Kamala Harris Is Losing Support With This Key Demographic. It Could
Cost Her Georgia.
Korean Americans’ support for Democrats has faltered since 2020
though, in large part because of the economy. Most of Harris’ campaign
messaging, however, has been about Trump’s racism.
A cluster of businesses is seen in Duluth, Georgia.
The Korean community built in Duluth, Georgia, is unlike anywhere else in
the U.S. — even New York City or Los Angeles. | Photos by Catherine
Kim/POLITICO
By CATHERINE KIM
10/07/2024 10:00 AM EDT
Catherine Kim is an assistant editor at POLITICO Magazine.
DULUTH, Georgia — Drive through the downtown of this Atlanta suburb
and it will immediately transport you to South Korea in the 2000s, when
faded store signs in retro sans serif font lined the streets. Strip malls are
filled with shops that mark their names boldly in Korean. Restaurant
owners greet their customers in Korean, and by 7 p.m., tables are filled
with gaggles of locals discussing their latest trip back to the homeland.
The owners refill your banchan before you even ask. Hot cups of barley
tea are served upon request.
The Korean community built here in Duluth is unlike anywhere else in the
U.S. — even New York City or Los Angeles. It is a place created solely by
Koreans for Koreans, an empire of small businesses, where Korean comes
before English on any menu you’ll receive. Although it’s only been around
for about 30 years, making it far younger than most Korean American
communities in the country, the arrival of this particular community has
brought more culture, more workers and more investment to Georgia. And
luckily for Democrats, they’ve also brought more blue votes for the state.
That might be changing, however, as many here are now reconsidering
their support for the Democratic Party.
Asian Americans have become a political force as their numbers multiply,
and that phenomenon has never been more evident than here in Gwinnett
County — a once-conservative stronghold that now votes blue with the
help of a massive influx of Korean immigrants. From 2010 to 2020, the
number of Korean Americans in Georgia nearly doubled. During that
period, Gwinnett voted for the Democratic presidential candidate for the
first time since 1980 — first in 2016, then again in 2020.
But that support for Democrats has since faltered, unraveled by an
uncertain economy, inflation and high cost of living. It’s a major red flag
for Vice President Kamala Harris, who will need every vote she can scrape
together to win Georgia, a state President Joe Biden won by less than
12,000 votes in 2020. Nationally, Korean Americans’ Democratic party
identification has dropped from 51 percent to 38 percent in the span of
four years from 2020 to 2024, according to the 2024 Asian American
Voter Survey. A separate poll conducted by NORC at the University of
Chicago found Donald Trump’s support among Korean Americans grew by
8 percentage points between April/May and September.
A menu sits on a table at a Korean restaurant in Duluth.
Duluth, Georgia, is a place created solely by Koreans for Koreans, an
empire of small businesses, where Korean comes before English on any
menu you’ll receive.
The economy has always been a top priority for Korean Americans — the
2024 Asian American Voter Survey found that 90 percent marked it as an
issue that is extremely or very important to them — and their evaluation of
the Democratic Party’s performance has been poor. It’s why, even as
support for Harris among AAPI voters far surpasses Biden’s numbers, I
saw dampened political support in Gwinnett County for Democrats, where
inflation has weighed heavily on the community.
“The price of ingredients has just risen so much — almost 80 percent for
certain items,” says Lee Sung Yong, who owns traditional KBBQ and
noodle restaurants in the area. He’ll be voting for Trump, he says, and
points to one main reason: “The yearly costs of my operation have been
so different under the two administrations.”
LETTERS FROM A SWING STATE
KAMALA HARRIS’ PENNSYLVANIA PROBLEM | BY CHARLES F. MCELWEE
‘IT SMELLS LIKE A RAT’: THE NASTY FEUD THAT COULD FLIP WISCONSIN
| BY CALDER MCHUGH
KAMALA HARRIS IS LOSING SUPPORT WITH THIS KEY DEMOGRAPHIC. IT
COULD COST HER GEORGIA. | BY CATHERINE KIM
He pauses for a second, looking at his workers wiping glossy wooden
tables as they wait for the lunch rush to hit. Behind the open counter, his
employees are laying out empty trays that have yet to be filled. Only a
handful of customers are seated in the vast hall.
“Eating out has become such a financial burden these days,” he says.
“That first and foremost needs to be fixed for us to survive.”
The best way to understand the Korean American vote in Georgia and its
large percentage of independent voters — despite the conventional
knowledge that Asian Americans skew Democratic — is to recognize the
history of the community. It’s marked by its relative newness: Korean
immigrants started to move to Gwinnett County en masse around the late
1980s and early ’90s. A large portion of the population still consists of
first-generation immigrants with limited English proficiency and deep ties
to their home country. There isn’t much of a culture of robust civic
participation, let alone established party loyalty.
There wasn’t much outreach from either party until 2020, when the
turnout increase among Asian American voters was identified as a key
factor to Biden’s win in Georgia. Since then, both parties have poured
more money into ads in ethnic media outlets or phone banking in the
voters’ native language. Yet there’s still more outreach work to be done:
27 percent of Asian Americans across the nation have said that neither
party has contacted them.
“Korean people, they are involuntarily independent because they are not
informed by either party,” says Lee Jongwon, a lawyer and columnist for
local Korean newspaper, Atlanta Joongang Daily News. Party loyalty can’t
be established when Korean Americans don’t even have enough
information to differentiate the two parties to begin with, he adds.
The lack of party connection means that the bloc often behaves like
single-issue voters: In 2020 and 2022, racism and public safety was top-
of-mind following a wave of hate crimes against Asians during the peak of
the pandemic, including the 2021 spa shootings in the Atlanta area that
killed eight people — six of whom were of Asian descent. For some, like
Clara Lee, a small banchan shop owner in Gwinnett County, Trump’s
rhetoric against immigrants still serves as a reason to vote against him:
“When Trump was in power, hidden racists were given the opportunity to
start revealing themselves,” she says. “So I started thinking there can
never be a candidate like him again, especially since I’m a minority.”
But for most this year, concern over the economy is the dominant issue.
Restaurateur Lee Sung Yong’s woes over rising costs and a dwindling
number of customers is a sentiment widely echoed throughout the tight-
knit small business community in Gwinnett County — in spa shops, Korean
restaurants and grocery stores.
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“I think it is a bad economy right now. For us, we have 50 percent fewer
customers,” says Shin Kyung Ok, who owns a hair salon in Duluth. On a
recent weekday afternoon, when her shop should be filled with Korean
housewives trying out the latest trending perm style while their children
are at school, the salon is completely empty, only the sound of a local
news report filling the space. “A little,” she says when I ask her if she
blames the Biden administration. For now, she’s undecided on whom to
vote for but is leaning against the current party in power. In the coming
weeks, she says she’ll be keeping her eye on two things: the economy and
immigration.
It’s the same issue in the cosmetics store next door: “Our sales have
dropped, and I’ve heard that from other places too,” says May Kim, a store
employee. The shop is a South Korean haven — a place with rows of the
latest K-beauty products and shelves dedicated to Korean versions of
over-the-counter medications — but there’s only one other customer
roaming around. Kim is leaning toward voting for Harris but says that isn’t
the case for many of her friends: “Those around me who aren’t wealthy,
ordinary people, say that times have gotten tough.” The reason? Biden,
she hears.
The inside of a Korean BBQ shop in is seen in Duluth.
A Korean BBQ shop is seen in Duluth, Georgia. For most Korean Americans
this year, concern over the economy is the dominant issue.
If it sounds like Biden is a punching bag for those who are discontent with
the cost of living and dwindling profits, that’s not far from the truth. Most
merchants I talked to couldn’t name specific economic policies
implemented by Biden other than pandemic stimulus payments — also
sent under the Trump administration — which they believed to have
helped drive prices up. When asked about Harris’ economic policies,
including tax breaks for small businesses, few could answer what they
were and characterized her as an extension of Biden. In part, it’s a
reflection of a significant information disconnect in the Korean American
community because of a language barrier — and it’s hurting Harris’
standing as a presidential candidate. The Harris campaign hasn’t done
enough to address the issue, Lee Jongwon says.
Rather than deliver robust messaging on the economy to Korean American
communities in Georgia, the Harris campaign has chosen to focus on the
issue of Donald Trump’s racism. Its first targeted ads to Asian Americans
in swing states solely focus on Trump, referencing the moment he called
Covid-19 the “Kung Flu” and saying “he unleashed a wave of hate.”
Several business owners in Gwinnett understand why Trump is called a
racist — and yet the reality is that many of them say his rhetoric isn’t top
of mind when people are living paycheck to paycheck.
“The problem is either party is not addressing Asian-specific issues —
rice and noodle issues,” Lee Jongwon says, nodding to the local
equivalent of “bread and butter” issues. And for Georgia Koreans, the
ultimate rice and noodle issue is the cost of living. “Literally the price of
rice is increasing now. A couple of years ago, a $5.99 lunch menu was
available everywhere. Not anymore,” he says. Like most of the people I
talked to in Gwinnett County, he remains undecided.
Bags of rice are stacked in a Korean grocery store.
Bags of rice are stacked in a Korean grocery store. “The problem is either
party is not addressing Asian-specific issues — rice and noodle issues,”
Lee Jongwon said.
Even if national Democrats are making inroads in addressing racism,
healthcare costs and immigration — commonly perceived policy priorities
of the group — they appear to be missing the mark on the primary reason
behind the decline in Korean American support. Like most voters, Korean
Americans want to hear about the economy.
“The economy … is always kind of the number one concern for a lot of the
Asian American population. And they’re not happy with what’s happened
in the last four years. They want change,” says Rep. Soo Hong, a
Republican state legislator who represents parts of Gwinnett. “And so I
think that’s kind of why we’re seeing a little bit more of a shift of the Asian
American community voting more on the conservative side than on the
Democrat side.”
Local Democrats appear to be doing a better job of communicating an
economic vision to Korean Americans with stump speeches about creating
jobs and lowering the cost of living. One of them is Michelle Kang, a
Democratic candidate for state House and a first-generation Korean
immigrant. Kang’s involvement with both the Korean American Chamber
of Commerce of Atlanta and Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce has helped
her witness the struggles of Korean small business owners, she says.
Despite her work in addressing Asian hate crimes and organizing cultural
events, her top talking points are about the economy: economic mobility,
lowering housing costs and pushing Congress to pass the Partner With
Korea Act, which would help introduce jobs and visas to Koreans.
Kang recognizes that democratic principles are important, but says this
year the economy is the overarching issue. “But what about the time that I
have to pay my bill, pay my grocery bill?” Kang says. “So economy is one
thing people [ask] if the Harris administration is going to benefit me
literally. That’s the top thing.”
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Kang thinks a focus on lowering costs is the best way to connect with
local Korean Americans, many of whom have only been told to vote
against Trump for his racism, rather than for Harris for her economic plan.
To date, the campaign has put most of its efforts into phone banking and
canvassing in Korean — and plans to add more dedicated Asian American
voter engagement staff in Georgia — but Kang believes more ads in
Korean in ethnic media outlets would prove productive since they would
also reach recent immigrants with low English proficiency.
One thing Democrats are getting right is their use of local Korean
American politicians, such as Georgia state Rep. Sam Park, who was first
elected in 2016, to campaign for Harris on the ground: “Being present for
the past eight years as a Democrat has helped kind of effectuate that
open-mindedness [to Democrats],” said Park.
There may be a window of opportunity since the GOP’s outreach efforts
here have been downsized: A Republican National Committee Asian
American outreach center that opened in Gwinnett in 2021 shut down and
was partially replaced by a sex shop in 2023. (The Trump campaign has
also chosen a more unorthodox method of advertising this time that has
caught the eye of some Korean American voters: driving a Trump bus —
decorated with the American flag and Trump posing with a thumb up —
around Gwinnett.)
A sign for Korea Plaza, which is filled with Korean businesses.
A sign for Korea Plaza, which is filled with Korean businesses, is seen. To
date, the Harris campaign has put most of its efforts into phone banking
and canvassing in Korean.
But Lee Sung Yong, the restaurateur, says there isn’t much Harris can do
to change his mind, even as he concedes that her economic policies are
unclear to him. What he does know is that he remembers his business
being better under Trump, he says, who for now has his vote.
“I was disappointed with the economy under Biden,” he says with pursed
lips. In the background a bell chimes, indicating that a bowl of cold
noodles are ready for pickup. “I don’t know Harris’ economic policies, but
won’t the same pattern of rising prices and higher taxes repeat under her,
since she was the vice president?”
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