AAPI voters help Hillary to victory in Nevada

Hillary Clinton giving her victory speech after she was declared the winner in the Democratic primary.

NEVADA'S caucus staten was a real test of how the candidates are going to woo minority voters, who in that state made up almost 40 percent of the electorate. Asian/American voters approach almost 10 percent of Nevada's registered voters.

In the tight race for the Democratic nomination where every vote could spell the difference between a victory or a loss, both campaigns for Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, placed a heavy emphasis on outreach to Asian/American voters, the fastest growing segment of the population.

RELATED: Asian/Americans hard to find in New Hampshire & Iowa

Sanders' people were aggressive in their outreach to Latinos, the largest group of minority voters. They based their despite early claims of winning over Latinos on exit polls, highly unreliable. The New York Times analysis cast doubt on that claim asserting that Clinton could have won up to 60 percent of that demographic segment.

The Clinton campaign ran this ad in time for Chinese New Year's:

With every vote crucial, there was a heavy emphasis on the AAPI vote. All the campaign workers - even those from Sanders' camp - agreed that the Clinton campaign, with a robust staff in the state for months, has had the most sustained outreach with a series of Asian/American themed events: dinners celebrating a Filipno holiday, Asian/American-themed phone banks and canvasses and making use of ethnic media to reach out to AAPI communities.

RELATED: AAPI voters could be the margin of victory in Nevada

Clinton last month kicked off her national outreach to Asian-Americans with an event in Los Angeles' heavily Asian eastern suburbs with Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan. At a recent caucus training for Asian-American Democrats in Las Vegas, the Clinton campaign's national director of Asian-American and Pacific Islander outreach, Lisa Changaveja, mentioned that Clinton's longtime aide Huma Abedin and campaign finance chairman Dennis Cheng are both Asian/American.

Changaveja argued that the former secretary of state was uniquely positioned to appeal to Asian/Americans. "She's been in Thailand more than I have, and my mother lives in Thailand," Changaveja quipped.

Ameli, the Clinton campaign volunteer, sees Clinton as a natural fit. "Asians are very family-oriented and want everything for their families, and I believe everything Hillary is for, is for our families," she said.

RELATED: Clinton reaches out to AAPI voters

America’s Opportunity Fund (AOF) ran an ad in support of Hillary Clinton for President directed towards the Filipino community, a key voting constituency within the AAPI community and paid phone banking targeting the overall AAPI community at large.

“Filipino/Americans are the largest sub ethnic group of the AAPI community and they’re the fastest growing population in Clark County,” said AOF Executive Director Madalene Mielke. “Hillary recognizes the significance of the AAPI constituency in this “First of the West” primary state.”

After Latinos, Filipno/Americans make up the largest minority group in Clark County, home of Las Vegas and where 70 percent of the state's people live.

"People like to think of us as one monolithic group, but, of course, we're not," said Changadveja, the Clinton campaign's national outreach specialist tot he AAPI communities. "There's so many languages, so many communities, so many cultures, so what we've tried to do is identify leaders in each particular subgroup community to kind of step up and kind of lead the charge."

Ray Buenaventura, a city council member from Daly City, CA was in Las Vegas to help get out the vote. He Tweeted out these images:

One of the problems to reaching out to immigrants is that the state's caucus system is new to them and requires them to be active participants beyond simply casting a ballot behind a curtain.

"From the country we come from, we do not have caucus elections," said Marjie Gonzalez, who is from the Philippines and in charge of Asian outreach for Democrats in Nevada.

"The common attitude is, you know, we'll just wait in November and we'll vote for our candidate in November. But the candidate that you like may not reach November."

Overall, the turnout for the caucus may present a worry for the Democrats. Only 80,000 Democrats voiced their preference compared to 2012 when the presidential elections drew 120,000 Democrats. Of course, this was just a primary and the vote in November is expected to attract more attention and participation. 

RELATED: GOP has a new Southern strategy with immigrants as the new Willie Horton

In the meantime, Republican and Democratic campaign workers will be focusing in registering the eligible voters from Nevada's large immigrant population.

Republicans will hold their on Feb. 23 in Nevada, where frontrunner Donald Trump owns a casino and hotel in Las Vegas.

The Democratic candidates will face off again in South Carolina on Feb. 27 where Clinton holds a sizable lead, especially among African/American voters.

###

For more news about Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.