The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has just issued a press release about its exit polling for the 2006 election. The key quote from AALDEF Executive Director Margaret Fung:
The decade-long trend of Asian American voters favoring Democratic candidates contributed to the dramatic shifts in political power that took place in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
All good news here. A sampling of how Asian Americans voted in key elections:
Virginia Senate — 76% D versus 21% R
New Jersey Senate — 77% D versus 21% R
Maryland Senate — 73% D versus 24% R
Pennsylvania Senate — 71% D versus 29% R
Massachusetts Governor — 75% D versus 21% R
Michigan anti-affirmative action proposal — 76% against
The outdated canard that Asian Americans vote Republican is officially dead. Asian Americans may even have provided the margin of Democratic victory in certain races — possibly even the critical Virginia Senate race, where Asian American filmmaker Eric Byler and Real Virginians for Webb conducted an impressive outreach effort for Webb and against George “Macaca” Allen, complete with an awesome Daniel Dae Kim YouTube video.
Democratic candidates and leaders: Please adjust perceptions accordingly.
Click here and scroll down for AALDEF’s full press release.
A version of this diary was posted originally at AsiansVote.com
Out of curiosity, How were the numbers in the larger communities on the West Coast?
Hey, Poeschek. Thanks for the post. I haven’t seen any more detailed data yet about turnout. But it’s worth noting that a slew of Asian Americans were elected to various offices in California, including Jane Kim and Hydra Mendoza to the SF School Board, John Chiang as CA State Controller, Blong Xiong to the Fresno City Council, and Leland Yee to the California State Senate.