FilAm Attorney General vows California wll challenge Trump

California's Attorney General Rob Bonta.

California's Attorney General Rob Bonta vows to protect rights of immigrants and women targeted by the incoming Donald Trump administration.

"As the reality of a second Trump Administration takes hold, I know there is a great deal of fear, sadness, anxiety, and panic," said Bonta, the son of immigrants from the Philippines. 

"I’m here today to reassure you that in California, progress will prevail,," he said, acknowledging the threats of Trump to deport millions suspected of being undocumented.

"As Attorney General, I’ll continue to use the full force of the law and authority of this office to address injustice.

Speaking with the iconoic Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop, Bonta continued to vow, "to stand up for all people, especially those who have long been overlooked and undervalued."

Bonta's vow is not just empty bluster. During Trump's first administration, California sued the federal government more than 100 times.

"During the last Trump Administration, California DOJ fought to stop illegal rollbacks and proposals that would’ve harmed the well-being, health, safety, and civil rights of our people and of people across the country," said Bonta.

The Attorney General's statements and challenge reflects the state's electorate. Trump's policies and behavior didnpt sit well with Californians.The state remained decisively in the Democrat's corner with Kaamala Harris who won almost 60% of the votes. 

With the world's 5th largest economy, the home of the cultural messenger in Hollywood and the leader of new technology and innovation, California has an undue influence on the rest of the country. "As the saying goes, as California goes, so goes the nation," said Bonta.

California's Gov. Gavin Newsom has already fired the first salvo against the incoin administration attacking Trump's campaign promise to eliminate the tax credit for buyers of zero-emission vehicles, a payback for his supporters in the oil industry.

“Consumers continue to prove the skeptics wrong – zero-emission vehicles are here to stay, says Newsom, who has been mentioned as a possible Presidential candidate in 2028. "We will intervene if the Trump Administration eliminates the federal tax credit, doubling down on our commitment to clean air and green jobs in California. We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future — we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute.”

Among Trump's campaign promises include  deportation of millions of people, those without documentation and their families; eliminate the Department of Education; use the US DOJ to go after the people who oppose him, and cut back the social safety net including health care and Social Security.

"We know to take Trump at his word when he says he’ll roll back environmental protections, go after our immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities, attack our civil rights, and restrict access to essential reproductive care," Bonta continued. "Which means, we won’t be flat-footed come January."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Derek Tran barely beats incumbent in SoCal congressional race

Derek Tran is heading to Washington D.C.

In one of the tightest congressional races in the country, US Army veteran Derek Tran declared victory for the House seat of California's 45th Congressional District.

With a lead of about 600 votes that seems to be increasing as ballots are counted, Incumbent GOP Rep. Michelle Tran conceded the race Wednesday (Nov. 27).

“This victory is a testament to the spirit and resilience of our community. As the son of Vietnamese refugees, I understand firsthand the journey and sacrifices many families in our district have made for a better life.," said Tran in a press release. 

"My parents came to this country to escape oppression and pursue the American Dream, and their story reflects the journey of so many here in Southern California."

The race was the most expensive House contest in the country, and Tran’s victory marks a historic moment in a region known for its strong Asian American, Vietnamese American, and Latino communities. District 45 includes portions of traditionally conservative Orange County and Los Angeles County.

Tran, a consumer rights attorney, small business owner, son of Vietnamese refugees, and father of three young children, attracted national attention as a first-time candidate running against the powerful GOP machine of backing Steel, whose husband is a high-ranking official in the California's Republican party.

Orange County, which at one time was the home of California's Ku Klux Klan, still has a strong conservative element and has been a reliable bastion for the Republicans in a Democratic-dominated state. In recent years, the region has had an influx of Asian Americans so that today, they mamke up about 37% of the 45th district's population. Vietnamese Americans make up the largest community of the diverse Asian American population.

The district includes all or part of the Cities of Garden Grove, Westminster, Cerritos, Buena Park, Placentia, Hawaiian Gardens, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Artesia, Los Alamitos, La Palma, Brea, Lakewood, and Fullerton, as well as the unincorporated community of Rossmoor.

Steel tried to woo the traditionally conservative-leaning Vietnamese voters by trying to tie Tran to the communist party, a strategy that worked in 2022 when Steel's challenger was Taiwanese American Jay Chen.

At one point during the campaign, Steel claimed claimed, “My opponent might have a Vietnamese name, but I understand the Vietnamese community,” 

Tran, who has never held political office, described the comments as insulting the entire Vietnamese community.

“My father lost his first wife and four children escaping Vietnam,” Tran responded on social media. “Michelle can’t steal our identity or experiences.”

"Throughout this campaign, I heard from voters who wanted representation that prioritizes our community’s unique challenges," Tran stated. "From the need for affordable healthcare and housing to the importance of an economy that includes everyone, people here are looking to the future with hope and determination. I look forward to representing that optimism and working tirelessly to ensure that our communities’ voices are heard in Washington."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Andy Kim will become the first Korean American US senator

Andy Kim celebrates his historic election victory last Nov. 4.

New Jersey's Congressmember Andy Kim, a Democrat, will be moving from the House of Representatives to the Senate, making history as the first Korean American in the Senate.

Kim defeated his Republican opponent, hotelier Curtis Bashaw, in the November election.

Kim overcame the establishment politicala power-brokers as an outsider even though he was born in Boston and raised in south New Jersey.

“I have every bit as much right to represent the state as anybody else,” Kim said. “I am as American as anybody else.”

The outsider role actually worked in his favor as voters wanted change from the political machine that ran state politics.

The Senate seat opened up when incumbent Bob Menendez was convicted in July for taking bribes from Turkey in exchange for official acts favoring that country.

“Last year, when I first started running for Senate, I had somebody literally tell me to my face that I’m the ‘wrong kind of minority to win statewide,’” Kim told NBC News. “That was really hurtful.”

Kim gained national attention after the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt by Donald Trump followers. A picture of him picking up debris in the Capitol left by the would-be insurrectionists went viral.

A photo of New Jersey's Rep. Andy Kim cleaning up after the Jan. 6 insurrection went viral

Kim will be joining two other Asian Americans in the Senate: Hawaii's Mazie Hirono and Illinois' Tammy Duckworth.

He hopes that his election will give a voice to Asian Americans who have traditionally been neglected by government.

“We live in a time of such great distrust in government, and I really do think that that poses a deep, deep concern and threat to our society,” Kim told NBC. “That’s a big reason why I stepped up to run for Senate, jumped in the day after the indictment of the senator, because I felt like we needed to change course.”

Kim added that there’s a “hunger for a new, younger generation of leadership to step up.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Election 2024: Can the Divided States of America find common ground?

What's most troubling about the Nov. 5 elections is the widening gap between voters of color and white voters has never been more evident.

A recent survey shows that the economy may have been an important factor, a majority of voters of color still threw their support for Kamala Harris, a Black/Asian American. The economy was also important to White voters but despite an economic plan light in specifics, they still voted for Donald Trump, who has gone through six bankruptcies and found guilty of fraud.

“Today’s findings from the 2024 American Electorate Voter Poll underscore the rising influence and civic engagement of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community," said John C. Yang, president & executive director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC).

"One in eight AANHPIs who voted in 2024 were first-time voters. Additionally, an estimated 28% of AANHPI young voters were first time voters. We’re witnessing a community whose voice is growing," said Yang.

Eleven national organizations hosted a virtual briefing on Nov. 12 to release detailed findings from the 2024 American Electorate Voter Poll, a survey of more than 9,400 voters that paints a more complete and accurate picture of how voters of color voted, including the vote choices in key states, issue priorities, evaluations of both major parties, and what issues motivated voter turnout.

The poll follows more than a decade of multi-racial election voter polls and serves as a check on traditional exit polls, adding depth to our understanding of why and how Americans voted, particularly emphasizing the vote choices and motivations of Latino, Black, AAPI, and Native American voters. A detailed array of data, including crosstabs by state and race, can be found on the poll website.

Overall, the poll shows that Americans have a lot that unites them while pointing to some clear differences between voters of color and their White counterparts on candidate choices and some policy priorities and concerns.

“Looking at this poll and all of the others we have seen, the American public opposes the Trump agenda of mass deportation, separation of families, and his promises to ‘un-document’ and deport some with current legal status, like Dreamers and TPS holders," said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director at America’s Voice.

"Trump does not have a mandate for mass deportations or sending in the military to round up our immigrant neighbors," continued Cardenas. "While Trump undoubtedly centered his campaign and closing argument on ugly immigration themes, including the promised ‘largest deportation operation in history,’ the American public nonetheless prefers legalization for undocumented immigrants instead of mass deportation.”

AANHPI voters were engaged in the November campaigns and election.

KEY FINDINGS FROM THE 2024 AMERICAN ELECTORATE VOTER POLL

• Voters were heavily concerned about the economy this election cycle, with the cost of living, housing affordability, and jobs showing up as among the most important issues for voters of color.  More than half (55%) of voters cited the cost of living and inflation as one of the top three issues they want the next Congress and Presidential Administration to address. One in four voters, including 41% of Black voters, 38% of AAPI voters, 43% of Latino voters, and 36% of Native American voters, said the economy was the primary motivation for their vote. 
• A majority of voters of color supported Vice President Harris, while majorities of White men and women voters supported Donald Trump. That said, Trump made gains among almost all demographics, though the narrative about voters of color shifting support to Trump/Republicans was significantly overblown. Across the board, voters of color voted for Harris over Trump by significant margins, with 84% of Black voters, 62% of Latino voters, 61% of AAPI voters, and 57% of Native American voters supporting her in this election. Conversely, 57% of White voters supported Donald Trump.
• Abortion was once again a strong motivating factor–for women across race and ethnicity and for voters of color across gender, age, and subgroup. These voters are sending a clear message that they don’t want the government making reproductive health decisions for women and families. Three out of four voters support a federal law that guarantees access to abortion and gives women control over their own medical decisions, with even higher support among Black (84%), AAPI (75%), Latino (70%) and Native American (84%) voters. 
• Voters of all races and ethnicities strongly support expanding abortion access, investing in clean energy, creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and protecting voting rights. More than four out of five voters support expanding clean energy investments to create more manufacturing jobs in the United States, lower energy costs, and protect families against the impacts of climate change. Almost nine in ten voters support passing a new voting rights act to ensure all eligible American citizens can vote without barriers.
• Voters reject calls to institute mass deportation and inhumane treatment of immigrants. Voters expressed strong support for legislative action to protect Dreamers and other immigrants who have lived in the US for a long time from deportation, with nearly two out of three voters (63%) expressing support for passing a law to provide permanent legal status to Dreamers and other undocumented immigrants who have lived in the country for a long time.

A wide range of national organizations sponsored the poll, including the American Civil Liberties Union, America’s Voice, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, The Asian American Foundation, Climate Power, First Nations Development Institute, the Hispanic Federation, Indivisible, La Brega Y Fuerza Fund, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, RuralOrganizing.org, SEIU, Somos Votantes, UnidosUS, Voter Participation Center, and Voto Latino.

The question for the future is, can the two Americas come together to preserve democracy and stop the slide to authoritarianism? Can the Harris supporters who sought change and the discomfort that comes with questioning and seeking, come together with Trump MAGAists who fear change and want to return to the perceived security of the past offered by status quo's singular path to the future?

While America's uncertain future is at a crossroad, what is certain is that AANHPI will play a role in answering those questions?

"What these polls show us is that the AANHPI community is speaking with clarity and conviction:," Yang concludes."We are here to build a country that reflects our values—one that protects our families, ensures our rights, rejects hate, and champions equal opportunity for all."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Sibling Rivalry! Teenager beats her brother record by becoming the youngest person to pass California bar Eeam

Sophia Park recently passed the California bar exam t th age of 17.

A Korean American teenager made history when she became the youngest person to pass the rigorous California bar exam.

Sophia Park was 17 years and 8 months old when she passed the California bar in Tulare County on Nov. 8, 2024. In accomplishing this feat, she broke the record held by her brother, Peter, who was 17 years and 11 months old when he passed the exam a year earlier.

“Sophia’s amazing accomplishments speak for themselves, and we could not be prouder as an office family,” said Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward. 

“It really is quite remarkable the success we have had with our law students, interns and law clerks attaining their professional dreams. The dividends for our office have been immense, and we are excited to be part of Sophia and Peter’s continued success.”

Sophia Park started law school at the age of 13 in 2020 while simultaneously attending junior high school at Oxford Academy in Cypress, California. In 2022, she graduated high school after passing the California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE) and graduated from Northwestern California University School of Law in 2024. 

Like her brother, Park utilized a state bar rule that allows students to apply to law school through the completion of College Level Proficiency Exams (CLEPS).

At age 16, Park gained hands-on experience as a summer intern at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. 

"It didn't happen overnight," said Sophia's father, Byungloo Park, who is an acupuncturist and US patent agent, wrote in an email. "She has a thorough understanding of the law and is committed to using it justly. This is just the beginning of her journey."

Sophia's record may be short-lived. A younger sister is 14-years old and already in her second year of law school.

This year, Park has been employed as a law clerk for the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. Sophia is on track to be sworn in as a licensed attorney in March of 2025 upon turning 18, when she plans to follow in her brother's footsteps by joining the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor.

She is slated to be swon in as a practicing attorney in March 2025 when she turns 18.

“As a prosecutor, I will work to see justice served and ensure that victims’ voices are heard,” Sophia shared.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Unregistered PRC agent sentenced to prison for targeting Falun Gong in the US

The Shen Yun Perfoerming dance troupe is currently performing in the US.

A Los Angeles resident was sentenced to 20 months in prison for acting as unregistered agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and bribing an IRS agent in connection with a plot targeting the Shen Yun Performing Arts, an outreach effort of Falun Gong— a spiritual practice banned in China.

John Chen, 71, of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Los Angeles, was sentenced Nov. 19 to 20 months in prison for acting as unregistered agents of the PRC and bribing an IRS agent in connection with a plot to target US-based practitioners of Falun Gong — a spiritual practice banned in the PRC.

According to court documents, from at least approximately January 2023 to May 2023, John Chen and co-defendant Lin Feng, 44, a PRC citizen and resident of Los Angeles, worked inside the US at the direction of the PRC government, including an identified PRC government official PRC Official-1, to further the PRC government’s campaign to repress and harass Falun Gong practitioners. 

The PRC government has designated the Falun Gong as one of the “Five Poisons,” or one of the top five threats to its rule. In China, Falun Gong adherents face a range of repressive and punitive measures from the PRC government, including imprisonment.

        RELATED: More PRC agents convicted for harassing, threatening US residents.

As part of the PRC's campaign against the Falun Gong, Chen and Feng engaged in a PRC government-directed scheme to manipulate the IRS’ Whistleblower Program in an effort to strip the tax-exempt status of an entity run and maintained by Falun Gong followers, the Shen Yun Performing Arts Center, a dance troup that has been criticized  as "propaganda" for promoting the tenets of Falun Gong.

After Chen filed a defective whistleblower complaint with the IRS (the Chen Whistleblower Complaint), Chen and Feng paid $5,000 in cash bribes and promised to pay substantially more to a purported IRS agent (identified as Agent-1) who was, in fact, an undercover officer, in exchange for Agent-1’s assistance in advancing the complaint. 

Neither Chen nor Feng notified the Attorney General that they were acting as agents of the PRC in the United States.

In the course of the scheme, Chen, on a recorded call, explicitly noted that the purpose of paying these bribes, which were directed and funded by the PRC, was to carry out the PRC government’s aim of “toppl[ing]  ... the Falun Gong.” During a call intercepted pursuant to a judicially authorized wiretap, Chen and Feng discussed receiving “direction” on the bribery scheme from PRC Official-1, deleting instructions received from PRC Official-1 in order to evade detection, and “alert[ing]” and “sound(ing) the alarm” to PRC Official-1 if Chen and Feng’s meetings to bribe Agent-1 did not go as planned. 

Chen and Feng also discussed that PRC Official-1 was the PRC government official “in charge” of the bribery scheme targeting the Falun Gong.

As part of this scheme, Chen and Feng met with Agent-1 in Newburgh, New York, on May 14, 2023. During the meeting, Chen gave Agent-1 a $1,000 cash bribe as an initial, partial bribe payment. Chen further offered to pay Agent-1 a total of $50,000 for opening an audit on the Shen Yun Performing Arts Center, as well as 60% of any whistleblower award from the IRS if the Chen Whistleblower Complaint were successful. On May 18, 2023, Feng paid Agent-1 a $4,000 cash bribe at John F. Kennedy International Airport as an additional partial bribe payment in furtherance of the scheme.

In addition to the prison term, Chen was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $50,000. Feng was sentenced on Sept. 26, to a time-served sentence of 16 months in prison.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Election 2024: Derek Tran holds a narrow 102 vote leads over Michelle Steel

The race for a California Congrssional district is between Rep. Michelle Steel, left, and Derek Tran.

One of the most hotly contested congressional races that is still undecided involves two Asian American candidates against each other.

At last count hours ago, Democrat challenger Derek Tran leads incumbent Republican Michelle Steel by only 102 votes in the race for the 45th Congressional District seat in Orange County, California with 94% of the votes couted.

“Voters in Orange and Los Angeles County deserve to have their voices heard, and we are confident that as the remaining vote-by-mail, provisional, and conditional ballots are tallied, Derek Tran will emerge victorious,” reads the statement from the Tran campaign

Steel had an huge lead hours after the polls closed Nov. 5 but as the votes slowly came in, Tran's support chipped away at the Steel's lead. On the morning of Nov. 18, Tran had slim advantage of 32 votes. That lead grew as the ballots were counted today.

Both major parties poured in more than $46 million into the contest, making it the most expensive House race in the country.

CD45 crosses county lines to take in a portion of Los Angeles County and includes all of Garden Grove, Westminster, Cerritos, Buena Park, Placentia, Hawaiian Gardens, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Artesia, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, and La Palma, as well as parts of Brea, Lakewood, and Fullerton.

It has a large influential Asian American population makes up 39% of the population, the largest ethnic group in the district It  includes Little Saigon, the largest Vietamese American neighborhood in the US. spanning Garden Grove and Westminister.

Steel, a Korean American, has been accused of using the same red-baiting strategy that she allegedly employed in 2022 to successfully defeat Taiwanese American veteran Jay Chen. The tactic of painting Tran as a communist sympathizer was not as successful.

"Michelle Steel has been known for red-baiting her entire campaign and career this is something that's very disgusting," said Tran. "We're seeing xenophobic attacks by here. It's just baseless claims by someone that's losing and she's expecting to win based on that messaging. It's not going to work this time around. I am son of Vietnamese refugees who fled communist Vietnam."

If Tran's lead holds, Orange County, long a GOP stronghold in a state dominated by the Democrats, could have two Asian American members in Congress. Democrat Dave Min, a state senator, won the right to represent District 47, replacing Representative Katie Porter who was unsuccessful in her bid for the US Senate.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

2024 Election: Asian American voters did provide the winning margin, but ...

AANHPI voter tendencies was a surprise last Nov. 5.

ANALYSIS

Yes. Prognostigators, including this blog, were right: Asian American voters did provide the winning margin in the Nov. 5 Presidential election, but not in the way most people had hoped. Donald Trump should say "thank you" to the Asian Americans who voted for him.

Even though most AAPI voters favored Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump was able to chisel out a tiny sliver of the AAPI vote to help him win back the White House. Besides the lies, false promises and thin praises, he had the help of foreign hackers who spread misinformation and promoted old country values to splinter the AAPI vote.

Trump did not have to win the vote of the majority of the AAPI electorate, he just had to win over enough to bolster the majority of his votes coming from the White electorate.

AAPI voters cast their ballots for Trump by 38%, which was a nine-percentage-point increase from 2016. When the votes were tallied, Trump wound up with 5% more AAPI votes than he received in 2020. That was the so-called winning margin.

RELATED: Misinformation campaign made many Chinese American voters wary of the Democrats.

Besides Asan Americans, Trump made inroads in almost every demographic. 

The story was the same with the Latino community, which felt largely ignored by the Democrats. 

In his victory speech ion elecction night, Trump said his campaign had built the "biggest, the broadest, the most unified coalition" in U.S. political history.

"Young and old, men and women, rural and urban. And we had them all helping us tonight," Trump said.

"They had some great analysis of the people that voted for us. Nobody's ever seen anything like that. They came from all quarters—union, nonunion, African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Arab American, Muslim American. We had everybody, and it was beautiful. It was a historic realignment, uniting citizens of all backgrounds around a common core of common sense."

As it turns out, a significant chunk of Latinos were also against the undocumented immigrants who Trump erroneously claimed, threatened Latino American vworkers.  Among Latinos, 45% broke for him this cycle, whereas just 29% voted for him in 2016 — a 16 percentage point shift.

The votes that Trump was able to woo away from traditionally Democratic voting blocs was enough to tilt the votes his way.

A majority (54%) of Latino men helped fuel that rise for the soon-to-be 47th president. 

Most of those AAPI votes came from men. For the first time, a gender gap appeared among the AAPI community: most women voted for Harris and enough men voted for Trump. 

FEWER VOTERS IN 2024

While Trump lost the Asian American vote to Harris by a margin of 56%-38%, he improved his share of that demographic by 4% from his 61%-34% loss to Biden in 2020, according to an exit poll from NBC News.

Curiously, although counting is still ongoing, Trump actually received fewer votes in 2024 than what he received in 2020 when he lost to Biden. Unfortunately for the Democrats, Harris received 12 million fewer votes this time around than the votes that went to Biden in 2020.

TOTAL VOTES CAST IN LAST TWO PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS    

                            2020          2024   Difference

       Democrats    81.2M         69M          -12M

        Trump         74.2M          72.6M      -1.5M

I'm not given to conspiracy theories, but Democrats thought they had the overestimated their get-out-the-vote ground game. Or, the GOP's voter suppression strategy -- which began in 2020 when Trump refused to concede his presidency to Biden was enough to question the efficacy of American democracy and 13.5 million voters refused to take part in the election.

So what happened? The loss of 13.5 million voters is the answer to Harris' loss and Trump's victory. Did White supremacists scare enough White to vote along racial lines; to hell with policies? Was the anti-abortion Catholic vote in Pennsylvania and Ohio enough to swing those states towards the OGP? Was the constant drumbeat coming from Trump enough to disillusion enough voters from participating in the democratic process? Did the GOP's voter suppression strategyiesvia state legislatures and governors and Trump-appointed  judges more effective than most people thought?

The answer to that question is complicated. and probably involved all of the above elements. 

“2012 represented the high-water mark in Asian American support for a Democratic presidential candidate, and it has been going down ever since,” Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder of AAPI Data told NBC enws. “The pendulum has started to swing back.”

WHOSE 'ECONOMY'?

Although AANHPI voters who voted for Trump, along with other voters who switched from the Democrats to the Republicans, the economy was cited as the chief reason for the change. They believed that a man who declared bankruptcy six times would do a better job in fixing the "economy." 

“If you’re unemployed or employed, if you’re retired or working, everyone feels the pain of inflation,” Ramakrishnan told NBC in an interview. “That was a significant headwind for the Democratic Party, including Harris.”

RELATED: Pre-election survey outlines AANHPI concerns

By most measures, economists around the world cited the US economy was the envy of the world. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the "economy" was measured in national and global terms: more people were working, the rate of inflation was under control, and the poverty and jobless rates were down. Abstract numbers, ordinary Americans couldn't relate to compared to their everyday encounters with their "economy."

For most Americans, what they called the "economy" was more out-of-pocket: the price of gas, groceries and rent, all of which did not go down. That begs the question, who was profiting for the high price of essentials? 

RACISM'S IMPACT

The initial wedge driving AAPI voters to the Republicans was the affirmtive action debate. The Biden-Harris administration solidly behind the concept. Driven by white anti-affirmative action activists convinced a segment of the AAPI community to question their loyalty to the Democrats. That portion of the AAPI community, mostly first generation immigrants who were unfamiliar with the civil rights movement saw the policy discriiminated against their children who they felt were not getting proper credit for their academic achievements in their university applications.

The rise in attacks against Asian Americans affected the overall outlook of the AAPI voters. The communities with a tendency to stay out of the limelight started to think in a "law and order" mindset, an area usually associated with conservatives. Republicans were able to use the racist attacks to drive the wedge even deeper separating the conservative and more progressive 

In Oaakland and SanFrancisco, after a series of anti-Asian assaults, Asian Americans were major backers of movements to recall their progressive District Attorneys perceived as being soft on crime.

The immigrant community, most of whom sought the American dream that working hard would be the road to success. And the success they sought was more in alignment with the status quo, which had the White majority atop the cultural and economic ladder.

And the majority of Whites -- primarily the non-college educated -- was Trkump's base. Democrats believed White women would vote for Harris because of her support for womens' right to choose their health options, But when it came to crunch time, White women could not see a woman of color in the role of President. 

As  stated earlier, Asian Americans were not alone in their slight turn to the right, they were joined by enough Latino and Black voters -- enough to dilute the traditional Democrat-voting communities and lead to Trump's apparent victory.

That winning margin Asian American political activists believed, would swing towards the Democrats, They were wrong. I was wrong. Instead, enough AANHPI voters went along  with the White majority to tilt the final vote towards Trump. Those AANHPI voters who along other people of color who voted for Trump believed the best way to achieve the American Dream was to go along with the status quo where Whites remained at the top of the American heirarchiy.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Remembering and honoring AANHPI veterans on this day

Chinese American oseph Pierce served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Asian Americans have served in the US military since the Civil War, according to the Library of Congress. 

Immigrants from Asian have a long history of service in the United States military. One of the first  soldiers was Joseph Pierce (E). He signed up for Company F of the 14th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry (E) on July 26, 1862, 9 days after the Militia Act took effect. He reached the rank of corporal before retiring.

Some scholars say the history of Asians coming to the defense of their adopted country goes back to the War of 1812, when Filipinos residing in Louisiana, referred to as "Manilamen" residing near the city of New Orleans, including the Manila Village, were among the "Baratarians", a group of men who fought with Jean Lafitte and Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.

RELATED: WWII Filipino American veterans who raised me

Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Filipino, and other Asian Americans fought for both the Union and Confederacy in the Civil War. Many Asian immigrants served in the Navy (E), as this was the only branch that readily accepted immigrant recruits. Furthermore, many Asian Americans had sea experience from working on cargo ships and fishing.

According to the US Census, 264,695 Asian Americans have served our nation while another 27,469 are Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander military veterans. 1 in 3 Asian American military Veterans were 65 and older; and 1 in 5 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Veterans were 65 and older. 

FYI: Learn more about AANHPI veterans.

For Active Duty Military, 52,433 Asian Americans Active Duty including by 8,854 Officers and 43,579 Enlisted; There are 8793 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders Active Duty Members including 486 Officers and 8,307 Enlisted. 

The first Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) to reach general officer rank was Brigadier General Albert Lyman, part Chinese American and Native Hawaiian, was the commanding general of the 32nd Army Division that fought in the Leyte campaigns in the Philippines in World War II. The highest ranking AANHPI in the military was Eric K. Shinseki, who was the former Army Chief of Staff.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Asian American and Hawaiian singers receive Grammy nominations

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

Bruno Mars teamed up with Lady Gaga for Grammy mominations.

Filipino American singers Bruno Mars and Olivia Rodrigo, Indian American Norah Jones and Hawaiian Kalani Pe'a eceived nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards.

Pop star Rodrigo, who is in the middle of her GUTS World Tour, was nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Medium with the song “Can’t Catch Me Now” which she wrote for the motion picture “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”

Bruno Mars sduet with Lady Gaga, on "Die With A Smaile" was nominated in the Song of the Year category. The duo also received a nod in the category of Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

        FYI: See the complete list of Grammy nominations

Nora Jones, daughter of Grammy award winner Ravi Shankar, received a nomination iin the category Best Traditional Pop Vocal Albun with her album "Visionis." 

Jones, Rodrigo and Mars have won Grammys in previoius years.

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The Grammys would be a new experience for Kalani Pe'a. His album "Kuini" was noinated in the Best Regional Roots Music Album.

Except for Kalani Pe'a, the other Asian American nominees will be up against some of the biggest names in the music industry in cluding Beyonce and Taylor Swift.

Beyonce dominates the 57th Grammys with 11 nominations derived from her album Cowboy Carter. JShe will be boing up against another music superstar Taylor Swift, in a number of categories along with Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter.

The Grammy Awards show will be held on Feb. 2, 2025 and can be watched on rhe CBS neetwork and on the streaming network Paramount-plus.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Report: Chinese Americans were deluged with misinformation favoring Trump, attacking Harris

From the moment Vice President Kamala Harris was endorsed by President Biden, a massive disinformation campaign targeting Chinese American voters spread through social media platforms.

Even though Chinese Americans, like most other Asian American subgroups (Vietnamese being the exception) lean heavily towards Democratic candidates and policies, the disinformation campaign emanating mostly from foreign agents, was successful enough to woo enough Chinese American just voters to the Republican ticket, to dilute the impact of the community's overall political preferences.

“We have seen the potential of disinformation to polarize communities, disrupt the social fabric, and undermine trust in our institutions,” said SIPA Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University

“We saw it during the COVID-19 pandemic, January 6th attack on the US Capitol, and we see it in international conflicts unfolding as we speak.”

Chinese Americans, the Asian subgroup with the  most registered voters, were the target of a campaign to cause confusion and mmisdirection and it was barely noticed by English-speaking media because most of it was in Mandarin or Cantonese

A study by Chinese for Affirmative Action found that disinformation and the emergence of artificial intelligence posed a serious threat to American democracy. Tuesday's results of a Trump victory confirms the negative impact the strategy had on Harris' attempts to outreach to Chinese Americans.

In Chinese-language social media spaces, right-wing fake news dominates — deifying Trump, stoking fears of communism, and casting doubt on the integrity of elections. Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), monitored Chinese-language disinformation through our Chinese Digital Engagement program, which the San Francisco-based civil rights organization launched in 2019. 

Through PiYaoBa, CAA's Chinese-language fact-checking website, more than 600 pieces of disinformation were found just in the past year, from June 10, 2023 to July 29, 2024, which have collectively amassed 11.6 million views. Out of these, 228 pieces of disinformation with total views of 4.05 million across Chinese-language social media platforms such as WeChat, X, YouTube were directly about the 2024 election. 

The majority of disinformation has been about politics, more specifically, supporting Trump and Republican policies while attacking Biden and Democratic policies. We are also closely monitoring disinformation that favors Democratic Party candidates and policies.

“About 80% of the attacks on Harris are essentially personal attacks,” said Jinxia Niu, CAA’s program manager of digital engagement, in an interview with The Guardian, “very misogynistic and insulting, almost like shouting insults in the street.”

One theme that took hold and spread like wildfire was the false narrative that Harris was the "other woman" who stole a husband from his wife in referring to the romantic  relationwhip she had with California politician Willie Brown, who had been separated from his wife for over a decade before Brown and Harris had their relationship.

“They (Chinese voters) still believe that a woman’s most painful point is being labeled as a mistress,” Niu told The Guardian. “Their assumption is that women can only gain status through their marriage, as the subordinate lover or wife of a man.”

Other Key Findings from the CAA report: 

● Twitter Leads in Spreading Disinformation - WeChat is losing ground as a platform for Chinese-language disinformation. For the first time since we began tracking it, Chinese-language disinformation is spreading mostly via Twitter, far surpassing WeChat, since Elon Musk took over and rebranded it as X. PiYaoBa found that 48% of Chinese-language disinformation is spreading via Twitter versus 25% for WeChat. Still, WeChat and Telegram remain popular channels for circulating election disinformation. 

● The Deification of Trump Cements his Outsized Influence - Trump continues to be a major influence with right-wing Chinese American content creators. Following the assassination attempt on Trump, they’ve treated him like a god-like figure, cementing their belief that only he can save America from communism — a disinformation narrative unique to the Chinese-language space. 

● Chinese-Language and Cultural Trauma is Being Exploited - Although much of the Chinese-language disinformation translates directly from English-language disinformation, right-wing Chinese American social media influencers translate and amplify disinformation in a way that exploits Chinese-language and cultural trauma. 

● A.I. Generated Disinformation Acts as an Excelerator - Artificial Intelligence technology is exacerbating the situation. This is the first time we have seen in-language A.I.-generated disinformation playing a role in shaping elections with unprecedented power.

The source, or sources, of the misinformation likely came from abroad. Besides the People's Republic of China, Russia and Iran have aggressive disinformation campaigns to sow chaos and give the impression of a US in decline in order to affect the West's democratic elections.

Most of the fake news on Chinese-language social media followed certain themes, or narratives. Among them: 

● Narrative 1: Trump is the only savior of the U.S. and today’s problems are because he is not in charge. 

● Narrative 2: The “extreme left” policies of Biden, Harris, and the Democratic Party are destroying the U.S. and bringing it closer to communism. 

● Narrative 3: The Biden administration opened the border to allow undocumented immigrants to vote for Democrats in the 2024 election. 

● Narrative 4: Leftists are masterminds behind various world events and natural disasters and are playing a long game to control everything. 

● Narrative 5: The 2020 election was stolen from Trump and widespread voter fraud, especially involving noncitizens, may lead to another stolen election in 2024.

The Chinese American community was vulnerable to unmonitored disinformation campaigns., especially when done in launguages or dialects other than English. According to the 2024 Asian American Voter Survey, among 432 registered Chinese American voters, 81% speak languages other than English at home, the highest percentage among all AAPI ethnic groups, Additionally, 17% of Chinese Americans get most of their news from non-English sources, also the highest rate across all ethnicities.

The Guardian also squoted Dorothy He, the communications director at the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA).

“The goal of racialized disinformation when it comes to elections is to suppress voter turnout in the fastest-growing electorate in the US or sway them to vote a certain way.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge.