Wide swath of AAPI leaders endorse Joe Biden for President

Joe Biden reaches out to the AAPI communities.

More than 250 leaders from the Asian American and Pacific Islander community endorsed Joe Biden for President from actors to politicians, from business leaders to community advocates demonstrated the wide base of support for the preseumtive Democratic nominee to run against Donald Trump.

"Now more than ever, we need leadership in the White House that will strive to knit Americans together, rather than tear us apart. Vice President Biden has a proven track record of standing with the AAPI community, and he has demonstrated a strong understanding of the diverse needs and challenges we face,” said DNC AAPI Caucus Chair Bel Leong-Hong. 


“Our endorsement today comes at a critical time for the AAPI community. As the entire country grapples with Donald Trump’s catastrophic coronavirus response, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are being hit especially hard. Trump’s utter failure of leadership has stoked xenophobia, while inflaming already existing economic and health disparities in our community. When Joe Biden is President, the AAPI community will have an ally in the White House who will fight to create a fair and humane immigration system, invest in small businesses, collect disaggregated data, and ensure that hate has no safe harbor in our country.”

The group includes members of the DNC AAPI Caucus, prominent state and local officials, community leaders, organizers, advocates, and the entire AAPI Legislative Caucuses from California, Maryland, and Hawaii. In their endorsement, the group praised Biden’s unique ability to “heal our nation’s soul” and applauded his “compassion, humanity, honor, integrity, and steady leadership.” 

READ the full endorsement and list of endorsers here.

The announcement reflects the broad coalition of support that Biden is building across the AAPI community. 

Earlier this year, Biden earned the endorsement of the AAPI Victory Fund and ASPIRE. The AAPI community will be decisive in determining the outcome of the 2020 election in key battleground states like Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Virginia, and Arizona.


Asian Americans have a strong leaning towards the Democrats, largely for the party's position on health care for all and immigration reform. Thirty-three percent of English-speaking Asian American voters were Republicans in 1994, which grew in the early 2000s and then plummeted to 17% by 2019. Asian American support for Democrats grew from 53% to 72% between the late 1990s and 2019.

READ Joe Biden's Agenda for Asian American and Pacific Islanders

The wide breadth of support, which includes actors Lou Diamond Phillips, Actor and Mark Dacasos to business leaders Shekar Narasimhan, Chair of the AAPI Victory Fund and community advocates Glen Fukushima, Co-Founder of CAPA21 and Irene Natividad, Co-Chair for Endorsement at Asian American Action Fund, demonstrates that the AAPI community isn't monolithic.

“Asian Americans are leaning more progressive and show higher approval of how the Democratic Party overall handles issues on jobs/economy, health care, education and race,” said Christine Chen, executive director of civic engagement nonprofit APIAVote. “These endorsements definitely follow that trend and shows the effort of AAPI leaders that want to support what they think is best for their communities.”