The question of the day is: How will Asian Americans vote in New York's primary elections?

Tuesday, Aug. 23, is New York's Primary. Polls open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The Asian American vote is being courted in New York's primary, August 23 

ANALYSIS

New York City voters have a chance to elect another Asian American to Congress but Yuh-Line Niou is running against big money and big names to represent two Chinatowns.

On August 5, 2022, Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-North Hills) joined Korean American Civic Empowerment (KACE), Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and the Korean American Sanctuary Church Network (KASCN) for a rally in support of the New York State Asian American History Education Bill, which seeks to combat Asian hate through improved education.

Recognition of a specific issue such as teaching Asian American history is an example of how the state's political powers are recognizing the emerging influence of New York's Asian American community. Eighteen percent of Kaplan's Senatorial 7th District are Asian Americans who sought the suburban lifestyle offered on Long Island.

As New York voters go to the polls today, focus has been put on the Asian American electorate, which voted overwhelmingly Democratic in 2020. However, Republicans were able to sway enough of those voters to switch allegiances in the New York City mayoral race to raise alarm bells among Democrats.

While Manhattan and Queens voters went with Democratic candidates, the city's outlying districts voted for Republican Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa lost to Eric Adams but the signs of a wavering voting constituency were evident.

Even districts represented by an Asian Democrat, such as that of Queens Assemblymember Ron Kim, saw the rightward shift. “Education policy is certainly a part of that frustration. Working immigrant families believe their sacrifices and hard work are discounted by the Democratic Party establishment,” Kim said. “If you ignore us on education policy, you’re going to get a backlash.”

This growth in Asian voter participation in NYC was also spurred by community groups like the AAF-led AAPI Power Coalition. Their in-person, in-language, and culturally relevant outreach helped to mobilize so-called “unlikely voters,” — so much so that Asian voters who were outreached to increased their turnout by a whopping 73%. 

That successful outreach and result reveals the incredible political potential of the Asian community to shape the City they call home.

Over the last decade, Asian Americans have been the fastest-growing voting bloc in New York City—accounting for almost 18% of the city’s overall population. Over 27% of eligible Asian voters cast their ballots in last year’s mayoral primary, driven by strong grassroots organizing, an increase in Asian candidates, and the community’s reaction to hate crimes. 

This represented not only a record turnout in New York City’s 2021 mayoral primary, but also the highest Asian turnout in history for a local New York election, according to an analysis by the Asian American Federation. 

Turnout by Asian voters surpassed Black voters, at 26.5 percent, and Hispanics, at 17.4%. It's a dramatic shift since 2013, when Asian voters had the lowest turnout rate of any major racial group at 16.3%. White voters still had the highest turnout overall last year, with 36.4% of them casting primary ballots.

Authors of the report say the new stats dispel the myth that Asian New Yorkers are unlikely voters — and urge politicians to spend more effort courting the emerging group.

“We are a very powerful voting bloc,” said AAF ED Jo-Ann Yoo, noting that Asian Americans make up more than 10% of the population in 28 of the 51 City Council districts. “Our elected officials, no matter who they are…it’s to their peril if they ignore us.”

Yuh-Line Niou is running for Congress in New York's District 10.

DISTRICT 10: Yuh-Line Niou is running for Congress

A test of the Asian American electorate's emergence wil be in the contest for Congressional District 10. In the newly remapped Congressional District 10, Yuh-Line Niou has a chance to become New York's second Congressional representative. District 10 represents two Chinatowns, Manhattan's and Brooklyn's.

When the new Congressional maps were drawn up, it created an electorate with more than 20% Asian American voters. Already an Assemblymember, Niou was running for the NY Senate. When the new District 10 was created, the Taiwanese American saw an opportunity. She switched from running for the state Senate to the new US House seat. 

Niou's chances increased dramatically when former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped out of the race. The winner of the Aug. 23 primary will likely win the House seat in November because Democrats are the overwhelming majority of registered voters.

“I feel like it would have almost been like a disservice not to run, in some ways,” Niou, told Politico. “We really need to make sure that we have representation, because when we do have that representation, it changes a lot of the perspective and the lenses that we legislate in.”

Even with de Blasio's departure, Niou still faces some better known and well-funded  Democrats, frontrunner, Dan Holtzman, a Democratic stalwart for years and who has a personal fortune of $23 million and the endorsement of the NY Times; City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera; former House Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman and Rep. Mondaire Jones.

Jones candidacy is interesting is that he won his District 17 seat in New York City's northern suburbs in 2020. However, with the new districts, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Patrick Maloney decided to run for that district, leaving Jones out in the cold. Jones chose to run for the newly created District 10, which he has never represented. However, as the first openly gay black Congressmember, he has the backing of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

It is a crowded and competitive field of candidates. Niou won her Assembly races with overwhelming majorities and her Assembly district lies entirely within the newly drawn Congressional District 10. A strong base, recognition of her local roots,  her popularity among progressives, her army of energetic, young volunteers, plus the two Chinatowns, could give New York a second Asian American representative in Congress.

“I see myself as the underdog, but I also see myself winning,” she said. “There’s a lot of erasure, especially when women and women of color run. There’s a lot of focus on when big names are running — or like when, you know, it’s men.”

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Although in the minority, Republicans noticed the cracks emerge in the Asian American community over the school admission policies instituted by the NYC school board. In an effort to increase the diversity of its competitive high schools that prepare students for college, the school board launched policies that some thought discriminated against qualified Asian American students. 

The other high-profile issue was the perceived lack of action on the part of the NYPD to protect Asian Americans from the attacks in public places and a reluctance  by law enforcement officials to label the attacks as hate crimes (because of legal interpretations) fostering an atmosphere of fear, but, more troublesome was the promoting the perception that local government officials dominated by Democrats are ignoring the issue of anti-Asian hate.

The GOP hammered those wedge issues enough to almost nullify the tendency to vote for Democrats in the Chinese American community.

Noting the swing to the right by Asian voters after New York's 2021 elections, As a  forewarning to the 2022 midterms, Congresswoman Grace Meng, the only Asian American House member from New York, tweeted a warning to Democrats, “our party better start giving more of a shit about #aapi (Asian-American and Pacific Islander) voters and communities. No other community turned out at a faster pace than AAPIs in 2020.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.