Asian-American voters gave Donald Trump a bigger share of their votes in 2024 than in 2020. 68 per cent of Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander adults disapprove of the way Trump is doing his job. AAPI Data, a research organisation, ran the poll in January, and just 30 per cent approve.
Those figures land six weeks before the midterm vote on Tuesday 3 November, which decides who runs Congress. About 16M such adults can cast a ballot this year. Nine in 10 of their registered voters intend to do so, the 2026 AAPI Voter Survey found.
Inside the January Numbers
The poll ran with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and 52 per cent disapprove strongly rather than somewhat. Trump does better with the country as a whole, where 40 per cent approved in the same week. Among adults under 30, 83 per cent disapprove, and the share falls to 60 per cent among the oldest. Graduates are almost 20 percentage points harder on him than those without a degree.
Approval of Trump's handling of immigration fell from 42 per cent in March 2025 to 33 per cent in January. In early February, 73 per cent of these adults said they view Immigration and Customs Enforcement unfavourably. Two thirds say Trump has gone too far in deporting people living in the country illegally. 62 per cent say he has hurt job creation. Eight in 10 call grocery costs a source of stress.
What the Last Election Showed
Pew Research Center put Asian voters at 57 per cent for Kamala Harris and 40 per cent for Trump in 2024. Pew matched answers to official turnout records. Four years earlier, the same voters backed Joe Biden, 70 per cent to 30. Pew puts the shift down mainly to turnout, not to voters switching sides. The two studies do not count the same people, since one covers voters and the other covers every adult.
The survey, which ran from June to July, asked how registered voters will cast their ballots. Sixty per cent chose the Democratic Senate candidate, against 24 per cent for the Republican. Cost of living topped their list of issues, and 90 per cent called it very or extremely important. Both parties still have room to move, and 'there is tremendous electoral potential waiting to be activated,' said Karthick Ramakrishnan, the founder and executive director of AAPI Data.
The Voters Nobody Has Called
Forty-two per cent of those voters report no approach from the Democratic Party in the past year. For the Republicans, it is 58 per cent. Turnout intent stood at 84 per cent in 2022, and 71 per cent call themselves absolutely certain to vote. 'We are seeing even more voters planning to cast their ballots,' said Christine Chen, who runs the voter group APIAVote.
The bloc does not move as one, and the spread between its ethnic groups is wide. Filipino voters were the only group to prefer the Republican candidate for the Senate, by 49 per cent to 42. Asian Indian voters went the other way, giving the Democratic candidate 66 per cent of their votes. Another 1.6M voters have joined the electorate since the last midterms.
