Asian-American voters, younger turnout fuel blue wave for Democrats in midterms

Democrats scored a sweeping victory in Tuesday’s midterm elections, with Asian-Americans and other voters of colour playing a key role, according to a new voter poll released on Wednesday.

The 2026 Midterm Election Voter Poll surveyed 10,141 voters, including 2,130 Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters, between October 20 and November 3. It offers insights into voting trends across racial groups.

Taeku Lee, a Harvard professor of government and a researcher for the poll, said Asian-American voters not only turned out in 2026 but also swung decisively towards Democrats.

“We show a nine-point swing to the Dems for AAPIs in 2026 compared to the partisan differential we found in 2024,” Lee said. “What we saw last night was not just a blue wave, but a multiracial, multi-ethnic blue wave. And AAPI voters were a vital force behind that wave.”

Among AAPI respondents, 56 per cent said they voted for Democrat Kamala Harris and 34 per cent for Republican Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. In this year’s House races, support for Democrats rose to 64 per cent, while support for Republicans remained relatively unchanged at 33 per cent.

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BSP Research and the African-American Research Collaborative conducted the poll in partnership with more than a dozen national organisations, which hosted a briefing on Wednesday. It builds on more than a decade of multiracial voter polling during election years.

The poll found that the cost of living was the dominant concern across racial groups. Among AAPI voters, inflation ranked first, cited by 53 per cent of respondents who could select up to three issues, followed by jobs and the economy (37 per cent) and healthcare costs (33 per cent).

Asked specifically about the cost of living, half cited food and grocery prices, 38 per cent cited petrol prices and 34 per cent pointed to healthcare costs.

Lee identified two other notable trends. The first was the growing participation of younger voters. He said one in eight AAPI voters cast their first ballot in 2026, while one in three first voted in 2022 or later. The proportion was even higher among voters aged 40 and younger, more than half of whom had first voted in 2022 or later.

The second trend was a major organising and mobilisation effort targeting AAPI voters. Democrats were more likely to contact them than Republicans, and non-partisan groups and AAPI community organisations also reached them heavily – one in three AAPI voters heard from at least one non-partisan or AAPI organisation.

“For the first time in the 14 years that I’ve been part of these election year polls, AAPIs were more likely than whites to be contacted and asked to register and turn out,” Lee said.

The poll found widespread concerns about democracy. More than 70 per cent of voters worried that Congress was not adequately checking the president’s power, while majorities of Black (73 per cent), Latino (64 per cent) and AAPI (59 per cent) voters said voting rights were under attack.

The poll also found that 73 per cent of AAPI voters believed Republicans did not care about them or were hostile towards them.

John Yang, executive director of the civil rights group Advancing Justice – AAJC, said the findings confirm what the group hears from communities: voters are rejecting abuses of power and demanding government accountability.

He emphasised that Asian-Americans are not white-adjacent and are aligned with other communities of colour.

“When you look at all of the data, it is clear that the Asian-American community is not a wedge,” Yang said. “But rather that we support and are in alignment and are in solidarity with other communities of colour on all of these important issues.”