Four candidates will address AAPI Democrats' presidential forum

Four Democratic presidential hopefuls — Tulsi Gabbard, Tom Steyer, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang — have accepted invitations to participate in a candidates forum hosted by Asian American groups.

“With 2 out of 3 AAPI Democratic presidential candidates confirmed to attend, we look forward to announcing the second wave of candidates as the momentum builds heading into our event in September,” said Shekar Narasimhan, chair and founder of AAPI Victory Fund.

The third AAPI candidate, California's Sen. Kamala Harris, who is Indian American, has apparently decided to skip the California event in favor of campaigning elsewhere.

The forum on Sunday (Sept. 8) is being hosted by the Asian American and Pacific Islander Victory Fund and Asian Americans Rising PAC, starts at 9 a.m. at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, CA.

The AAPI Democratic Presidential Forum is the showcase event of thethe AAPI Community Action Summit that begins today (Sept. 7). 

AAAPI leaders and advocates from across the country will gather to showcase the emerging progressive movement, which is based on the belief that the various AAPI communities are stronger when the work together with common purpose. 

California has the largest and most diverse population in the nation with a strong track record of early voting. Nearly 60% of California Democratic voters cast a ballot by mail in the 2016 Presidential primary.

Asian Americans will make up 13% of California's likely voters even though AAPI eligible voters make up 15% of adult voters, according to PPIC.

For the 2020 election, California will be voting even earlier than in previous years, as its primaries have been shifted to “Super Tuesday” in March, in order to have a greater influence on the Presidential nomination process.

With more AAPI voters than ever, delegate-rich California will receive ballots on the same day that Iowans head to their first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. California outpaced Iowa in delegates needed for the Democratic Party nomination in 2016, 475 to 23.

Forum tickets can be obtained here.

The Costa Mesa forum falls days before the next official Democratic presidential debate in Houston. Ten candidates — including Yang and Harris — met the polling and donor thresholds necessary to participate Sept. 12.

Today (Sept. 7), a majority of the 19 remaining candidates will be making their pitch to the New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention to garner the endorsement of the party's local power brokers and activists, the ground troops necessary to win the nation's first primary in the nation on Feb. 11

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Progressives find new political voice in Orange County

The Asian American community in Orange County, Calif. is becoming younger and more progressive.

ASAM NEWS

Katie Nguyen Kalvoda is a fresh, new face in the progressive party and she is ready to become a leader for the Asian American community.
According to an Orange County Register article, most Asian American representatives in the county are Republicans. Yet, more Asian Americans continue to vote more for the blue party.

Last Thursday, Kalvoda announced the official launching of Asian Americans Rising, a political committee designed to help progressive Asian Americans and other non-Asian Americans who support the movement.

She says, “For too long, we have had only one representation from one party.”

The Asian American community is a rapidly growing ethnic group with a population of about 20 percent in Orange County. With around 40.9 percent of the Asian American population voting “no party preference”, Kavolda hopes to persuade more and more Asian Americans into voting progressively.

Last November, the Democrats swept six congressional contests in Orange County, once considered a Republican stronghold.

As the second generation of Asian Americans become voters, they are not following the same voting preferences of their traditionally more conservative immigrant parents. In addition, the AAPI communities are becoming more diverse. Besides the well-established Vietnamese, large numbers of Chinese, Filipinos and South Asians have turned what was once a solid GOP voting bloc into one less monolithic.

Asian Americans Rising is looking to develop this force with already 450 members in the organization.

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ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER


As she addressed a group of mostly Asian Americans, Katie Nguyen Kalvoda spoke of the need for elected leaders who “not only look like us, but truly represent us”.


In a county where the vast majority of Asian American elected representatives are Republicans, Kalvoda was referring specifically about progressive Asian leaders.


Her audience, Thursday night in Fountain Valley, was already on board. The group was there to cheer the official launch of Asian Americans Rising, a new political action committee designed to recruit and support progressive Asian American candidates as well as non-Asians who support the community.


The new PAC is launching at a time when Asian American voters in Orange County continue a shift from being reliably Republican to an increasingly blue voting bloc.


“For too long, we have had only representation from one party. And its grip on our community has made us fearful to speak out and to speak up,” said Kalvoda, the PAC’s co-founder and president, referring to the GOP.


“So it is fitting that as we kick off Asian American heritage month, we recognize that things must change.”


The organization, with about 450 members, is looking to build on the momentum created last November, when Democrats swept six Orange County congressional contests in what was once a county synonymous with the Republican Party. With the GOP expected to mount a strong bid to retake at least some local seats, the new PAC hopes to help the Asian American community recruit and support candidates, and connect them to leadership training opportunities – and to donors.


“Our star, as high as it has risen, it is nowhere as close to the apex that it is going to reach,” John Chiang, the former California state controller and state treasurer who ran unsuccessfully for governor last year, told some 125 people gathered Thursday night.


“Don’t let all of your efforts, your sweat, your toil, your passion go with one election cycle,” Chiang added. “Make this permanent.”


Chiang also has created a PAC – ElectAAPI.org – to help Asian-American and Pacific Islander Democrats get elected at the state and national levels.


Meanwhile, the local PAC already has moved to flex its political muscles, organizing a presidential forum for Democratic candidates to be held in Orange County in September.


“Our name, Asian Americans Rising, invokes a couple of things and a certain image,” Kalvoda said in an interview. “It’s a community that is recognizing its power and potential, in many ways, to achieve parity. We want our fair share of resources and political representation. We want people who understand our community and represent our interests.”


Earlier in the evening, recently elected state Sen. Tom Umberg looked across the room and told a Southern California News Group reporter: “You’re looking at the future of Orange County right here.”


The Asian American community is growing faster than any other racial or ethnic group in Orange County, noted Umberg, a Democrat who last November narrowly beat out state Sen. Janet Nguyen in District 34. Umberg beat Nguyen, a Republican Vietnamese American, in a district that includes Little Saigon.


But Asian voters in Orange County are hardly limited to Little Saigon. Asians account for about 20 percent of the county’s population and roughly 15 percent of all registered voters. And registration data suggests Asian voters aren’t beholden to either major party.


The top political label for Asian voters in Orange County, at 40.9 percent, is “no party preference.” Democrats account for 29.5 percent of Asian registrations while Republicans hold 28.6 percent, according to Political Data Inc., which tracks voting information.


“There’s been a massive growth of independents, and it’s been even more dramatic in the last couple of years. A lot of that is driven through DMV voter registrations, especially among young people and among Asians and Latinos,” said Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data.


Traditionally, various ethnic groups have voted for people whose names sound like theirs. But that may be changing, said UC Irvine Professor Linda Trinh Vo, who specializes in Asian American studies.


“You may have multiple Vietnamese candidates running for the same spot and it’s made the community rethink how they’re going to vote and question their policies more. Or you may have candidates who are not Asian but have worked with the community,” Vo said.


One example Vo cited: the 2016 46th Congressional race between two Democrats – Bao Nguyen, then mayor of Garden Grove and a Vietnamese American, and veteran lawmaker Lou Correa, a Latino who served in both county and state offices.


Correa “was very popular in the Vietnamese community” for his long-time outreach there, Vo said. In return, Vietnamese leaders organized and supported him, despite the ballot also including a Vietnamese American candidate.


Another more recent factor is what many are calling the “Trump effect.”


“As a community, Asians must understand that the rhetoric we hear from this administration about Mexicans is not about Mexicans… They are, in fact, trying to systematically erase communities of color, including Asian Americans, from the record,” said Kalvoda. As evidence, she pointed to, among other issues, the administration’s move to include a question about citizenship in the upcoming U.S. Census.


“We’re at a crossroads to win the hearts and minds of the API (Asian Pacific Islander) community,” Kalvoda said.


Annie Wright, vice president of Asian Americans Rising, got involved politically after President Trump announced in 2017 a travel ban to predominantly Muslim countries.


“It was so un-American. It was so egregious,” Wright said. “I never thought a president, whether a Republican or Democrat, could change the country so dramatically.”


So Wright, who arrived from Vietnam when she was 10, created the Aliso Niguel Democratic Club. The group started with residents from her hometown of Aliso Viejo and neighboring Laguna Niguel, and has grown to about 150 members, she said.


Still, when it comes to Asian Americans who also hold office in Orange County, the GOP has a strong foothold, particularly among people who sit on school boards, city councils and higher positions.


Fred Whitaker, who heads the GOP in Orange County, noted his party has been very successful in promoting Asian Americans elected leaders.


“We are amused that the Democratic Party, which leans so heavily on identity politics, is just waking up to the strength of the Asian American community in Orange County.”


Asian American Republicans who hold offices that represent at least parts of Orange County include Senator Ling Ling Chan and Assembly members Phillip Chen, Tyler Diep and Steven Choi. Also, the county board of supervisors has a GOP Asian-American majority (Andrew Do, Michelle Steel and Lisa Bartlett,) and the county’s clerk recorder is a Vietnamese American, Hugh Nguyen. Meanwhile, there are 13 Republicans of Asian descent on city councils, compared to four Asian American Democrats, while on Orange County school boards Asian American Republicans outnumber Asian American Democrats six to five.


“Good for the Democrats that they’re trying to catch up,” Whitaker said. “But they won’t.”


Janet Nguyen, the former state Senator who narrowly lost in the last election, said she found it offensive that a group would generalize about Asian Americans when, in reality, while they may share some similarities they also speak different languages and come from different cultures.


“We look at issues. What’s best for our families and children,” said Nguyen, who also served as an Orange County supervisor and Garden Grove council member.


“What I’ve seen, in my district, Vietnamese American voters are very savvy… very informed. And they participate. They will choose their candidates according to whether they view that person as the one who protects them, who will fight for them.”

Presidential candidates invited to California AAPI Forum

As a sign of their growing political influence, Asian American political groups plan to host a forum in Orange County, California, for Democratic presidential candidates this September, the groups announced Thursday (Apr. 11).

AAPI Victory Fund and Asian Americans Rising said they plan to sponsor the Sept. 8 forum. Although participants have not yet been announced, the Orange County Register reported that an organizer said several “top-tier” candidates have pledged to appear.

Orange County, which used to be a bastion of Republicans, turned decidedly Democrat in the 2018 Midterms. The AAPI communities were a key factor in turning its eight Congressional Districts blue.

About 20 percent of the county’s population is Asian American or Pacific Islander, according to census estimates, with large populations of people of Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Japanese descent.

To date, 18 candidates, including three AAPI candidates, are seeking the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination, including three Asian American and Pacific Islanders. The forum will showcase the candidates who are most interested in securing the AAPI vote in the Presidential primaries.

“We saw a record number of Asian American and Pacific Islanders run for elected office in 2018 in response to the abusive policies of President Trump and the Republican Congress,” said Shekar Narasimhan, chair and founder of AAPI Victory Fund. 

“The diversity and breadth of the 2020 Presidential democratic field and our community’s desire to engage has surpassed our expectations. We felt it was important to hold this groundbreaking forum with Democratic candidates, to test if they believe the AAPI vote is worth investing in, and also to ensure that our community has the information needed to participate in the primaries and the general election,” said Narasimhan.

California has largest and most diverse population in the nation with a strong track record of early voting. Nearly 60% of California Democratic voters cast a ballot by mail in the 2016 Presidential primary. For the 2020 election, California will be voting even earlier than in previous years, as its primaries have been shifted to “Super Tuesday” in March, in order to have a greater influence on the Presidential nomination process. 

With approximately 1.6 million AAPIs in Los Angeles County alone, delegate-rich California will be receiving ballots on the same day that Iowans head to their first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. California outpaced Iowa in delegates in 2016, 475 to 23.

“We are excited to host this forum in Orange County, where 1 in 5 residents are Asian American and Pacific Islander. Rather than being dominated by one immigrant group, Orange County’s communities have a Pan-Asian feel, with Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Filipino and Japanese influences,” said Katie Nguyen Kalvoda, co-founder and president of Asian Americans Rising. “We may have descended from many, but we rise as one to lift the AAPI voice for political parity.”

As the fastest growing racial group in the US, the AAPI electorate will have an even more formidable effect in the 2020 elections than it has in the past. Roughly one in four Congressional Districts have more than 5% AAPI voters, and AAPIs have become the swing vote in multiple districts and states. Results from the 2018 mid-term elections show that AAPIs contributed significantly to the Democratic margins of victory.

“The Trump Administration has repeatedly attacked and shown disregard for the AAPI community through policies that separate our families, undermine our health care and suppress our civil rights and liberties,” said Bel Leong-Hong, co-founder of AAPI Victory Fund. 

“In the 2016 Presidential Election, AAPIs made up 5.9 million registered voters, and 9.3 million eligible voters. Because of the President’s policies, we expect AAPI voter registration to increase significantly in 2020. This forum will energize the AAPI community and inform them which candidate is best suited to lead our country.”

The first-ever AAPI Democratic Presidential Forum, and the Day of Action that will precede it, will highlight AAPI issues as well as our goal of increasing the number of new AAPI voters by 1 million in 2020. 

To RSVP, and for additional information about the AAPI Democratic Presidential Forum visit www.AAPIConstellation.com.

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