Republicans Courted Asians, and It Paid Off

Bloomberg reports:

Evidence from recent election cycles suggests Republicans have some distance to go in winning minority support in major elections. But there was at least some indication from last night’s exit polls that they may be making some headway with Asian-Americans, the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S.

The data may be evidence of the value of Republican engagement with minority voters -- particularly since the 2012 election.

National exit polling of voters in House races last night found that almost half of Asian-Americans -- 49 percent -- supported the Republican candidate. This is about twice the share who supported Mitt Romney in exit polling conducted after the 2012 presidential election. It also reverses a trend that began roughly during the 1990s, of increasing Asian-American support for Democratic candidates (starting with Bill Clinton).

The issues that Asian voters identified as most significant mirrored those of the general electorate -- the economy first, followed by health care, foreign policy and immigration. Notably, many more Asian voters (21 percent) identified foreign policy as the most important issue facing the country as the electorate did generally (12 percent).

Imagine that.