Ahead of this year’s presidential election, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) measures the relationship between religion and partisanship among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). Considered “the fastest-growing group of eligible voters in the United States,” the analysis also provides insight into these groups’ views of presidential candidates by religion, gender and educational attainment.
Last year, 37% of AAPI Americans considered themselves Christian (20%, Protestant; 16%, Catholic; less than 1%, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Latter-day Saints). This percentage has largely remained unchanged since 2013 (35%). The lowest reported percentage was 30% in 2017 and the highest number of AAPI Americans who identified as Christian was 41% in 2022.
Nearly a third (28%) of AAPI Americans (28%) are not Christians. These include Hindu (14%), Buddhist (7%), Muslim (4%) and members of other non-Christian religions (2%).
Nearly one in four (38%) AAPI Americans say they are Democrats, a decrease of 6 percentage points from 2013. Thirty-five percent of AAPI Americans identify as Independent, down from 43% in 2013. The number of AAPI Americans who say they are Republican has slightly increased from 12% in 2013 to 17% in 2023.
Fifty-three percent of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans have a favorable view of Joe Biden. There is a near-even split between AAPI men (54%) and AAPI women (52%).
AAPI Americans with a college degree are more likely to have a favorable view of Joe Biden (61%) compared to those who don’t have a college degree (38%). Sixty- three percent of religiously unaffiliated AAPI Americans have a favorable view of Biden. On the other hand, 52% of non-Christian AAPI Americans and 43% of AAPI Christians view him favorably.
On the issues, PRRI found: “Nearly four in ten Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders say they would only vote for a candidate who shares their views on access to guns (39%) or abortion (38%), compared with around three in ten who say they would vote based on a candidate’s stance on climate change (32%), immigration (28%), and LGBTQ rights (28%). Interestingly, although an equal percentage of AAPI Americans say they would vote for a candidate based on their stance on immigration and LGBTQ rights (both 28%), more AAPI Americans say they consider a candidate’s position on immigration as one of many important factors (60%) than say the same about LGBTQ rights (43%).”
The report also found while most AAPI Americans hold an unfavorable view of Donald Trump, most Christian APPI Americans with a high school education are less likely to support Joe Biden. The highest AAPI support for a Democratic candidate in recent elections was for the re-election of Barack Obama in 2012 (73%).
Read the full report here.
Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.