AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community

Analyses of the 2016 election focused a great deal on the “White Evangelical vote,” signaling the important intersection of race and religion. But not all Evangelicals are White nor does Christianity encompass all American religion. The Asian American community brings these two social dimensions into broader perspective. We argue that Asian American religious communities encounter two major political parties with different cultural schemas: the White Christian ideal of American society on the right and Multicultural Liberalism, a racially and religiously pluralistic vision of America, on the left. Using data from the Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) 2017 we illustrate the 2016 presidential candidate choice and party affiliations of Asian American voters and nonvoters disaggregated by religious identity. We suggest that the Republican Party’s candidate and thinly veiled White Christian nationalism likely alienated a potential non‒White Christian base. Similarly, most Asian American Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs voted for Clinton despite great proportions of all groups identifying as political independents. Political practitioners will find important considerations when evaluating coalition building given the patterns we show here. We offer suggestions on how to frame the considerations of religious Asian Americans under our current racialized and religionized political culture.