Republicans made a dent in New York City's solidly Democrat voting base during the 2022 gubernatorial election, but nowhere was that seen more than with the city's Asian voters.
Gov. Kathy Hochul narrowly defeated Republican Lee Zeldin to win reelection, but there was a shift of 23 percentage points among Asian voters in the city, the largest electoral shift in Asian neighborhoods there since at least 2006, according to a New York Times analysis.
The analysis found some Asian neighborhoods, such as Chinese sections in Sunset Park and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, had shifts so large they flipped to support a Republican candidate for governor for the first time in at least a decade. Others, such as Manhattan's Chinatown and Queens' Richmond Hill, remained in Democrats' grip despite an increase in Republican votes.
The analysis said Asian residents make up about 14% of the city's population of 18.8 million and are the fastest-growing group of eligible voters.
Community organizers said Republican candidates have increased their presence in Asian neighborhoods. Republicans also have benefited from a tough-on-crime platform, and a feeling among Asian residents that they are overlooked by Democrat leaders.
"I think what the Republican Party has done well is to make very stark for people that they are the party that's going to keep people safe," said John Albert, founder of Taking Our Seat, a Queens-based group that advocated for the South Asian community during redistricting. "Whether they're actually doing it or not is probably less relevant."
Another explanation, according to the analysis, is that many Asian residents were turned off by a 2018 proposal by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, to change the admissions process for the city's elite public high schools to increase the number of Black and Hispanic students. Offers to Asian students, who make up a majority in the schools, would have dropped by about half under the plan.
The proposal sparked protests in Sunset Park, Flushing and City Hall Park, which is near Manhattan's Chinatown, and discrimination lawsuits.
Pei-te Lien, professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said she expects the red shifts to continue in future elections in New York City and elsewhere in Asian American communities nationwide.
"This is the harbinger of what is coming," Lien said.
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