In a pivotal election year, fast-growing Asian American and Pacific Islander communities are poised to have a critical impact on races across the nation. The 2026 AAPI Policy Priorities Survey, conducted by the National Council for Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) and AAPI Data, polled AAPIs between March 23-30, 2026 to find out where our communities stand on key issues. Our findings clearly show that AAPIs are deeply concerned about affordability, and are looking to elected officials to support policies that strengthen the social safety net in these tumultuous economic times. 

Topics covered: economy, immigration, war/foreign policy, health, government priorities

Key Survey Takeaways

Similar to 2025, AAPI respondents overwhelmingly identify affordability among their top concerns, with 58% citing cost of living and inflation and 34% pointing to jobs and the economy as the most important problems facing the country. Concerns about global events also predominate, with 46% identifying war and foreign policy as a major issue.

AAPI spending priorities are at odds with the priorities of the current administration: the vast majority believe the government spends too much on military and defense (69%) and immigration enforcement (72%), and spends too little on healthcare (68%) and education (70%).

AAPIs trust Democrats more than Republicans on most issues, including the top priority issues of cost of living, foreign policy, healthcare and immigration. Still, many are unsure about which party to trust more on the issue of cost of living. Views on the parties are more evenly divided on crime and public safety, which is a lower priority issue.

On healthcare, there is overwhelming community support for policies aimed at reducing out-of-pocket costs, with 83% listing reducing the cost of prescription drugs as their top priority and 67% prioritizing providing healthcare access for low-income individuals.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are increasingly wary of threats to personal autonomy and constitutional rights. Freedom of speech is viewed as the most threatened right (49%), followed by protection against unreasonable search and seizure (38%).

On policies governing artificial intelligence, over two thirds of respondents say that preventing racial bias (68%) and preventing AI systems from making final medical decisions (75%) and education placement decisions (69%) should be high government priorities.

More details on survey methodology can be found the study’s appendix of disaggregated data.

Study Methodology

This survey was sponsored by Community R&D and designed by NCAPA and AAPI Data. Data were collected using the Amplify AAPI Monthly survey drawing from NORC’s Amplify AAPI® Panel designed to be representative of the U.S. Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) household population. Surveys were conducted between March 23-30, 2026. In addition to English, the survey was offered in the Chinese dialects of Mandarin and Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Korean, depending on respondent preference. Panel members were randomly drawn from the Amplify AAPI Panel, and 1,336 completed the survey. The overall margin of survey error is +/-4.5 percentage points. More details on methodology can be found in the study’s appendix of disaggregated data.

To read the full report: https://aapidata.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2026-AAPI-Policy-Priorities-Report.pdf

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