Politics
Filipino Americans have traditionally been socially conservative. In the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election Republican president George W. Bush won the Filipino American vote over John Kerry by nearly a two-to-one ratio, which followed strong support in the 2000 election. However, during the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Filipino Americans voted majority Democratic, with 50% to 58% of the community voting for President Barack Obama and 42% to 46% voting for Senator John McCain. The 2008 election marked the first time when a majority of Filipino Americans voted for a Democrat presidential candidate.
According to the 2012 National Asian American Survey, conducted in September 2012, 45% of Filipinos were independent or nonpartisan, 27% were Republican, and 24% were Democrats. Additionally, Filipino Americans had the largest proportions of Republicans among Asian Americans polled, a position normally held by Vietnamese Americans. Leading up to the 2012 election, a plurality support Romney over Obama, and had the lowest job approval opinion of Obama among Asian Americans.
Due to scattered living patterns, it is nearly impossible for Filipino Americans to win an election solely based on the Filipino American vote. At the national level Filipino Americans have increased their visibility over the past few decades. Ben Cayetano, former governor of Hawaii, became the first governor of Filipino descent in the United States. The number of Congress-members of Filipino descent doubled to numbers not reached since 1937, two when the Philippine Islands were represented by non-voting Resident Commissioners, due to the 2000 Senatorial Election. In 2009 there were three Congress-members who claim to have at least one-eighth Filipino ethnicity; the largest number of Filipino Americans in Congress. Since the resignation of Senator John Ensign in 2011, (the only Filipino American to have been a member of the Senate), and Representative Steve Austria (having been the only Asian Pacific American Republican in the 112th Congress) choosing not to seek reelection and retire, Representative Robert C. Scott will be the only Filipino American in the 113th Congress.
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