll be voting for Trump. When he was still in the race, President Joe Biden had been losing Asian American voters, dropping roughly 8 points compared to the 2020 presidential election cycle, a previous poll showed. But experts say that Harris has more than reversed that dip.  

“People had seen all the Zoom meetings for different Asian American groups for Harris, is that actually materializing in terms of support? … The answer is yes,” Karthick Ramakrishnan, whose nonprofit AAPI Data commissioned the poll with nonprofit Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote. “Harris has essentially restored a lot of the drop in support that Biden experienced.” 

Ramakrishan explained that it’s likely that the “energy and vigor” that Harris brought to the election cycle has made a major difference for the racial group. 

“Disapproval and favorability for Biden had plummeted quite a bit because they saw a president who did not seem capable of the job for another four years,” Ramakrishnan said. “They see something very different from Harris.” 

The poll, released on Tuesday, also showed that while Harris’ race has factored heavily in this election cycle, Asian American voters said that her identity as a woman is more important. Thirty-eight percent of Asian American voters said that her gender identity is “extremely” or “very” important to them. In comparison, 27% said the same about her racial identity as an Indian or South Asian American. 

Ramakrishnan said that Harris’ outspokenness around reproductive rights, particularly after the Dobbs decision in 2022, which reversed the federal right to an abortion that was upheld by Roe v. Wade, “made a difference” in placing more weight on her gender identity. But there is also another powerful component for many women voters.  

“There’s so many of the factors that would have motivated women in 2016, in terms of personally experiencing barriers in the workplace,” Ramakrishnan said, comparing Harris’ historic run to that of Hillary Clinton’s. “Feeling like having a woman as president, as the ‘top CEO in America,’ can be a source of inspiration.” 

The Asian American eligible voter population grew by 15% in the last four years, making them the fastest-growing electorate in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center. This demographic places jobs and the economy as a top priority, while inflation and health care were tied for second, according to an earlier poll. 

The new poll was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center earlier this month in English and several Asian languages. It featured 1,105 Asian American registered voter respondents, and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points. 

Before Harris entered the race, 46% of Asian American voters said they would choose Biden. It was down from the 54% who said they planned to do so in the 2020 election. During that cycle, just under a third said they’d vote for Trump. 

Harris’ overall favorability also increased, the poll showed. Sixty-two percent of participants said they have a favorable opinion of the vice president, while 35% said they have an unfavorable opinion. That’s 18 percentage points up from where she polled in the previous survey, conducted in April and May. Ramakrishnan pointed out that the results show that Harris performs better as the front runner, as opposed to as Biden’s running mate. 

Meanwhile, 28% of Asian American voters have a favorable opinion of Donald Trump, slightly down from previous polling. 

When looking at running mates, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz was found to be favorable among 56% of Asian American voters, more than twice the percentage that found Republican Sen. JD Vance favorable.

Turnout appears as though it’s likely to increase as well, the poll showed. Seventy-seven percent of Asian American now say they are “absolutely certain” they will vote now, compared to the 68% who said the same in April and May. 

For more from NBC Asian America, sign up for our weekly newsletter.