Why did Vietnamese voters in Orange County swing toward Trump in 2020?
Mar. 7—Few places in
While Asian American voters nationwide have for decades tended to vote Democrat, Vietnamese American voters — in
But until last year there were signs that was changing. In recent years, younger Vietnamese Americans were registering as
Then something happened. Over the next four years, even as
The election caused palpable divisions in Little Saigon, where cafes are abundant and talk of politics is the norm, even when it is socially distant.
"This time around it was really intense, especially in this town," said
"We have people who are strong supporters of Biden and Harris. And then we've got people who are very loyal to Trump. For many years, they were all good friends. But they would get into these very heated debates," Chow said.
"You could feel the tension."
Local
Regardless, there's now a clear divide between generations, with a power struggle underway to decide whether, going forward, younger Vietnamese Americans will lean toward
"I really feel that we're on the cusp of a pivotal point in the Vietnamese community, where the elders are wiling to pass the torch to us because they have to," said
"The question is, which one of us is going to be trusted with that legacy?"
History and culture at play
When
"
He was among the 50,000 Vietnamese processed through
The community created a thriving business district along
Jao went from refugee to businessman, helping to mold the thriving Little Saigon district. His company,
The
"I believe in Republican principles like being a conservative, really promoting family values, free enterprise, less government control and freedom for everyone, for every individual."
Ta, who became the first Vietnamese American elected mayor of any American city in 2012, said many Vietnamese also view the Republican party as more patriotic and supportive of the military, which they credit with their freedom.
Since the wave of Vietnamese immigrants came as refugees fleeing Communism, that first generation saw themselves as distinct from other immigrant groups.
"To many Vietnamese, if you open borders, it's like leaving your front door open at night when you go to sleep."
Generational gaps grow
That early allegiance to the Republican party has largely stuck for that first generation of Vietnamese immigrants. Nearly 68% of local Vietnamese voters 50 and older were registered as
While Ta acknowledges that much has changed in recent years, he said he believes the core principals of the Republican party have held fast.
But Vietnamese immigrants who arrived as young children, and second- and third-generation Vietnamese Americans, aren't sticking to the pattern.
More than 65% of Vietnamese age 49 and under in
Local Vietnamese Republicans point out this trend isn't unique to their community. Ta cited a longtime adage that all younger people tend to be liberal but become more conservative once they grow up, buy homes, have kids and start paying taxes.
But local Vietnamese Democrats say they simply don't support the policies and ideologies that drew their parents and grandparents to the Republican party — even if they haven't been vocal about it.
"As younger individuals in the community, culturally, we're asked to respect our elders even though their visions and voting stance are so much different than ours," said Diep, who five years ago registered as a Democrat.
She said she ran into younger Vietnamese Americans at Trump rallies last fall, looking bashful. Some told her their parents had brought them. And she's heard that local Vietnamese sometimes even vote as a family, filling out ballots and sending them in together.
Diep was just 5 years old when her parents left
"My mother said to me, 'You're in a new country. You learn to speak the language and you become successful,'" Diep recalls. So until she was 30, when her mother passed away, Diep said she never spoke a word of Vietnamese.
She believes the generational gap so often cited for the divide among Vietnamese voters is really more about a language divide and access to information.
Since the younger generation can largely read and speak English, she said they can access more objective sources of information from a variety of sources to fact check what they hear or see on social media. The older generation, she added, is more likely to hear anecdotal information from friends or to get all of their news from thriving and (in her view) right-leaning Vietnamese language media outlets.
Some of those Vietnamese language media outlets repeated false talking points, according to Long Bui, an international studies professor at UC Irvine who has written about Vietnamese American anticommunist work and intergenerational differences in relation to homeland politics. Those generational differences, he said, include belief in claims that
Santa Ana Councilwoman
"My perception of why Trump did better in 2020 was the constant disinformation campaign," she said. "If you say it enough, whether it's true or not, people will hear it. And repeat it."
As with other communities of voters, Diep and Bui said financial status also plays a role in how local Vietnamese Americans vote. Those who own local restaurants and grocery stores are frustrated over high taxes and COVID-19 shutdowns, so they're more likely to vote Republican. But the employees who work in those same businesses have no healthcare or paid sick days, so they lean toward
Immigration status and sexual orientation also play a role in whether Vietnamese Americans are more likely to vote Republican or Democrat, Bui noted.
With all of those groups growing and getting more vocal, Vietnamese American voters in
Then came the 2020 election.
Map how Little Saigon voted in the 2016 presidential election, and the result is solid blue. Recreate the map in 2020, and it becomes solid red, with some of the darkest patches of red in all of
Vietnamese voters were accustomed to polished politicians who were politically correct and diplomatic, Ta said, so in 2016 they leaned toward
He cited Trump's tax plan and other economic policies. But he and many others said the shift could be summed up in one word:
"I think that policy is really, really what made a majority of the Vietnamese first generation Americans vote for (Trump)," Ta said. "He had really strong anti-Communist China policy."
"There are a lot of things they may not like about him, but they weigh it with what is important to them," Chow said. "He's not afraid to criticize
That lingering anti-
Some saw Trump's rhetoric as primarily targeting
So, he added, older Vietnamese Americans did not see Trump's language as affecting them, even though the national rise in anti-Asian hate crimes has included Vietnamese Americans.
Local issues at play
In the months leading up to the November election a number of incidents at the state and local level didn't bode well for
First
Then Democratic Gov.
There also were reports that Rouda, who was locked in a tough battle with Republican
Meanwhile, Rouda's first 2022 campaign video includes video of Steel several years ago saying: "There's only two parties in America:
Diep expressed frustration at political ads using "trigger words" such as Communism, which she says younger, more progressive Vietnamese have avoided because they know how traumatic such associations are for those who fled Communist Vietnam.
"Our elders use those trigger words to get people to vote with them," Diep said. "To us, they're almost being blinded to the issues that really truly matter to them."
On one hand, La said, it was a smart political strategy on the part of candidates who wanted to connect the trauma of those who fled
The messaging in November also showed that candidates view Vietnamese voters as a monolithic voting bloc and did not even bother to engage in a meaningful way, La said.
Today, she said Vietnamese Americans are more interested in social or structural issues that affect them: issues like housing and the lack of affordable homes or immigration and immigrant rights.
Too far
For even some longtime GOP Vietnamese, the Trump presidency pushed them over the edge.
Little Saigon developer Jao voted for Trump in 2016. Four years later, he voted for him again. This time, "reluctantly."
"He went too far," Jao said.
Trump, he noted, pulled out from numerous international agreements, including the
"He went to beat the drums for people to hear but some didn't make sense," Jao said.
And while Trump's anti-
A Republican since his arrival in
Though there were no widespread irregularities in the 2020 election Jao, like many Americans who have supported Trump, nodded at the idea of anti-
"I'm not sure I trust the voting system anymore," Jao said.
With some Vietnamese Americans turned off by the current Republican party,
"The first thing we need to do is recognize that we as Vietnamese Americans and immigrants to this country can represent and can amplify the voices of the underserved," said
She wants the group to focus on issues, rather than rhetoric or personalities. Key issues for the community, she said, include access to affordable education and healthcare and support for small businesses.
"We realized that a lot of these issues really brought us together, they didn't separate us," Diep said.
Attention to what Vietnamese voters want is long overdue, according to Bui.
"Neither one party really has done a great job, since so much mobilizing work happens at the grassroots level," Bui said.
"Both parties, at a state and national level, have taken the community for granted."
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