Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Hillary Clinton goes after the Asian/American vote

Long-time Clinton supporter Lisa Changadveja
ON THE HEELS of remarks made by Republican candidates that angered many Asian Americans, Hillary Clinton's campaign moved to target the fast-growing Asian/American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

Clinton's presidential campaign announced last week that Lisa Changadveja will be the AAPI Outreach Director for Hillary for America.

According to the campaign, Changadveja was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Thai immigrants, and has a long history with Clinton campaigns.



Changadveja's appointment comes as the Asian-American vote came into the limelight because of comments made by GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush about Asian "birth tourism" in the controversy over the use of the term "anchor babies."


Changadveja, 25, has worked on political campaigns since finishing college. She joined Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2007, working on get-out-the-vote efforts in the Nevada Democratic caucus and the Ohio and Indiana Democratic primaries. In 2013, Changadveja served as the AAPI and LGBT Director for Ready for Hillary, an independent super PAC created to help launch Clinton's 2016 presidential run.

The Pew Research Center found that 65 percent of Asian-Americans have identified themselves as Democrats or leaned Democratic as compared to 23 percent who identified as or leaned Republicans. This makes Asian-Americans the second most committed  constituency for Democrats behind African-Americans. 

Changadveja joins a roster of recent AAPI hires to the Clinton campaign, including Vice Chair Huma Abedin, Senior Policy Adviser Maya Harris, Finance Director Dennis Cheng, Surrogate Outreach Coordinator Michelle Kwan, Director of Women's Outreach Mini Timmaraju, Northeast Political Director Lyle Canceko, and Director of Delegate Operations David Huynh.

During this year's Asian Pacific American Heritage Month last May, Hillary Clinton announced the launch of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) for Hillary, a national initiative to organize and mobilize AAPI supporters. Clinton made the announcement at an event to celebrate Asian Pacific American  In conjunction with the launch of AAPIs for Hillary, Congresswoman Doris Matsui announced her endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President and agreed to serve as national campaign co-chair and the national chair of AAPIs for Hillary.

"Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have a huge opportunity to make a difference in this election," said Congresswoman Matsui. "Hillary Clinton has been a consistent champion and friend of the AAPI community. She is ready to be our next president and the AAPI community is ready to support her. I look forward to leading the charge to help make Hillary the candidate of choice for AAPI voters."
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