Influencing Asian American Voters in a Key Mayoral Election

Urgent pain point: A municipal political action organization needed critical Asian American support to prevent the election of a mayoral candidate that the organization strongly opposed. Beyond generating support for preferred candidates, the client organization needed to understand how to educate these voters on how to utilize ranked choice voting to express their preferences confidently at the ballot box.

Facing tight timelines and high stakes, the team needed to craft messaging that resonated with Asian American voters, and deploy voter education on ranked choice voting.

Key differentiator: Targeting a screened sample of undecided Asian American voters.

1. First we recruited a screened cohort of registered, undecided voters across a broad age spectrum.
2. Then we conducted in-person focus groups to facilitate open discussion and probe reactions.
3. Next participants reviewed and commented on ranked choice voting strategies, candidates' written platforms, television ads, and a list of key local issues to surface message resonance and issue priorities.
4. Finally feedback was collected for qualitative analysis and client use.

Our involvement vs. client: The client drafted the discussion guide and provided the stimulus materials. We conducted the in-person focus groups and discussed our observations immediately after the groups' conclusion.

Outcome: The client leveraged the research findings to craft clear, concise messages supporting its preferred candidates and explaining how to use ranked choice voting to both support and oppose key candidates.

1. Primary deliverable: Persuasive, informative messaging

Business impact: These research-informed messages contributed to the election of one of the client's preferred candidates.