Why Are Asian Americans Politically Invisible?

Published in The Atlantic on

Asian Americans are the fastest growing voting block in the country–but we rarely see politicians actively courting their support.

Why don’t Asian Americans count more, in the landscape of American politics? On its face, the answer is a simple matter of mathematics: Asians make up a much smaller slice of the electorate (An estimated 4 percent in 2016, according to Pew) compared to Blacks (12 percent) or Hispanics (12 percent). But that’s changing: Pew also concludes that the largest growth in the voting public is among Asians, who grew four times faster than any demographic group from 2000 to 2010.