https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/24/republicans-asian-american-voters-506778GOP confronts big trouble in Little SaigonThe Republican Party is struggling to win over Asian American voters — including Vietnamese Americans, who were once one of its most reliable constituencies.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump by 69 percent to 25 percent among AAPI voters nationally. Trump ran ahead of that pace in 2020 but still lost by a landslide margin — 61 percent to 34 percent, according to [fake news EdIsOn] exit polls. In California, the result was even worse: Joe Biden won 3 out of every 4 Asian voters.
Even in Orange County, among the Vietnamese American voters who have long been a part of the Republican coalition, the GOP has been losing ground. After an election year in which AAPI voters turned out across the nation in record numbers, there is greater urgency than ever for the party to rethink its approach.
"The only way to grow the base of the GOP is by sticking with the core issues, running on the issues that would make the GOP an attractive party for hardworking immigrants, and not so much rally around a cult personality,” said Tyler Diep, a former Republican assemblyman from Orange County. “And I think that if the party can ever get to that state again, then it can be competitive nationwide. But if not, then I'm not sure how successful we can be as a party in the long run with the AAPI community."
Janet Nguyen points out that, unlike her own party, local Democratic Party offices have multiple full-time Vietnamese American staffers to engage with voters year-round. Republicans are also behind when it comes to investing in Vietnamese-language media. In the past, the Orange County Democratic Party has launched radio shows on Little Saigon Radio with the Vietnamese American Democratic Club, a grassroots organization that also broadcasts its own TV shows discussing key issues.
Among those who registered with a major political party, roughly 68 percent of Orange County Vietnamese American voters 50 and older were registered as Republicans on Election Day last year, according to figures from Political Data Inc., a voter data firm used by both parties in California. But more than 65 percent of those 49 and under were registered as Democrats.
Local Republicans here take some solace in the fact that, while the GOP isn’t as attractive as it once was to many Vietnamese Americans — in part because the second and third generations are more liberal and have no memory of Vietnam’s communist regime — those voters have become independents, rather than Democrats.
It’s people like Danny Zheong [possible typo?], 42, a Vietnamese immigrant who works at an herbs and cosmetics shop in Little Saigon. As his boss watches a Vietnamese Youtube video of the news while tucked behind towers of local teas and snail essence creams, Zheong says he doesn’t like talking about current events. Like many of the shop workers in the Hanoi Plaza, where South Vietnam and U.S. flags fly side-by-side, he considers himself apolitical, doesn’t identify with a party and is willing to give a chance to whichever candidate can boost the economy.
He voted for Biden last year, but it was more of a vote against Trump, Zheong said. It doesn’t mean his vote will go to the Democratic candidate next year in the midterm elections, which he hasn’t given much thought to.