AAPI Vote 2018: Hmong candidates seek to make history this Tuesday

SCREEN CAPTURE

Some of the Hmong American candidates were interviewed on a local TV program, Hmong American Weekly.

SIX HMONG AMERICANS are on the ballot Nov. 6 running for seats in the Minnesota state legislature.

Minnesota already has one Hmong in the State Senate, Foung Hawi. If any of the six newcomers win an election, Minnesota will have the distinction of having the most Hmong lawmakers in the nation. There's a strong possibility that all six will win.

"We've been here for 40 years," said one of the candidates, Kaohly Her, who said her family was part of the first wave of Hmong refugees in the United States. "We've been waiting in line, waiting for people to anoint us to tell us it's our time. The younger generation is not waiting. They're going to take this turn now."

The Hmong candidates for the Minnesota House are:

• Samantha Vang, District 40B
• Fue Lee, District 59A
• Kaohly Her, District 64A
• Tou Xiong. District 53A
• Jay Xiong, District 67B
• Yele-Mis Yang, District 42B

Except for Yang, all the candidates are Democrats.

The Hmong began arriving in Minnesota as refugees in 1975. There was some skepticism that subsistence farmers from the jungles in Laos could succeed in America's high-tech society. It seemed more improbable that they would embrace Minnesota, a place with a climate so different than tropical Laos.

But they did come. The Twin Cities now has the largest urban concentration of Hmong in the United States. and this Nov. 6, they are on the cusp of history.

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