On November 5, Donald J. Trump was widely reported to have won a big U.S. presidential election victory. A key factor was his success in attracting more of American minority voters than usual: Latinos and Blacks. Indeed, this made a difference.

However, little was said about another minority—Asian Americans. They, of course, are a much smaller segment of voters. But they also shifted.

Thirty-eight percent of Asian Americans voted for former president Trump. This was major change from the past. It was a 9 percent shift from 2020. This was consequential.

What were the reasons for their change?

Most Asian Americans are naturalised citizens. When they arrived in the U.S., they settled mostly in cities controlled by the Democratic Party. Democrats made them a part of their rainbow coalition and helped them get accustomed to American culture but also the liberal ideas of the party. They thus voted Democrat by a wide margin.

This began to change a decade ago. Their issues became more conservative: the economy, crime, education, and foreign policy.

After President Obama’s record of slow recovery from the recession in 2008, Trump returned the U.S. to good growth. Then, under Biden/Harris insidious inflation hit middle Americans hard including Asians. Asian Americans ran 3 million small businesses and were largely middle class. By 2024, they had little confidence Kamala Harris could fix the economy and restore good growth. Her record for three and one-half years was not impressive.

Asian Americas were very vulnerable to rising crime rates in the U.S. They live in mostly big cities where the problem is more serious. They were victims more often with the defunding police. And the liberal media that did not sympathise much with Asians. Many of the crimes, especially murders, against Asians received publicity yet were followed by limited or no response by Democrat governments. The Biden/Harris Administration’s policy of open borders, in their view, made crime much worse.

Education was another factor affecting Asian American voters. Most Asians hail from countries that have a strong tradition and culture of education. They favour leaders with good educational backgrounds. They knew that Biden and Harris did not shine in this regard. They noted that Trump and Vance had good educations, and both wrote books. They were painfully aware that Democrats favor racial bias against Asians in America’s colleges and universities admissions policies. In 2000, Chinese students sued Yale University over racial discrimination; Trump supported the students. Finally, when queried about Democratic Party woke policies, Asians express revulsion; many see it as reflecting America’s national decline.

In managing American foreign policy, they believe Trump did a much better job than Bidden/Harris. They recalled Biden’s blunders in pulling out of Afghanistan and its negative impact on American’s image. They noted Biden’s failed efforts to build an alliance of democratic countries to isolate China. They observed the Trump administration avoided war; Biden did not.

Asian Americans are proportionally the fastest growing minority in the United States, increasing in size by 15 percent or 2 million voters from 2020 to 2024. They have a high voter turnout.

They excel in business, science and technology and in other ways. They are often called America’s “model minority”. How they vote matters.