Filipino-Americans are “quite divided” in the White House race between US President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Manila’s envoy in Washington said Wednesday as polls closed.
Some 2 million out of 4.3 million Filipino-Americans are registered to vote in the US, said Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez.
“It’s really kind of divided. I must say that it’s quite divided unlike, I suppose, in 2016, we had more for Trump. They just wanted a change in administration rather than having a Democrat at that time. Now, I think it’s divided,” he told ANC’s Headstart.
The 2020 Asian American Voter Survey (AAVS) interviewed 1,600 Asian Americans and said while the majority – no numbers were disclosed – of Fil-Am voters were leaning blue (a euphemism for voting Democrat, the red being Republican), 34 percent were still voting for Trump.
The AAVS did not have any interviews published with some of what it called “majority” of Fil-Am voters leaning towards the Democratic Party.
The group Raise the FilAm Voice, in endorsing Trump, referred to Filipino conservative values as among reasons for their support for Trump.
“We cherish our family, our freedom to succeed, and our faith. We are traditionally conservative. This is who we are. Our conservative values are what defines our identity, our strength, and our hard-earned prosperity in the US,” the group said.
It added: “We are disgusted by the hypocrisy of the Democrats who claim to be Catholics-Christians while justifying abortion and infanticide.”
The Republican Party opposes abortion and same-sex marriage including tough immigration policies, which affect Filipinos as well.
However, in an article for the South China Morning Post, writer Raissa Robles quoted Filipino-American civic leader Rodel Rodis, who said the choice is clear when the United States goes to the polls: “We should support Joe Biden because our lives depend on it.”
Rodis, the co-founder of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), said in an October 17 Zoom forum on the upcoming election that he “chose life” by supporting the Democratic Party candidate, and did not back President Donald Trump’s plan of herd immunity to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit the US harder than any other country.
Rodis is among the 1.96 million Filipino-Americans eligible to cast a ballot this year, the second-largest minority voting bloc behind the country’s 2.57 million Chinese-Americans, going by data from the Pew Research Centre, Robles added in her report.
Most Filipino-American voters also lean blue – with 52 percent counting themselves as Democrats and 34 per cent inclined to vote Republican – but that political divide has widened, mirroring the polarisation playing out across the US, the SCMP article noted.
In March, before the country’s main island of Luzon came under strict or enhanced community quarantine, President Rodrigo Duterte urged Fil-Ams to vote for what he described as his “good friend” Trump.
Duterte and Trump are also known for their strong dislike for media criticizing their respective administrations.
Some political observers were also saying many Fil-Ams were voting for Trump because of his actions against China, although other analysts say Trump has investments in the People’s Republic of China.
“It is a conscience vote, as well as a practical vote. We saw how the Democrats had abandoned the Philippines to Chinese transgressions, in contrast now [with] how the President defends the Philippine territorial sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea,” Raise The FilAm Voice added in its statement.
Fil-Ams believe that Trump improved the economy. If it weren’t for the pandemic, they said this economic boom would have continued.
Filipinos constitute the fourth-largest number of immigrants in the United States.
More than one million immigrants arrive in the US each year. In 2018, the top country of origin for new immigrants coming into the US was China, with 149,000 people, followed by India (129,000), Mexico (120,000), and the Philippines (46,000).
When polls close in California, which has the most electoral votes of any state at 55, that could put either candidate over the 270-requirement threshold.
Coronavirus, which was often ignored by the sitting president in his campaign rallies but raised by his challenger repeatedly, is also expected to slow down the counting.
Twice in the past five elections, projections of winners were not even made on election night. In 2004, George W Bush was not called the winner until midday the day after the election.
In 2000, the media outlets making projections erroneously called Florida for Al Gore before rescinding that projection.
The close nature of the results of that race led to neither Gore nor George W Bush having enough electoral votes without Florida’s results, leading to weeks of recounts and legal battles.
Florida was not called until December 12, when the US Supreme Court ordered the state’s recount halted. Bush had a 537-vote lead at that point and was declared the winner, delivering him the state’s electoral votes and an Electoral College victory.