Are mayoral candidates getting serious about Chinese American voters?

In recent years, as New York politicians have started to realize the potential voting power of Chinese Americans, Democratic strategist Trip Yang sometimes clocks what he calls the Flushing “bubble tea photo op.”

“They view a community as an ethnic prop: ‘Let me get bubble tea with a Chinese-looking person, take a couple pictures, a 15-second video, and then let me get in my private car back to Manhattan or Brooklyn,’” Yang said, calling it a bipartisan phenomenon.

That interest – if delayed and nakedly opportunistic in those instances – happens for a reason. Asian Americans broadly were the fastest growing voting-age population between 2010 and 2020, and Chinese Americans account for roughly 44% of that population, the Asian American Federation found in a 2022 report. Between 2013 and 2021, turnout in open citywide primaries spiked for many Asian ethnic groups, and for Chinese Americans jumped from 19% to 29%.

A growing and increasingly politically active voting population commands attention on its own. But for Democrats, that alarm has rung louder in recent years, as Chinese American voters have shifted more toward Republican candidates, with concerns about public safety and education among the driving issues. A large portion of Chinese American voters are not affiliated with either party, blunting their influence in the city’s primaries.




https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2025/05/are-mayoral-candidates-getting-serious-about-chinese-american-voters/405048/?oref=csny-category-lander-featured-river