GOP's "Minority Problem" Includes Asians

Nobody expected the GOP to get many African-American votes in the last election -- and they didn't. In fact, African-Americans have been loyal Democratic voters since the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s. And much has been made of how poorly the Republicans did among Hispanics in the last election -- with President Obama getting over 70% of the Hispanic vote (and many other Democrats doing very well with Hispanics).

But African-Americans and Hispanics aren't the only minorities in this country, and the Republicans didn't do very well with any minority group. One of these groups is the Asian-Americans. In 2012, President Obama also got well over 70% of the Asian vote. And a newly released Gallup Poll (conducted between January 2nd and December 30th of 2012 of 338,703 adults nationwide, with 6,465 Asian-Americans being in the survey -- with only a 1 point margin of error) shows this is not a fluke.

The poll showed that 36% of Asian-Americans self-identified as Democrats, while only 17% identified themselves as Republicans (and 46% said they were Independents). But when the Independents were asked whether they leaned toward the Democrats or Republicans, it showed that twice as many Asian-Americans preferred the Democrats over the Republicans. The Democrats had 57%, to only 28% for the Republicans and 13% were truly Independents. And the future does not look any brighter for the GOP, since the preference for Democrats rose to 61% among 18 to 34 year olds.

Here are the party preferences for all the groups (broken down by ages).

ASIAN-AMERICANS

18 to 34
Republican...............24%
Independent...............14%
Democrat...............61%

35 to 54
Republican...............31%
Independent...............14%
Democrat...............52%

55 & over
Republican...............33%
Independent...............9%
Democrat...............55%

HISPANICS

18 to 34
Republican...............24%
Independent...............22%
Democrat...............50%

35 to 54
Republican...............24%
Independent...............20%
Democrat...............50%

55 & over
Republican...............23%
Independent...............13%
Democrat...............59%

AFRICAN-AMERICANS

18 to 34
Republican...............11%
Independent...............12%
Democrat...............75%

35 to 54
Republican...............9%
Independent...............10%
Democrat...............80%

55 & over
Republican...............7%
Independent...............6%
Democrat...............84%

WHITES

18 to 34
Republican...............44%
Independent...............14%
Democrat...............41%

35 to 54
Republican...............53%
Independent...............11%
Democrat...............36%

55 & over
Republican...............51%
Independent...............8%
Democrat...............40%

The Republicans do still have the numerical advantage among Whites, but the percentage of White voters has dropped by about 2% in each of the last few elections -- and the percentage of voters that were minorities has grown. Hispanics are the fastest-growing portion of the population, but the percentages of African-Americans and Asian-Americans are also growing larger. It has now reached the point that minorities can no longer be ignored as a non-factor in an election. All of these groups are a factor in elections now, and will become a bigger factor with each election.

If the Republicans want to remain a viable party in the future, they must reach out to minority voters. And just toning down their rhetoric or picking more ideologically pure right-wing candidates will not do that. They must change or moderate their policies -- something that will be hard to do as long as teabaggers control the party.