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.

Midterm elections: Negative campaigns with racist videos and mailers target AANHPI voters

ANALYSIS

With less than a week to go to the Midterm elections, it's down-and-dirty time as a deluge of negative and misleading information is being unleashed on American voters with some campaigns zeroing in on the important Asian American electorate.

One ad campaign, in particular, is attracting attention for its gross misleading message blaming President Biden for two-year surge of racist attacks on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

Another ad by Republican Rep. Michelle Steel linking Jay Chen, her Taiwanese American opponent, to communist China is so bad that it might be backfiring against the conservative incumbent representing parts of Orange County, California.

Leading up to the Nov. 8 Midterms, Asian American voters across North Carolina have been receiving hateful, racist mailers aimed at suppressing their vote and subduing the political power of the fastest-growing racial demographic in the state.

While anti-Asian rhetoric has been prevalent since early 2020, this blatant piece of disinformation is the first time Asian Americans in North Carolina have been the target of suppression efforts around an election.

“This mail piece is evidence that bad actors fear our growing political power.” said Chavi Khanna Koneru, Executive Director of North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT) and NCAAT in Action. “Asian Americans had record turnout in the 2020 election (72%) and so far Asian American early vote turnout is on track to exceed early vote turnout compared to the 2018 midterm elections.”

This attempt at suppression comes after recent Census results show exponential growth in the nation’s Asian American population. Here, in the battleground state of North Carolina, the Asian American voting bloc can determine the outcome of toss-up races statewide.

AANHPI voters are finally getting attention from political campaigns, but not the kind they wanted.

Over the past week, mailers using racist and inflammatory rhetoric have also been received in Arizona, Virginia, California, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas. 

Digital and radio advertisements have also popped up across the country, purposefully targeting multiple underrepresented groups including the Latinx, transgender, and Asian communities. This mail piece repurposes an old tactic historically used to drive a wedge between Asians and other racial communities of color in the United States.

RELATED: 

•  Fake news seeks to divide, confuse the AANHPI communities.
• AANHPI voters are increasingly important electorate 

“Right-wing racist actors are exploiting the fact that Asian Americans have received limited voter contact by political parties by using manipulative ads to keep them from voting,” added Koneru. 

According to recent polling results conducted by NCAAT and the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at UC San Diego, roughly 161,000 Asian American voters in North Carolina (61%), have never been contacted by any political party about this year’s election. “These false ads could undermine the faith Asian American voters have in candidates this year and beyond.”

The source of much of the racist and misleading mailers were sent by the American First Legal Foundation, the conservative organization founded by Stephen Miller, author of Trump's racist immigration policies. As the architect behind the Trump Administration’s family separation policy, Miller has a long history of peddling racist hate and division against the vulnerable and underrepresented.

“If Miller is targeting our communities to discourage us from voting in the midterm elections this year, then it’s not going to work,” said Allison Chan, a long-time Durham voter who received the postcard. According to NCAAT’s poll, 50% of Asian Americans are more motivated to vote in this year’s election compared to previous elections.

Miller's group’s latest ad, posted online Saturday, seeks to rewrite history by blaming President Biden for the alarming surge of racist attacks on Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic, which first became noticeable in March 2020 when then-President Donald Trump started calling Covid-19 “the Chinese virus” and “the Kung flu.”

The egregious misinformation in the ad, which is titled, “Why Don’t Asian Lives Matter to Joe Biden and His Left-Wing Allies?” seeks to exploit AANHPI outrage over the violence with distressing images of 17 attacks on Asian Americans since 2020, as a narrator insists that the blame lies with Biden and his "liberal" prosecuting attorneys.

The ad shows a series of videotaped attacks on Asian Americans but cover up or neglect to show the dates of the incidents. As it turns out, most of the attacks occurred during Trump's presidency.

The accusation that Biden' and the Democrats' “left-wing prosecutors who won’t prosecute — liberals freeing predators,” is patently false. In most of the attacks, the perpetrators have been arrested with some charged with hate crime enhancements.

ASIAN VS. ASIAN

In Orange County, California, one of the most closely watched contests in the AANHPI community pits Korean American Steel against Taiwanese American Chen vying to represent the 45th District, which is home to Little Saigon.

Jay Chen, left, and Michelle Steel battle for the 45th Congressional District in California.

The ad used by Steel against Chen is meant to appeal to the large community of recent immigrants who fled Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. The first-generation immigrants are generally more conservative and anti-communist than other Asian immigrants.. Among all Asian American groups, the Vietnamese American voters are more likely to vote Republican.

The ad features a group of Asian men, assumably Chinese "comrades", sitting at a table in front of the picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping. "He's one of use," one man says referring to Chen.

An anti-Chen mailer sent out to voters in the 45th Congressional District has an image of Chen  purportedly holding the “Communist Manifesto” while teaching a class full of children.

“There is an ethical issue to using these kinds of tactics and negative advertising that crosses into malicious campaigning,” said Long T. Bui, an associate professor of global and international studies at UC Irvine to the Los Angeles Times. “The racially charged messages reinforce stereotypes of all Chinese people as spies and permanent foreigners.”

The ad has been denounced by Chinese American groups including the Committee of 100 and the Asian Americans for Good Government, which have pulled their support for Steel. In a statement, the latter PAC stated that its members expressed extreme concern regarding the “accusations, negative advertisement, and red baiting that are coming from the 45th congressional race.”

While that particular ad has been pulled, red and yellow posters have been popping up throughout the district calling Chen "China's choice."

Chen, a military veteran and a Navy reservist, told the LA Times that his grandmother fled to Taiwan from China under communist rule, called Steel’s attempt to link him to the Peoples Republic of China “over the top” and said it’s “ridiculous” for her to accuse him of being a communist.

“I served in the Middle East and I’ve served on the Korean peninsula to confront communist aggression,” he told the LA Times. “I think what she’s doing right now is really dangerous. The fact that a sitting member of Congress would try to incite this kind of anti-Asian hate to try to further the stereotype that Asians cannot be trusted when she herself is Asian — an immigrant from Korea — it just baffles the mind.”

The GOP has poured tons of money into the campaigns in Orange County, traditionally a Republican stronghold in blue California. The county  also includes Republican Young Kim in the right-leaning 40th Congressional District, who is running against Pakistani American Democrat Asif Mahmood. 

GOP WOO ASIAN AMERICANS

Realistically, with Trump's recent comments calling the wife of Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnel's wife, Elaine Chao, "his China-loving wife, Coco Chow," along with threats of  reducing, if not eliminating, Social Security and Medicare, and a promise to reduce taxes for the ultra-rich, Republicans will have a hard time convincing AANHPI voters to switch party preferences.

In 2022 the AANHPI vote was critical in close races in California, Georgia, New Jersey, and Nevada and made Republicans nervous in Texas,  Arizona and Wisconsin. As the fastest growing electorate and despite a relatively low voter turnout, one that community activists hope to reverse, AANHPI voters are being closely watched and wooed.

Swinging AANHPI voters to the right might be a rough row to hoe. Nevertheless, Republicans want to woo just enough of the AANHPI vote away from the Democrats to weaken their impact in districts and states where their swing votes have shown to be the difference between winning and losing. By taking some of the AANHPI votes, (and the same strategy is being used against Latino voters), the GOP hopes to  neutralize its impact enough in order to eke their way to victory in close races.

Nadia Belkin, the executive director of Asian American Power Network, a left-leaning coalition of state-based groups that is spending $10 million this fall to turn out Asian Americans in California and swing states, told the Washington Post that Republicans’ messaging on issues such as education and public safety “is pulling the Asian American community towards them” and in some cases making Asian Americans “feel seen in a way that progressives have not.”

But she was sharply critical of the strategy some on the extreme right are using. “Republicans are not shy about using this really divisive, race-baiting language to try and court us,” Belkin told WaPo.

The dark cloud hovering over all the country's close campaigns where AANHPI voters can determine the outcomes is Donald Trump. The former talk show host and White House occupant insisted on using the terms "China Virus,"  "Wuhan Flu" and joked about the "Kung Flu," which many in the AANHPI communities believe that it was open season to attack Asian Americans. His recent racial slurs directed at Elaine Chao did nothing to dispel that belief. 

For many voters who have not cast their ballots yet and perhaps waiting until Nov. 8, Trump may be the deciding factor. A Politico/Morning Consult poll released in early October found that 71% of AANHPI adults blame Donald Trump for the discrimination against the community — the highest blame directed toward an individual.

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