AAPI Vote 2018: Asian American first-time candidates face long odds

IF WE'RE TO BELIEVE the election polls - and we are still smarting from 2016 - Asian American first-time candidates have a tough row to hoe to win their races today.

Historically, a record number of AAPI candidates are funning for office this year and most likely, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus will wind up with the most members it has ever had.

Based on fivethirtyeight.com, the analytical website owned by ABC, a majority of AAPI candidates are going against the odds, mostly because they are running against incumbents, which always have the advantage over their opponents.

On the other hand, the incumbent advantage is also helping AAPI politicians who are seeking reelection. Most of them  appear to be shoo-ins for another term. Additionally, some of the first-timers are showing up unexpectedly well.

Democrats have the best chance of capturing the majority in the House of Representatives. Fivethirtyeight gives Democrats a 7 out of 8 chance of capturing the House majority.

Here's a look at some of the key races we've been following:

Sri Preston Kulkami, Texas District 22:Even though old political hands advised him not to waste his time going after the Asian American vote, Kulkami made a concerted effort to reach out to the large diverse Asian American community in his district that includes southern Houston and its suburbs. fivethirdeight gives him a 20% chance of making the district Democratic.  He's behind by 6 points so victory is within reach. If the AAPI communities do come out for him strongly, and Latinos show up, Kulkami could beat the odds, but that's a big if.

Gina Ortiz Jones, Texas District 23:The Filipina American is running in the conservative district that follows the Mexico-Texas border. She started out strong but lost that lead with the Senate hearing for Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to SCOTUS. According to fivethirtyeight, Ortiz Jones has a 2 in 9 chance of victory. The key is, Ortiz Jone could ride on the coattails of Beto O'Rourke who is from El Paso and appears to have activated a lot of first-time voters (people who the pollsters don't pick up). The new voters, plus a Latino surge in the oft-neglected border area could result in a Blue Wave and drown the 6 point advantage held by the GOP incumbent.

Hiral Tipineni, Arizona, District 8Despite doing way better than anyone expected in one of the most-Republican districts in the country, she appears to be falling short of an upset victory. Fivethirtyeight gives her a 1 in 5 chance of winning. Behind by 5 points, she has made it a closer race than expected. The X-factor is if she has been able to convince a lot of the solidly Republican senior citizen voters living in retirement in her district that their  Social Security and Medicare benefits are at risk of Trump and the GOP maintains their majority in Congress.

Andy Kim, New Jersey, District 3It's hard to predict this one. This race is a virtual tie with both candidates capturing about 49% of the votes with a very slight tilt towards Kim. In the closing days of the campaign, Republican Tom McArthur resorted to racist ads with the general theme of "othering" Kim -- he's not one of us" even though Kim was raised in the south Jersey district. If elected, Kim could be the first Korean American in the House.

TJ Cox, California, District 21Although Cox is given only a 1 in 5 chance of beating the Republican incumbent, he's only 7 points behind, a not so insurmountable advantage. If the so-called Blue Wave sweeps across the Midterms, Cox, a Filipino American, could pull off an upset.

Andrew Janz, California, District 22Janz has never run for an elected office before and his opponent, Devin Nunes has been in office since 2004. Yet, the Thai American candidate has given Nunes a real challenge, something he hasn't had since he was initially elected. Because Nunes is a high-profile Republican, seen as Trump's biggest defenders in the House, Janz has received some attention in the David vs. Goliath metaphore. Fivethirtyeight 1 in 20 chance of beating the incumbent who leads by 9 points.

Young Kim, California, District 39Kim, a Republican, and her Democratic rival Gil Cisneros are in a toss-up district with Cisneros leading Kim by a slim 1-point margin. In historically conservative Orange County, Kim could upset Cisneros if he can hold onto the Asian American vote but the diverse AAPI community is about evenly split between the two opponents. Cisneros has hired a host of bilingual Asian American staff to help him make inroads in this crucial electorate. If elected Kim could make history as the first Korean American congress member

With the larger than expected turnout for early voting, many of the polls, which were taken last week, don't reflect the last few days. A few points one way or the other can make a world of difference in some of these close races.

The only poll that matters now is the one that takes place today November 6.
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AAPI Vote 2018: Election short takes around the country

Opinion: The hate lingers after the elections

When things started to look bad for the Republicans, they resorted to appealing to the worst aspect of American life. - racism.

Republicans race-baited their base and Asian Americans were easy targets: From accusations of Muslim terrorist ties hurled by California's Rep. Duncan Hunter against his Democrat (and Christian) opponent,  29-year-old Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Palestinian Mexican American, to the "othering" of Andy Kim, even though Kim was born and raised in New Jerseiy, 

Donald Trump was the biggest fear-mongerer. He used the Central American refugees as bogeymen to Willie-Hortenize the men, women and children seeking asylum in the U.S. 

The problem with all the race-baiting is that when the votes are counted and the winner has been proclaimed, the hate lingers. Fear and hate of people of color is a Pandora's box; it festers and eats away at our public life and manifests itself in synagogue shootings and bomb mailings.

At the very least, it will take another generation to wash the stain of hate and intolerance out of our country.

Conservative newspaper endorses Hiral Tipirneni

Democrat Hiral Tipirneni won the endorsement of Arizona's largest -- and conservative -- newspaper, The Arizona Republic.

For the first time that anybody on the newspaper's staff could remember, the Republic is backing a Democrat for Congressional District 8.

"To some of us on The Arizona Republic editorial board have said she seems the strongest candidate we’ve witnessed in two decades," said the endorsement published Thursday.

"It’s not just that she comes with the quality education from a respected profession; it’s not that she articulates her views in a way that reveals an orderly mind; it’s not that she has competitive fire and yet personal charm, it’s that she is pitch-perfect for the times."

It might be a case of too little, too late. The editorial was published Nov. 1, just days before the Nov. 6 election. By then, most of the early votes had already been cast. Recent polls show the Indian American physician

The lengthy endorsement concluded: "It’s time Hiral Tipirneni be recognized as the exceptional talent she is. This is a leader of consequence who deserves a seat in Congress." 

13 Nguyens running for office in Orange County

Duke Nguyen is running for Sheriff. Matt Nguyen is running for the county Board of Education. Hugh Nguyen is running for the county Clerk-recorder.

Altogether, there are 13 Nguyens seeking an elected office in Orange County. In fact, there are 24 Vietnamese Americans on the ballot.

Nguyen is as common a surname to the Vietnamese as Smith or Jones is to Anglo Americans. 

The L.A. Times reports: "The surge in political candidates in Orange County is happening against a backdrop of intense Asian voter registration drives nationally, including in the largest business and cultural district for Vietnamese Americans outside Vietnam. But it’s also the latest sign of the evolution of the politically precocious Vietnamese American community."

Korean translators left speechless in Texas

Three days after election workers barred translators from asking Korean-American voters if they needed assistance inside a Spring Branch polling place, Texas' Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart met with a group of Korean-Americans to find a way to avoid a similar outcome on Election Day.

"In the past, we've had no problems. We had greeters at the door who would greet mostly seniors who were Korean language speaking who greet them in Korean and tell them what to expect," said Dona Kim, one of the volunteer translators. "For many years, the Korean American community has organized to do an early Korean American voting day, and we bring people from our community there by advertising in the newspaper. This year we sent out texts."

Thousands of Korean Americans live in the west Houston neighborhood, and comprise a fraction of the more than 30,000 who reside in the region. However, the county offers translation services only in Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese. Hundreds of Korean American voters had to negotiate the ballot without assistance.

At the end of the hour-long meeting, which was brokered by Houston Councilwoman Brenda Stardig, the two sides were unable to agree on a solution that would allow volunteer translators to efficiently help Korean speakers cast ballots while following Harris County’s interpretation of the Texas Election Code. Stanart and the Korean-Americans agreed to work together on a fix, and each proposed a set of rules for translators.

“I want them to be successful,” Stanart said of the voters, who are largely elderly naturalized U.S. citizens. “But I want it to be within the law.”

According to Texas Election Code, the Korean translators were considered loiterers. Loitering within 100 feet of a polling place is forbidden. It was a law created to protect would-be voters from harassment or intimidation.

Some of Korean Americans objected to being called loiterers by the county, noting that journalists and exit pollsters are free to work inside the 100-foot zone. They said Harris County is unfairly applying the Texas Election Code, which is silent on what a loiterer is and does not explicitly state where translators may or may not stand.

Making laws and political system easier to understand

Two Vietnamese American women, Kavi Vu and Phi Nguyen, founded Wake Up Atlanta, a web series last year as a way to inspire Asian Americans in Atlanta to become more civically educated and engaged, with an aim of increasing Asian American voter turnout and informing the community about important issues and policies through fun videos and on-the-ground interviews.

"I was doing voter outreach and trying to engage the Asian American community. My main exposure to that initially was reaching out to people who are older, like my parents’ age or other first-generation Asian Americans," Nguyen told Atlanta Magazine. "That is a markedly different sort of experience than reaching out to young Asian American voters who, I would say, are more Americanized and don’t necessarily tend to live in clusters. You can’t necessarily find them at an Asian American festival."

By day, Vu is a freelance videographer and content creator, while Nguyen works as the litigation director of the nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta (also Wake Up Atlanta’s fiscal agent). Now, with Vu recently awarded as one of the 2019 class of Civic Innovation Fellows from the Center for Civic Innovation Atlanta, they’ve got even more resources to put their ideas into action.

Essentially, they interpret the legalese and bureaucratese used in propositions into words easily understood by non-lawyers. They've added videos, using humor to soften the slog through the complicated measures.

In one of their favorite videos, they explain Georgia's "exact-match" law that is widely seen as a form of voter suppression targeted against people of color and is responsible for this year's ruling making thousands of people ineligible to vote. This is particular challenge for  the person inputting the names of Asian voters, many of which are unfamiliar and difficult to spell.

Getting out the Hmong vote in California's Central Valley

Eugene Vang is worried. "I grew up in the Hmong community, and we make up a large part of the local population. Like other people of color, we are dealing with racism and discrimination all the time. We see students like us facing harsher discipline in schools," he wrote in an op-ed published in the Fresno Bee. 

"We see our families dealing with problems finding jobs, getting affordable health care, and other basic support. I know we won’t be able to change any of that unless we step up, speak out and vote.

As a youth leader and organizer with 99Rootz, Vang is working with Power California to reach out to 13,000 young people in the Central Valley — and more than 100,000 statewide. "We are registering young people to vote, and we are making sure they go to the polls," he said.

"Many of my Hmong elders have never voted; they don’t know how. That may be true in a lot of immigrant and refugee families who may have not been able to vote and are therefore unable to pass that knowledge and power to their children. But my generation is ready to change that. Thanks to groups like 99Rootz, who are focused on uplifting and investing in young people, we’re learning how to be a voice for our communities. From the volunteer work I did while in high school and this past summer registering my peers, friends, and other young people, I know youth are excited about using our voices and about voting."
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