Warnock, Ossoff hold commanding 30+ point leads in IMPACT poll

(Dec. 21, 2020) — New IMPACT Poll of AAPI Voters in GA –  Conducted by GBAO Strategies  – Reveals Overwhelming Enthusiasm for Dems, Republican Attacks Backfiring, Ahead of Senate Runoffs

As the first Vice-President-elect of Indian American descent, Kamala Harris, campaigned in Georgia today, the leading Indian American advocacy group and political action committee, IMPACT, released a new poll which showed overwhelming support and enthusiasm for Democratic Senate candidates among AAPI voters heading into the January 5 runoffs. The poll of more than 600 AAPI voters conducted in early December is the most comprehensive look at AAPI voters and their preferences to be conducted ahead of the January elections. Respondents of the poll also indicated strong negative reactions toward Senator David Perdue for his mocking of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ name at a Trump rally in October.

Full poll results can be found here.

“Asian American voters – and South Asian voters in particular – are playing a pivotal role in battleground states across the country, including Georgia. In a race that will be this close, 100,000 Indian Americans and 238,080 eligible Asian American voters have the power to make the difference,” IMPACT Executive Director Neil Makhija said. “IMPACT’s poll – the first of its kind to survey this emerging voting bloc – demonstrates that our voters are energized about Democrats, disapproving of Republican attacks, and ready to transfer their enthusiasm to the ballot box”

The IMPACT poll shows Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff with commanding 30+ point leads over their Republican opponents: Warnock leads Republican Kelly Loeffler by 36 points (65 percent to 29 percent), while Ossoff leads Republican David Perdue by 33 points (63 percent to 30 percent). These leads widen drastically among South Asian voters, who favor Warnock by a 60 point margin (78-18), and Ossoff by a 56-point margin of (76 to 20). 

The poll also reveals that AAPI voters view the Republican candidates as hostile to their concerns and backgrounds. When asked on a scale of 100 how much each of the four Georgia Senate candidates “looks down on people like you,” voters rated Perdue at 57 and Ossoff at 17, a difference of 40 points; a 33-point spread separated Warnock and Loeffler. Both Loeffler and Perdue have aligned themselves with President Trump and his racially divisive rhetoric, and Perdue made headlines in October for mocking Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s name during a rally, calling her “Kamala-mala-mala.” As reported by POLITICO, IMPACT intends to run digital ads on Perdue’s deliberate and derisive mispronunciation.

AAPI voters are poised to play a pivotal role in the January Senate runoffs, building off the momentum from November’s election, when AAPI voters helped swing the Peach State for Democrats for the first time in more than 25 years. Asian-Americans are the fastest-growing demographic nationally and in the state of Georgia.

Last week, IMPACT launched a historic $2.5 million digital, mail, and operational campaign to harness this emerging power of AAPI voters and turn them out in January. That effort followed IMPACT’s groundbreaking $10 million campaign in the general election, focused on targeting Asian American voters in Pennsylvania and Arizona. The campaign was the largest-ever effort to target South Asian voters. 

Fast facts:

• This year, Georgia saw a 91 percent increase in AAPI voter turnout over 2016, and exit polls showed Asian American voters preferred Joe Biden to President Trump by a 2 to 1 margin. 
  • This growth in turnout compared to 2016 far exceeded other racial and ethnic groups: white turnout increased 16 percent, black turnout increased 20 percent, and Latinx turnout increased by 72 percent.
• An additional 42,000 AAPI voters voted in 2020 over 2016 and more than 30,000 AAPI voters voted for the first time ever. Biden won Georgia by just over 14,000 votes.
• Asian American voters saw the highest increase in turnout among any demographic.
• Asian Americans are the fastest-growing demographic in Georgia (and nationally), and Indian Americans are the largest Asian American group in Georgia.
  • While the general eligible voting population in Georgia grew 9% between 2012 and 2018, the Indian American voting population grew by 231%.
• There are an estimated 238,000 eligible AAPI voters in Georgia, and a population of over 150,000 being Indian Americans.