Congressional District 45's Asian vs. Asian race divides AANHPI community

ANALYSIS

Republican Rep. Michelle Steel, a Korean American, has apparently won the seat for Congressional District 45 in Southern California by running one of the nastiest and hate-filled campaigns in the country against her opponent, Taiwanese American Jay Chen.

A week after voters went to the polls, Steel has 53.8% of the vote to Chen's 46.2%. While the counting of votes is continuing, Steel's lead of about 13,000 votes was enough for the Associated Press Tuesday morning to call the race in Steel's favor.

“I am humbled that voters have given me the opportunity to continue to fight for them in Washington, DC,” Steel said in a statement, according to the Orange County Register. “I have been firm in my commitment to deliver for working class families, and will continue to work to lower taxes, stop inflation, and stand up to Communist China.”

The last reference to "Communist China" typified the Steel campaign strategy which grew relentless in the later weeks of the campaign.

District 45 includes a large portion of Orange County, home of large AANHPI communities, that make up about 37% of the district. This district runs from Brea and Fullerton in north Orange County, out east to “Little India” in Artesia, before heading south to the center of the region’s political gravity in Westminster and Garden Grove — Little Saigon, reportedly the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. White voters make up about a third of residents.

Steel, a Korean American immigrant, was criticized for running one of the nastiest campaigns in the country by trying to link Chen to the Chinese Communist Party, a Red Scare tactic that apparently played well in the Vietnamese American community, mostly refugees who fled South Vietnam when it fell to North Vietnam.

Chen's grandparents fled communist China to Taiwan. Chen's parents immigrated to the US, where he was raised. He countered the hit pieces with his military record as a US Navy veteran. Veteran groups rallied to his side as did many Chinese American organizations, who feared that Steel's tactic would stir up the "perpetual foreigner" trope, adding fuel to the current spate of attacks against Asian Americans.

While Chen tried attacking Steel for her support for Trump policies and her votes against the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure and the anti-Asian Hate resolution and her support for the Supreme Court's tossing of abortion rights for women, Steel's red-baiting was enough to overcome her voting record.

One of the worst and offensive ads appeared on YouTube showing Chinese men with accents giggling in glee that Jay Chen could get elected with a picture of the Chinese leader posted behind them.

In the weeks before Nov. 8, Red and yellow poster (colors from the PRC's flag) bagan sprouting up throughout the lampposts and fences throughout the district, saying "China's Choice: Jay Chen" and little letters below, "Paid for by Michelle Steel Campaign."

Democratic Asian American lawmakers from neighboring districts like Representatives Mark Takano, Ted Lieu and Judy Chu made appearances on Chen's behalf while GOP House Minority Leader and possibly future House Speaker Kevin McCarthy campaigned for Steel.

Surprisingly absent from the race was the presence of politically active Hollywood celebrities. Their absence is noticeable only because of the proximity of the district to the entertainment capitol, minutes away by freeway. In close races, such as in CD45, every vote counts. Their participation may have swayed young people into voting.

Steel has avoided media events such as public debates or candidate forums. Linking Steel to Trump has been difficult for Chen. Besides McCarthy, no other big-name Republican came to the district on Steel's behalf.

With the AANHPI communities divided between the candidates, other groups may have played an more decisive role in the determining CD45's outcomes.

Orange County has long been a Republican stronghold, an island of conservatism in the Blue sea of the Los Angeles metro region. The Orange County Register endorsed Steel, but the more liberal Los Angeles Times, recommended Chen.

The conservative tradition of Congressional District 45, which encompasses portions of Los Angeles and Orange counties and once the home of the KKK chapter in Southern California, is still a strong element in the district and perhaps tipped the electoral scales towards Steel, whose husband holds a prominent position in California's Republican Party.

What did matter was funding. Steel's campaign collected millions of dollars from the GOP and dark money from conservative PACs, outspending Chen. 

A total of $13.3 million has been invested in this race, $11.4 million raised by the candidates themselves and $1.9 million spent by "independent expenditures." Independent expenditures are when companies and organizations spend to support or oppose candidates but are not connected to the candidates' camapaigns. There are no spending limits.

Steel raised $6.7 million, spent $5.8 million, and had about $1 million on hand, as of October 19, according to OpenSecrets. Chen, raised $4.5 million, spent $4.2 million, and had about $429,000 cash on hand.

The biggest PAC donation was by the conservative Congressional Leadership Fund which gave Steel about $3.3 million, according to OpenSecrets.

One of the positives that may have come out of this race was to show to the political parties how diverse are the groups that fall under the Asian American umbrella term. Vietnamese, because of their history, trend towards the Republicans in contrast to the other AANHPI groups. Korean, Filipino Americans and Pacific Islanders may have conservative religious views on abortion but fall in line with Democrats in support of affirmative action and health care access. Small business owners in the AANHPI communities may be concerned about economic issues, but they support abortion rights and gun control.

According to several polls by the Pew Research Center, the Carnegie Endowment and APAI Vote, AANHPI are politically savvy and enthusiastic about voting but the major parties need to increase outreach to them and not take them for granted.

There is still a strong tendency to support Democratic policies but there is also a small, but growing movement to the right by some of the recent immigrants in contrast to more established AANHIP communities.

All this to say, the increasingly influential AANHPI communities can influence political outcomes in certain key regions and states. They will register to vote. They will come out and vote, but the Democrats and Republicans need to reach out to them where they live, not in a patronizing manner and in the more than two dozen languages they understand. 

That's no easy task with the 2024 campaign only two years away.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a developing story. Check back later for updates. For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Bee Nguyen concedes in race for Georgia's Secretary of State

Bee Nguyen sought to become Georgia's Secretary of State.

Overshadowed by races that garnered national attention, Bee Nguyen, running against the incumbent Secretary of State, conceded late Tuesday night.

In a tweet, Democratic candidate Nguyen said about 11:30 p.m. that she had conceded to Republican Brad Raffensperger, who was in the national spotlight in 2020 when he refused Donald Trump's arm-twisting to "find" enough votes to deliver the state's electoral votes to the Republican after then-candidate Joe Biden turned Georgia blue.

Raffensperger, who gained national attention in the wake of the 2020 presidential election controversy, was leading in his bid to win re-election Tuesday in the state’s 2022 midterms.

At presstime Wednesday morning, Raffensperger was leading Vietnamese American Nguyen, a former state lawmaker with 53% of the vote to Nguyen’s 43%.

Nguyen, who worked closely with gubernatorial challenger Stacey Abrams, said, "I'm grateful to be in a race where we can have a phone call and wish each other well."

Elsewhere in Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was successful in staving off Democrat Stacey Abrams' bid to unseat him by gaining 54% of the vote vs. 46% for Abrams.

The other high-profile race in the state was for Democratic US Senator Raphael Warnock's seat who was being challenged by football legend Herschel Walker., a Republican. With each  candidate failing to win over 50% of the votes, the contest may be headed for a run-off in four weeks.

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

Pew Research Center: Asian American voters are an increasingly influential electorate

After making an impact in the 2020 elections, and fighting against attempts to temper their vote, the AANHPI community is hard to ignore heading into the Nov. 8 Midterm elections.

This November, about 13.3 million Asian Americans will be eligible to vote, making up 5.5% of all eligible voters, according to Pew Research Center projections.

Asian Americans  are still the fastest-growing community and leans towards the Democrats, according to information released by the Pew Research Center Wednesday. Asian American eligible voters are still growing three times faster than other demographic groups.

Fifty-seven percent of English-speaking, Asian registered voters said they would likely vote for the Democratic candidate in their US House of Representatives district race, while 26% said they would likely support the Republican candidate. In midterm elections, voter turnout rates are typically low so if AANHPI community advocates can muster their communities to go to the polls their impact could be greater than their actual numbers.

The Pew Research Center presents some quick facts about this year's Asian American electorate:

1. As of 2020, the majority of Asian American eligible voters (56%) live in only five states. California has the highest number of Asian American eligible voters by far (4.2 million). The state is home to nearly a third (32%) of the entire U.S. Asian electorate. 

The state with the second-most Asian American eligible voters is New York (1.1 million), followed by Texas (930,000), Hawaii (565,000) and New Jersey (505,000).

2. Hawaii is the only state where Asian Americans make up a majority of the eligible voter population. Asian Americans make up 55% of the electorate in Hawaii, the only state where a racial or ethnic group other than single-race White, non-Hispanic eligible voters are the majority. Following Hawaii, the states with the largest shares of Asian eligible voters are California (16%) and Nevada (10%).

Hawaii also has the highest share of eligible voters within its Asian population. Seven-in-ten Asians in Hawaii are eligible to vote, the highest share of any state with an Asian population of 50,000 or more. Following Hawaii on this measure are Nevada (64%), California (61%), Louisiana (60%) and Florida (59%).

3. Overall, more than half of all Asian Americans in the U.S. (56%) are eligible to vote, compared with 72% of the total U.S. population. Asian Americans are less likely than Americans overall to be eligible to vote because a significant share are immigrants who are not U.S. citizens. 

4. A majority of Asian American eligible voters (57%) are naturalized citizens, rather than U.S.-born citizens. Asian Americans are the only major racial or ethnic group where the majority of eligible voters are naturalized citizens. A smaller share of Asian American eligible voters (43%) are U.S.-born citizen.

5. Asian American voters are more likely than the overall eligible voter population to have a bachelor’s degree. As of 2020, half of Asian American eligible voters have a bachelor’s degree or more education. By comparison, about a third (33%) of the total eligible voter population has at least a bachelor’s degree. Asian eligible voters are also more likely than the general eligible voter population to have a postgraduate degree of some kind, such as a master’s degree or law degree (19% vs. 12%). Pew analyses from earlier releases found that educational attainment varies widely among different Asian American subgroups.

6. Asian Americans are slightly younger than other voters. The median age for Asian American eligible voters is 44, compared with 48 among the broader population of eligible voters. And 36% of Asian American eligible voters are ages 30 to 49, compared with 32% of the total eligible voter population.

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