asianamerican voters sent a message in 2020 seek us out listen to what we tell you and we can help you win they surged to the polls in 2020 and could help swing the georgia senate runoffs activists and experts say it is long past time for both democrats and republicans to pursue themcreditbridget bennett for the new york timespublished jan 3 2021updated jan 7 2021follow our live capitol building lockdown reporter discussion herethe message asianamerican voters sent in 2020 was clear seek us out listen to what we tell you and we can help you winthey turned out in record numbers in georgia the increase in asianamerican voters was so significant in the general election that they could play a decisive role in the two senate runoff races this week and on the ballot itself asianamerican candidates were more visible in national politics than ever most notably with kamala harris a woman of south asian descent becoming the vice presidentelectbut the election also offered some caution for democrats who have long assumed that increasing racial diversity in the united states will benefit them at the ballot box demographics alone are not destiny asianamerican voters and latino voters made clear that while they generally support democrats they do not do so at the same rate as black voters and remain very much up for grabs by either partyat the presidential level asianamericans cast a record number of ballots in battleground states where joseph r biden jr notched narrow victories but a new york times analysis showed that in immigrant neighborhoods across the country asianamerican and latino voters shifted to the right nationwide preliminary data suggests that about one in three asianamericans supported president trump a slight uptick from his support in 2016for many democrats who still hope that greater asianamerican political involvement will benefit them the election illustrated that the party must go after nonwhite voters with the same nuanced approach and level of urgency that has generally been reserved for white voters in swing statesthere is a small but still significant bloc of voters that needs to be courted and that courting needs to be maintained because were going to have close elections said varun nikore the president of the aapi victory fund a super pac focused on mobilizing asianamericans and pacific islanders to vote for democratic candidatesbut he added things can go backward you cant take the asian vote for grantednow as mr biden forms his administration asianamerican congressional leaders and many of their colleagues are already chafing at what could be a cabinet without a single asianamerican secretary for the first time in decadesrepresentative grace meng democrat of new york who holds highranking positions in both the democratic national committee and the congressional asian pacific american caucus sees the situation as an indication that the lessons of 2020 have yet to sink ini dont think we as a party have appreciated sufficiently the contributions that aapi voters have made in this novembers election she saidfor years asianamericans