Vote today! Michelle Wu leading in race for Boston's mayorship

MICHELLE WU CAMPAIGN

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., right, campaigns for City Councilor Michelle Wu,
who is running to become Boston's mayor.

Boston's next mayor may be an Asian American woman reflecting the changing political landscape of the historical city.

Michelle Wu, a city councilwoman, has been running for Mayor for almost a year and of the polls are any indication, the chances are good that she'll be one of the two mayoral candidates vying for the city's top post on Nov. 2.

Wu, who has the endorsement of Sen. Elizabeth Warren leads the polls with the other candidates -- Acting Mayor Kim Janey, City Councilors Andrea Campbell and Annissa Essaibi George, and former city economic development chief John Barros. -- hoping to capture the second spot.

The election is nonpartisan so the finalists could very well be of the same party in the city that is heavily Democratic.

"Growing up, I never thought I would run for office one day. As the daughter of immigrants, I understood from my youngest days how my family and so many others feel unseen and unheard in our society," said Wu in a statement.

“I recognize the ways in which I’m not the typical mold of a Boston politician, but it’s really not just gender and ethnicity or age necessarily, although [it’s] all of those things,” she said.

Find your polling place, here.

Last Saturday, a rally with Warren was held in Chinatown, the neighborhood is where Wu first began volunteering and community organizing in Boston nearly two decades ago.

“If there was ever a moment when we needed to organize, to fight, to stand up to tackle impossible odds, it is right now. We are facing an ongoing public health crisis and a climate crisis and a displacement crisis. But this is a city, and a community, that stands up to fight," said Wu. 

Boston's Asian American population makes up 10% of the city's residents; White, 53%; Blacks, 25%; and Hispanic, 20%. 

"After eight years in the City Council, ten years in City Hall, we have seen the power we have to make that change at the local level. I’m so grateful to Senator Elizabeth Warren for being in this fight with me, and know that together, we will take on the big challenges to meet this incredibly important moment,” said Wu.

“I believe in Michelle because I know Michelle. I’ve known Michelle since she was my student, since she had the courage to step up and run for City Council. I’ve known her as a partner in the fight for childcare, more affordable housing and a Boston that works for working people," said Warren.

“We need more working parents in leadership roles. It makes a difference when moms are in charge, and for me, being a mom and raising two boys in this moment in our city and in our country’s history gives me an urgency to make sure that we’re getting things done,” Wu told Yahoo News. “You put a Boston public school mom in charge [of] our city, and we will see changes to match the scale and urgency of our community’s needs.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For further commentary, tips and recommendations, follow me on Twitter @dioknoed.

Analysis: Who do California's Asian Amerian voters support?

Super Tuesday is upon us and Asian American voters are ready to cast their ballots. There are over 4 million eligible AAPI voters in the Golden State, which has 415 delegates up for grabs.

The Democratic field of candidates has narrowed dramatically after the South Carolina primary. With Joe Biden's overwhelming victory in South Carolina, Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigeig and Amy Klobuchar have dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination to run against Donald Trump.

Fivethirtyeight.com says, "In California, which votes on Super Tuesday, Asian Americans make up 16 percent of the population, the largest percentage of any state except Hawaii. The state’s Asian American voters account for 12 percent of likely voters who are registered Democrats, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, which released a study of California voters last August. And that same research showed that 36 percent of Asian American likely voters in California are independents, compared to 43 percent who are Democrats, which means that if independents choose to cast a Democratic ballot, Asian Americans’ share of the primary electorate could be even higher."

The latest polls taken before the South Carolina primary shows Sanders favored in California, but momentum is in Biden's favor after his big win in South Carolina, drawing the overwhelming support of African Americans and moderate white voters.

Heading into Super Tuesday (but, before South Carolina), fivethirtyeight.com has four recent California polls with crosstab information on who Asian American voters are leaning toward voting for, and Sanders seems to have an edge, earning the most support in three of the four surveys the website looked at. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also did well across the board.

“I’m not sure how much that matters,” says Rep. Ro Khanna, the Indian American congressmember representing Silicon Valley, and Sanders' campaign co-chair. He adds, “I mean, (Biden’s) a formidable competitor, we’re treating him as such and we’re very confident we’re going to do well in a lot of Super Tuesday states. We think this is going to be a fight until the convention."

The chart below provided by fivethirtyeight was compiled before the outcome of the South Carolina Primary.

Sanders, whose campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, is Muslim American, was one of two Democratic candidates to attend the Islamic Society of North America’s annual conference in Houston over Labor Day weekend last year, an event that drew some 30,000 Muslims from all over the country.

Sanders has received endorsements from prominent Muslim American figures: Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first Muslim American women elected to Congress; and even millennial influencers like Hoda Katebi, a popular fashion writer, cultural critic, and political activist. A few weeks before Super Tuesday, Emgage PAC, which calls itself the biggest Muslim political action committee in the country, endorsed Sanders as well, according to Politico.

Biden, for his part, appears ready to give Sanders the Golden State and instead is focusing on states with large African American populations -- Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas. The Biden campaign has spent zero dollars on California TV ads, and a teeny, tiny, almost negligible amount ($4,000) on digital.

Biden also received and early endorsement of the AAPI Victory Fund, one of the more active AAPI political action committees.

One of the most visible Asian American surrogates for Biden is Olympic skater Michelle Kwan, a native Californian, but she has been absent from the Golden State in the runup to Super Tuesday.

Warren and her campaign manager Roger Lau first began talking about the importance of AAPI representation in government back when he was tapped for Warren’s Massachusett's senatorial campaign in 2011. They have been very deliberate in including more than 100 AAPI staffers throughout the campaign, including Mary Lou Akai-Ferguson, the national AAPI community engagement and organizing director for Warren for President who has led the campaign’s grassroots outreach efforts.

However the Warren campaign compiled an impressive list of AAPI celebrities and community leaders endorsing the Massachusetts senator, including such luminaries such as actress Constance Wu, authors Celeste Ng and Gina Apostol, CNN pundit Jeff Yang, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao and prominent psychology professor Kevin Nadal. 

Warren "has called for more support for legal immigration, including redistributing unused visas to address the millions of backlogged individuals currently waiting for a way to enter the United States, as well as lower barriers to naturalization for green card holders — over a third of whom are Asian, who make up the largest group of naturalized citizens in the United States. She has declared that she will not just extend DACA, but provide a path to citizenship for DREAMers — and their families; about one in 10 DACA-eligible individuals in the U.S. are Asian,” the group noted.

To counter this list, the Sanders campaign compiled their own list of endorsements from prominent AAPI celebrities and leaders.

Is it Tulsi Gabbard's last hurrah?

Notice that Hawaii's Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is not even included in fivethirtyeight's calculations because she has done so poorly in the four early primaries and caucuses. 

In California, a candidate must win 15% of the votes in order to earn any of the delegates. It is unlikely that Gabbard will reach that threshold except for her appeal for the state's large Hawaiian, Samoan American and Hindu American subgroups.

Another candidate that shouldn't be discounted is former NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has spend a fortune in television, print and online advertising in California and Texas and other Super Tuesday states. It has been his campaign's strategy from the moment he announced his candidacy to ignore the first four contests and concentrate his considerable treasure chest on Super Tuesday. We'll see if this unusual strategy works for the billionaire.

With Californians Sen. Kamala Harris and tech billionaire Tom Steyer out of the race, along with Asian American Andrew Yang, the state's AAPI voters may go with the candidate who has put the most effort in winning their vote -- respect and reverence being important in most AAPI cultures. That would be Sen. Warren, who like Sanders propose a progressive agenda but hasn't been as strident nor did she have the well-established organization that Sanders never disbanded after his 2016 run against Hillary Clinton.

The big question is with moderates Steyer, Buttigeig and Klobuchar out of the race, where will their supporters go? And for the voters who opted to cast their votes early, if they didn't vote for the remaining candidates, their votes will amount to zero.

Will Michael Bloomberg's advertising campaign work?

“We are fighting this delegate by delegate,” said Roger Lau, Elizabeth Warren's campaign manager and the first AAPI to head a national political campaign. Although only has won eight delegates after South Carolina's Primary Saturday. Warren has a record of being able to win even in races where she initially trailed, Roger Lau adds. “I’m confident that we’re going to continue fighting all the way through until the convention.”


Two weeks ago, Warren put forth her “Working Agenda for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders,” and like Sanders, has invested heavily in multi-lingual campaign materials.


Besides, California and Texas, the other states voting Tuesday include Warren's home state of Massachusetts, Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, American Samoa, and Sander's home state of Vermont. Altogether these states and territory represent a third of the total Democratic delegates.

AAPI voters could play key roles in Texas where several AAPI candidates -- Filipino American Gina Ortiz Jones in the 23rd and Indian American Sri Preston Kulkarni in the 22nd -- running for Congress could spur  more AAPI voters to show up at the polls. The largest AAPI ethnic groups in Texas include: Indian (340,000), Vietnamese (258,000), Chinese (211,000), Filipino (170,000), Korean (101,000), and Pakistani (66,000), according to AAPI Data. AAPI voters make up about 5% of the electorate.

In Texas, Asian Americans are the fastest-growing demographic, according to the US Census. The Asian American community has grown by 42% since 2010. Evidence of the growing presence of AAPI communities -- every major city in Texas now hosts Lunar New Year celebrations and the "Howdy Modi" rally welcoming India's Prime MInister last year drew 50,000 Indian Americans to Houston.

In a Public Policy Polling survey of likely Texas Democratic primary voters released this week, 32% of Asian Americans supported Sanders, 29% supported Bloomberg, 20% supported Buttigieg and 9% supported Biden. But this poll was also taken before Biden's convincing win in South Carolina and before Buttigieg dropped out. 

On Sunday, both Buttigieg and Klobuchar gave ringing endorsements to Biden. We can assume that many of Buttigieg's and Klobuchar's moderate supporters in Texas and California would switch their preference to Biden or Bloomberg.

The Hmong American community, which has been politically active in Minnesota in the Twin Cities region and supporters of Minnesota Sen. Klobuchar, will likely take her endorsement seriously and vote for the moderate Biden.

Other states where AAPI could make a difference include Virginia and Colorado, representing 5.3% and 3% of the voters, respectively, according to AAPI Data.

Super Tuesday could be the make-or-break moment for several of the candidates and the moment the AAPI voters could help determine the outcome of the Democratic race for President.

Updated March 3, 9:30 a.m. for clarity.

Democratic candidates scramble for Nevada's AAPI vote

COURTESY ROGER LAU

Elizabeth Warren's campaign was present at Las Vegas Lunar New Year celebration.

With just days to go before the Nevada's Feb. 22 Caucus, voters, media and the candidates are learning that Nevada is an entirely different ball game than either Iowa or New Hampshire, two mostly white states.

Nevada is the first early state with a majority nonwhite population; 28 percent of the Democratic electorate is Latino, 14 percent is African American and 11 percent is Asian American and Pacific Islanders.

“The culture is shifting. It used to be we were afterthoughts. Now people understand AAPI is a determining group in Nevada,” said Grace Vergara-Mactal, executive director of Service Employees International Union.

If you've visited Las Vegas or Reno, you can't help but notice the plethora of AAPI employees working in the casinos, restaurants and other service industries. Nevada hospitals and schools have been active in recruiting nurses and teachers, respectively, from the Philippines.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing segment of the Nevada electorate and one that has been heavily courted by the candidates and the Democratic Party.

From AAPI Data and APIA Vote have prepared a fact sheet on Nevada's AAPI population. Here are some highlights:

• Largest AAPI ethnic groups in Nevada include: Filipino (162,936), Chinese (50,878), Japanese (26,359), Korean (16,169), Vietnamese (16,169), and Indian (15,022). 

• From 2010 to 2016, the number of eligible AAPI voters in Nevada grew 35%. 

• This compares to a 13% growth rate for the statewide eligible voting population between 2010 to 2016. 

• AAPI youth (ages 18-29) comprise 22% of the AAPI CVAP population in Nevada. • AAPIs age 50 

For the first time, the DNC will provide Caucus-goers voting material in Tagalog, one of the major dialects of the Philippines. Last month, Democrats held a workshop on how to take part in the Caucus for Tagalog speakers. 

After the New Hampshire Primary where Elizabeth Warren finished a distant fourth, the candidate, who has campaigned in Nevada heavily, released her Agenda for the Asian American Pacific Islander community, outlining her positions and goals on a number of. issues, including immigration, family reunification, health care, education, housing and racial discrimination.

In a lead-up to the Nevada Caucus, the major candidates participated in a Twitter Town Hall directed at the AAPI communities. Although the program was nationwide, the timing of the event was evidently chosen to get information to Nevada's AAPI voters.

Candidates have been keying in on the AAPI community targetting specific Asian subgroups. Elizabeth Warren located her Nevada field office in the heart of Las Vega's Chinatown. Her campaign has been active for a year in the Silver State.

Warren's campaign rang in the Lunar New Year with the launch of its “AAPI Weekend of Action” at the annual Las Vegas Spring Festival Parade.

“We want to make sure we’re meeting people where we’re at. That’s why we’ve been making a huge investment here in Nevada and Las Vegas, making sure we had staff on the ground,” said Roger Lau, Warren's campaign manager, the first Asian American to hold that position for a major candidate.

“Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are paying attention and listening to what the politicians are saying,” said Lau.

“They have health care issues they have to deal with. They have educational concerns. They want to make sure we have childcare,” Lau said.

INSTAGRAM

Pete Buttigeig meets with AAPI community members in Las Vegas late last year.

Former Vice President Joe Biden announced on January 31 the formation of the ​Nevada Asian American and Pacific Islander (​AAPI) Leadership Council​, which will focus on mobilizing and engaging Nevada’s growing AAPI community on behalf of the candidate.

Ash Mirchandani, a Las Vegas business and community leader, will chair the group, and Doris Bauer, a board member of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), will be vice chair.

“This council is a testament to the energy and support that the AAPI community has for Joe Biden. With only a short time left before the Nevada caucus, this council will be charged with convincing even more members of our community to join Team Joe," said ​Mirchandani in a statement.

"We will be phone banking, knocking doors, hosting community events, and most importantly, making the case for why Joe Biden is the best candidate to expand access to health care, improve our standing in the world, and ensure America’s long-term, equitable economic success,” 

“With only a few weeks before the Nevada caucus, I am excited to take the next step to ensure my community turns out for Joe Biden. Filipinos are one of the fastest-growing communities in Nevada, and we will be decisive in determining our Democratic nominee nationwide,” ​said Bauer.

Earlier in January, the AAPI Victory Fund, ​a PAC focused on mobilizing Asian American and Pacific Island voters, endorsed ​Biden for President​. ​

The newly formed council and the Victory Fund are holding an Early Vote Event on Tuesday, Feb. 18, at the popular Chinatown restaurant, Harbor Palace Seafood Restaurant. Starting at 4:45 p.m., the event requires an RSVP.

California Sen. Kamala Harris and businessman Andrew Yang, two of the three AAPI candidates, had invested heavily in the Silver State. Their absence leaves a lot of their followers deciding who they will cast their votes for.

Sanders has a small army of volunteers on the ground in the state who are knocking on doors, waving signs at commuters and handing out campaign literature in multiple languages.

The Vermont senator leads the presidential field by a solid margin among likely Democratic caucus-goers heading into Nevada’s four-day early voting period, but all six of the candidates actively campaigning in the state this week earned double-digit support according to The Nevada Poll™.

Sanders topped the poll conducted for the Las Vegas Journal-Review  and AARP Nevada with 25% of respondents expressing support, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden with 18%, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, 13% followed by Steyers, 11%, Buttigeig  and Klobuchar had 10%.

Except for Steyer, all have qualified for the Feb. 19 debate. Billionaire Mike Bloomberg qualified for the debate Tuesday morning. Steyerand Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard have until 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday to meet the debate criteria established by the DNC.
_______________________________________________________________________________

The next Democratic debate can be viewed:

• Date: Wednesday, February 19, 2020
• Time: 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: The debate will air on NBC and MSNBC. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

However, the debate may be too late for for Nevada voters. Almost 60% of voters are expected to take part in the state's early voting.

"Democrats just assume that Asian-Americans will turn up at the polls, and vote Democrat," said Dr. Michelle Diggles, author of a new Third Way study on Asian-American political participation. "There are very real serious ramifications for the assumption that demographics are destiny for the Democratic Party. If you don't do outreach, if you don't target, if you don't talk about the issues that they care about, they'll stay home."

“Candidates that don’t pay attention to the AAPI population will meet their demise,” William McCurdy II, the state’s Democratic Party chairman, told CNN. “They want to be courted. They want face time” with candidates.

UPDATED: Feb. 18, 9:45 a.m. to include Mike Bloomberg in the Nevada debate.

Warren issues her 'working agenda' for AAPI and Native Hawaiians

Roger Lau, left, is Elizabeth Warren's campaign manager.

With the voting done in two of the whitest states in the US, presidential candidates turn to more diverse states like Nevada and California where the AAPI vote is significant. On Thursday (Feb. 13,) Elizabeth Warren released a document entitled, “Working Agenda for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders,” outlining what her administration would do that would benefit this group of ethnic communities.
It is a comprehensive document covering a wide range of issues from immigration and climate change to college debt and small business assistance, LGBTQ rights to housing.

First off, from the document, is clear that the Massachusetts senator recognizes the economic and cultural complexity of the diverse communities that fall under the all-encompassing banner of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

She calls for disaggregated data collection.

"The AAPI community includes nearly 50 diverse racial and ethnic groups, but the data we gather today doesn’t capture the richness of the communities—or significant differences on key economic and social outcomes," reads the document.

"Everywhere you look, aggregated data hides Asian American families that are hanging on by their fingernails. Income inequality in Asian American communities nearly doubled from 1970 to 2016—Burmese, Nepalese, Hmong, and Bangladeshi Americans make, on average, less than half what people in some other AAPI groups make."

Then she pays homage to some AAPI historical figures and current day heroes, demonstrating that she has done her homework. Warren writes:

’ll listen to and learn from the AAPI leaders who have been at the forefront of the fight for data equity, language access, and racial and economic justice. From civil rights leader Fred Korematsu and labor leaders Larry Itliong and Phillip Vera Cruz to anti-racist organizers like Grace Lee Boggs, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have helped lead the fight for justice. And today, AAPI organizers are continuing that fight, as survivors of the Japanese internment camps oppose Donald Trump’s racist immigration policies, Native Hawaiians protect sacred land on Mauna Kea, and AAPI women like Saru Jayaraman and Ai-Jen Poo led the fight for fair wages and safer working conditions." 

Under immigration, one of the key concerns of the AAPI communities, a Warren administration will:

• Increase legal immmigration and recognize immigrants’ important contributions in creating jobs and business

• Make it easier for eligible green card holders to naturalize,

• Expand family reunification by reducing the backlog of visa applications,

• Reverse the Muslim Ban on day one of Elizabeth Warren’s presidency,

• Decriminalize migration and create accountability for the abuses perpetrated during the Trump era, and

• Immediately reinstate DACA protections for our Dreamers and shield their families from deportation.

• Create a fair and achievable pathway to citizenship for the estimated 1.45 million Asian Americans who are undocumented.

Even though she didn't "win" in Iowa or New Hampshire, Warren is undeterred. Nationally, she polls third behind Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. The next few states, Nevada and South Carolina are much more diverse that the first two states. Then on March 3, will be Super Tuesday when giant delegate-rich states like Texas and California will hold their primaries.

In conclusion, she writes:

"If we’re going to reshape our countr"y and our economy, restore our government, and save our democracy, we need to be willing to fight for bold, structural solutions to the problems we face as a nation. That means tackling generations of racial injustice and systemic discrimination head on and building a government that works for everyone.

"In our country, you ought to be able to take care of yourself and the people you love and build a better future for your children. That should be the fundamental promise of America.

"This is my commitment to AAPI communities. When I’m President, I will continue to fight and work with the communities to put real economic and political power in the hands of working people."

Sunday Read: Andrew Yang whiffs on the question of racism

SCREEN CAPTURE / ABC

From left, Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigeig and Elizabeth Warren tangle on race during the New Hampshire debate.

OPINION:

It may be a bit unfair that we (as in "people of color," specifically Asian Americans) expect so much from Andrew Yang. We put on his shoulders the weight of representing our own experiences and dreams.

You would think that as a POC, Yang would be able to give a more substantial answer to the question of racism in US society. In the New Hampshire debate, racism came up as a topic between Pete Buttigeig and Elizabeth Warren and then Andrew Yang came in at the end of the discussion. I thought to myself, "Oh, here we go, Andrew. Knock it out of the park." Instead, he whiffed. At most, he got a bloop single.

To my mind, racism permeates all aspects of US society. It is at the root of our country's inequality in wages, housing, justice system, education, income, opportunity and social standing. Most of all, racism is the unseen, but deep-dive underlying Marianas Trench that divides Americans from one another.

By and large, throughout his campaign, Yang has steered clear from "identity politics." Whenever the question of race comes up, he seems uncomfortable, and for lack of an answer, he falls back on his major plank on his platform - the universal basic income, or as he calls it, the Freedom Dividend - as the answer to all ills in American society.

That's what he did during the Friday (Feb. 7) debate in New Hampshire.

Mayor Pete Buttigeig was asked about his rocky record with the African American community in South Bend, Indiana. He was asked about the high rate of arrests of black people in his own city.

He claimed that the arrests for marijuana possession were lower than the national average and lower than the state of Indiana.

Fortunately, moderator Linsey Davis didn't let him get away with that answer. In fact, she disputed his figures. There was an increase. Davis said when Buttigieg took office in 2012, the numbers had increased and were still up in 2018, the most recent year the number was recorded.

Buttigeig  did not dispute Davis' figures, but tried to address her allegations:

"Yeah. And one of the strategies that our community adopted was to target when there were cases where there was gun violence and gang violence, which was slaughtering so many in our community, burying teenagers, disproportionately black teenagers, we adopted a strategy that said that drug enforcement would be targeted in cases where there was a connection to the most violent group or gang connected to a murder," he said.

"These things are all connected. But that's the point."

Davis then asked Sen. Elizabeth Warren, if Buttigeig's answer was good enough to satisfy any doubters of the mayor's record on race.

Warren's swift "No," prompted applause from the audience.

"We need to rework our criminal justice system from the very front end on what we make illegal all the way through the system and how we help people come back into the community," she said.

“We cannot just say that criminal justice is the only time that we want to talk about race specifically,” Warren said, calling for “race-conscious laws” on issues like housing, education and employment, in order “to make this country a country of opportunity for everyone, no matter the color of their skin.”

But Yang, as the only POC onstage, chimed in, disagreeing with Warren: “We can’t regulate away racism with a patchwork of laws that are race-specific.”

Yang, apparently, believes his signature campaign promise to give every citizen a universal basic income of $1,000 a month, can cure the racial ills facing this country. As if to lend weight to his argument, he cited “the writings of Martin Luther King.”

“We can’t regulate that away through any other means except putting money directly into the hands of African Americans and Latinos, to people of color, to allow businesses to actually flourish and grow in those communities,” Yang said. “The only way that will help is if Black and Latino consumers have buying power.”

Yang’s simplistic solution fails to address the larger point of the brought up by his white rivals: Laws have actively contributed to that lack of “buying power” in the economy. The country has a long history of policies that have institutionalized racism, creating discrimination in housing, education, health care and voting, among other aspects of society.

As such, it needs to be attacked and addressed in all its myriad forms, using any weapons available at our disposal. There is no one cure for this horrible and taxing disease.

You only have to ask any middle-class African American if their hard work and middle-class wage has eliminated racist incidents from his or her life.

Hell, one only has to look at how Trump and his white supremacist supporters in the Senate and elsewhere have attacked President Barack Obama. Even the most powerful man in the world was unable to change racial attitudes towards him and his family -- from questioning his birth certificate, his education and his loyalty to the US not to mention the cruder racist epithets and stereotypes hurled against them.

And as we can see clearly from the current White House, racism can come from the rich as well as from the economically challenged. A $1,000 a month check will not wash clean that ingrained stain.

After the Friday debate, CNN analysts Dana Bash and Erin Burnet again threw Yang softball after softball questions trying to give him an opportunity to give a more substantive answer since only Yang, as the only person of color on stage, could give an answer with any weight. 

Bash asked  Yang if there was anything he'd like to add that he didn't say on stage.

Although he admitted that his Freedom Dividend would not get rid of "structural" racism, easing the economic inequality would at least give American something to build on. "I did feel a bit of responsibility because I knew I was the lone candidate of color on the stage. ... I just don't think you can legislate away racism."

Burnett asked Yang what it felt like to hear white candidates talk about black voters. Yang responded as if he didn't understand the question. He again fell back on his stock stump talking point -- the Freedom Dividend. The closest he came to answering the question was saying that Martin Luther King was pushing for the universal basic income before he was assassinated.

Even though last year he admitted that he was the victim of discrimination while he was growing up in New York state, Yang avoids talking about America's greatest shame as if it is part of a deliberate strategy. 

Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Julian Castro, who have talked eloquently about race during the previous debates and during the course of their campaigns, have all dropped out of the race for the presidency. Maybe Yang has learned something from their missteps andn doesn't want to offend his white supporters, including those right-wingers who have announced their preference for the candidate who doesn't accuse them of being racists.

Tulsi Gabbard and Duval Patrick didn't qualify for the debate stage and barely register in the polls leaving Yang as the most visible candidate of color who can and should speak about racism with any sense of moral authenticity. 

Though Yang has spoken candidly on the campaign trail about facing racism and discrimination as he grew up in upstate New York, he has also faced other criticisms of his handling of race, such as his self-deprecating jokes about Asian Americans, which have sometimes perpetuated stereotypes, including the “model minority” and good-at-math tropes.

Yang has attracted praise from from the white supremacist wing of the GOP  and to his credit, he has disavowed their support. But he also claims to be attracting substantial numbers of whites who regret voting for Trump in 2016. Perhaps Yang doesn't want to offend his white supporters, but in tippy-toeing around the touchy subject in favor of whites, he's turning off POC voters who want to hear him speak from his heart about their truths.

Presidential hopefuls vye for AAPI vote; Biden picks up endorsement, Sanders leads in California

BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN

Sen. Bernie Sanders appeals to Asian American and Pacific Islander voters.

After the two predominantly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire, Nevada will have its Primary caucuses on Feb. 22 to choose their preference for the candidate the Democrats will pick as their presidential nominee.

AAPI voters make up about 10% of Nevada's electorate and after extensive preparations such as holding mock caucuses last week, could influence the state's caucuses. During the mock caucuses, campaign material translated into Tagalog for the first time to woo the voters.

California's primary, with AAPI people making up 16% of its population, will head to the polls March 3 but early mail-in voting begins the same day as the Iowa Caucus, Feb. 3.

It's no wonder the Democratic candidates are paying more attention to AAPI voters, a small but influential group in the western states, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey and in states you wouldn't expect, like Texas, Arizona, Alaska, Virginia and Maryland.

Before they dropped out of the race, California's Sen. Kamala Harris and New Jersey's Sen. Cory Booker had made inroads among AAPI voters in their respective states, forming AAPI outreach committees and staging events for those ethnic groups. Since their departure from the campaign trail, their backers are up for grabs. 

Former Vice President Joe Biden picked up the endorsement of an AAPI super PAC Friday. “We believe that Joe Biden is the best candidate to defeat Trump and lead our country,” Shekar Narasimhan, chairman of the AAPI Victory Fund, said in a statement. “Out of all the presidential candidates, he has the most experience and cares deeply about AAPI issues.”

Narasimhan made a point to acknowledge the participation of the three AAPI candidates. He said the AAPI Victory Fund made its endorsement of Biden “with enormous respect for the three AAPI candidates and others who entered the presidential race.”

However, according to the Public Policy Insitutute of California, Biden's rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders' support in California has surged since Harris left the race, while support for Biden and Warren appear to have plateued.

The PPIC tracking poll, which was last conducted in November, shows Sanders leading with support of 27 percent of likely Democratic primary voters, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden with 24 percent and Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 23 percent.

Sanders campaign held a press conference in San Francisco last week that was conducted in Chinese. The Vermont senator is running right behind Biden in vying for the AAPI vote, according to NBC.According to AAPI Data, the Asian American donors has swung its financial support to Andrew Yang, easily outperforming Biden, Warren and Buttigeig in that order.

Although the Chinese press conference is impressive and perhaps the first of its kind in this primary season, it also points out the difficulty the candidates have in reaching out to the AAPI communities, made up of over a score of languages and dialects. The press conference in Chinese doesn't translate to Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog or Indian American communities.

In vote-rich California, the largest Asian American ethnic group is the Filipino community, which communicates mainly in English or one of the numerous Filipino dialects such as  Tagalog, Ilocano, Cebuano or Pangasinan.

Sanders' campaign, whose campaign manager is Pakistani American Faiz Shakir, has made available campaign materials in six Asian languages: Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Hindi and Punjabi. Tthat is more than any other campaign, according to ABC News. Fluent volunteers also help craft scripted appeals to prospective voters to ensure Sanders' messaging isn't lost in translation.

For 2020, the AAPI Victory Fund expects the AAPI electorate to play a critical role in states that are up for grabs, including Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia and Arizona, according to an NBC report.

Narasimhan said the AAPI Victory Fund made its endorsement of Biden “with enormous respect for the three AAPI candidates and others who entered the presidential race.”

“There is still a tremendous amount of work to be done in the next 10 months, and AAPIs are more engaged than ever,” he added. “We are committed to continuing our work for 2020 victories and delivering one million new voters for Joe Biden to win the Presidency and for Democrats to increase their House majority and to take back the Senate.”

Buttigeig Warren, Biden would consider Kamala Harris as vice president

ANALYSIS

SCREEN CAPTURE

Elizabeth Warren is open to an all-woman ticket in considering Kamala Harris as a running mate.

Just days after dropping out of the president’s race, Kamala Harris is being named as a possible Vice Presidential candidate.

The top three candidates on top of the polls, former Vice President Joe Biden, US Senator Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigeig, say they’d consider the California senator as a possible running mate.

When asked if he'd consider Harris as a running mate, Biden said, “Of course I would."

“Look, Sen. Harris has the capacity to be anything she wants to be. I mean it sincerely. I talked to her yesterday. She’s solid, she can be president someday herself, she can be vice president, she could go on to be a Supreme Court justice, she could be attorney general. I mean she has enormous capability.”

Ironically, Harris’ best moment in her failed presidential run came this summer when she confronted Biden during a debate. The two talked this week. Biden said he’s “not good at keeping hard feelings.”

“My reaction is she’s of first rate intellect, a first rate candidate and a real competitor,” he said to reporters after getting the news that Harris had dropped out of the race. “I have mixed emotions about it because she is really a solid, solid person, and loaded with talent. And I’m sure she’s not dropping out on wanting to make the changes she cares about.”

"I think she deserves to be under anybody's consideration. She's a formidable leader," Pete Buttigieg told NBC News when asked whether he was considering Harris as a potential running mate.

"I have enormous respect for Senator Harris," he said. "I think that she brought a great deal to the race, and she'll continue to bring a great deal and her leadership to the country. I don't think it's appropriate for me to name — it's very premature before the Iowa caucus for me to name-check anybody for the future."

Warren was even more enthusiastic about Harris. When asked if Harris would be on her short list for VP, Warren replied, “Oh yeah. I mean look, Kamala Harris would be on any Democrat’s short list. She’s smart, she’s confident…”
And though Harris is no longer running for president, she’ll still be fulfilling her duties as a Senator, and Warren thinks we’ll be seeing a lot more of Harris in the future.

“Kamala’s terrific,” Warren said. “And I guarantee we’re going to hear a lot more from Kamala in a lot of different ways.”

Harris' value as a running mate for one of the top tier Democratic candidates has grown since her announcement that she's dropping out of the race for POTUS, particularly, the six candidates who will be taking part in the Dec. 19 debate - thus, far - are white.

Democrats fear that a good portion of the Obama coalition - college educated voters and voters of color -- may lose interest in the remaining candidates. Considering how much the Democrats depend on the voters of color to come out for their candidate, this is an embarrassing situation. A drop-off in voters from minority communities could cost them an election.

Except for Biden, who still has the gafterlow of the Obama presidency surrounding his candidacy, the other candidates, including Warren, Buttigeig, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar -- have not garnered the enthusiastic support of the black communities. 

Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Cory Booker and Julian Castro have not qualified for the debate under the rules imposed by the DNC. Presidential hopefuls have until 11:59 p.m. on December 12 to meet both donor and polling requirements.

The uphill climb for candidates of color might have been on Warren's mind Sunday (Dec. 8). Speaking to more than 800 people at the College of Charleston town hall event, Warren questioned what the seemingly unfair political process that seems to work against the infusion of new candidates with fresh ideas, in particular candidates of color.

Warren said in a press conference prior to her speech that she believes Americans are ready for a presidential ticket with two women at the top, rejecting concerns from some Democrats that a woman can't beat President Donald Trump.

"Sure, why not?" the Democratic presidential candidate told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of a town hall campaign event in Charleston. "I think (voters) would support a lot of different combinations."

Facing the Charleston audience, Warren invoked part of the campaign slogan that Harris had championed since January.

“My campaign is for the people,” Warren said, prompting some of the biggest applause of the night.

AsAm News contributed to this report.

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Andrew Yang plans big surprise during the Democrats' debate

Candidate Andrew Yang plans a surprise during the debate in Houston.

Finally, Andrew Yang has the mainstream media's attention.

Yang's campaign sent a tweet to The Daily Beast's Sam Stein that at Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate in Houston, the candidate is going to do "something no presidential candidate has ever done before in history."

By this mysterious tease, with no other specific details, mainstream media's interest piqued up. Speculation is rampant. 

Will he be the first candidate to drop out during a televised debate? In so doing, will he endorse one of his rivals? Will he crowdsurf onto the room like he did last week at the AAPI Presidential Forum? Will he jump into a mosh pit full of his Yang Gang supporters? Will he announce the score of the football game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers, which will be airing at the same time as the debate?

Yang has had trouble getting mainstream media to give him the attention given to candidates that he has outperformed in the polls. It seems the only time he gets air time is when he's doing something no other presidential candidate has done: line dancing with senior citizens; crying in response to a mother who had lost her son to gun violence, challenging Trump in basketball, and the aforementioned crowd surfing.

Yang has been unable to move beyond 2% (in some polls, 3%) in most polls so he's been stuck with the "long-shot" monicker.

This debate will feature the top ten hopefuls on the same stage. Previous debates have had to split the candidates into two separate nights.

While most eyes are anxious to see how frontrunner Joe Biden and his closest rival, Elizabeth Warren, interact. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg need to insert themselves among the top four or five to gain momentum towards the next debate in October.

The candidates who poll in the single digits, including Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Beto O'Rourke and Julian Castro to have a "moment," do or say somethingmake an impression with the audience. And watch out for that Asian guy who loves MATH.

To prepare for the debate, Yang shows his moves on the basketball court in the video below:

What: The third debate between candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination

When: 5-8 p.m. PT Thursday, Sept. 12

Channels: ABC and Univision

Streaming: The debate will stream on the ABC app and the ABC News Live channel, available on Facebook, Twitter, Roku, Hulu, AppleTV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube, Apple News and the ABC News, “Good Morning America” and FiveThirtyEight websites and phone apps. Univision News will also livestream the debate on its digital platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and Periscope.