2020 Election: Next generation of AAPI politicians make history at the state level

While the Presidential election sucked all the media attention, a new generation of mostly young Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders began their political careers at the state level, building up a bench of up-and-coming AAPI lawmakers. 

Among this year's group of AAPI lawmakers -- all Democrats --  who won seats in state legislatures also made history with some "Firsts.' Among their ranks are:

• The youngest AAPI legislator in California;
• The first South Asians in New York's state legislature;
• Hawaii picked its first openly LGBTQ lawmaker;
• Wisconsin elected its first Asian American to its state legislature;
• Pennsylvania will have its first South Asian in the state Senate;
• The first woman of color to serve in the Vermont Senate;
• Georgia picked its first Filipino American immigrant to the legislature.

Local political races, from city councils and school boards to state legislatures is where the next generation of politicians will learn the ins-and-outs of politicking and hone their political muscles for the next level of law making.

The increasing willingness to dive into politics is a testament to the growing political awareness of the AAPI community. Several sources say that turnout among AAPI voters increased 300% among early voters alone. In some swing states such as Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, AAPI voters proved to be crucial.

AAPI Data points out that 158 Asian Americans were running for legislatures in 30 states, an increase of 21 Asian American state legislature candidates since the 2018 midterms.

Out of the 158 candidates, 75% (117) are Democrats and 25% (39) are Republicans, a reflection of a national trend moving the AAPI political views to left of center, according to AAPI Data. 

Following are some of the new lawmakers who made history at the state level:

* * *

Alex Lee, the youngest member of the California legislature.

Alex Lee made history in a few ways when he won California’s 25th District Assembly race on Nov. 3. At 25, he’ll become California’s youngest Asian American state legislator ever, the first openly bisexual state legislator and the first assembly member from Generation Z.

The district, which encompasses Fremont, Santa Clara, San Jose, Milpitas and Newark, and straddles the East Bay and Silicon Valley, is one of the heaviest Asian state legislative districts in the state.

“It’s incredibly exhilarating because our campaign was really the underdog, and we were outspent 15 to 1,” Lee told NBC Asian America. “The establishment didn’t support us, but after we knocked on 30,000 doors, it paid off and we had a great victory.”

* * *

Zohran Mamdani,  left, and Jenifer Rajkumar

Two Indian Americans were elected to the New York state Assembly on Tuesday — making them the first South Asians voted into the lower house of the state Legislature.

Both Jenifer Rajkumar and Zohran Mamdani are Democrats representing parts of Queens, New York City.

The 2010 census reported that more than 300,000 South Asians lived in New York City — about a third of the total Asian American population with the largest concentration in Queens.

Mamdani, 29, who will represent Astoria, a multiethnic neighborhood in Queens, beat incumbent Aravella Simotas in the Democratic primary this year and faced no Republican opponent in the general election. Rajkumar, 38, who will represent parts of Queens that are largely made up of immigrants, won her primary in the state election cycle and defeated Republican Giovanni Perna on Tuesday.

* * *

Hawaii's Adrian Tam beat a Proud Boy member.

Progressive Democrat Adrian Tam won the race for Hawaii’s District 22, becoming the first openly LGBTQ elected official in the state legislature, reported political action committee Victory Fund.

Tam, the son of immigrant parents from Hong Kong and Taiwan, defeated Republican Nick Ochs, who leads the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys, a far-right, neo-fascist and anti-LGBTQ paramilitary group. Tam garnered over 63% of the vote while Ochs took less than 30%, according to KITV.

* * * 

Chef Francesca Hong hopes to cook up new laws for small laws.

Chef and restaurant owner Francesca Hong is the first Asian American to be elected as a representative for Wisconsin’s state legislature, Wisconsin State Journal reports.

According to Madison365, election results from Dane County report that Hong won in a landslide, receiving 88% of the total votes, beating Republican candidate Patrick Hull for the 76th Assembly District seat.

Born and raised in Wsiconsin and the daughter of immigrants, she ran a campaign focused on racial justice. 

“We must strive to help working class individuals and families to improve conditions in housing, public education, job security and wealth building,” she said. “We must invest in our main streets, taking the lead from independent small business owners, to work towards more equitable economic infrastructure. But above all, we must prioritize racial equity and work to invest in communities that have been defunded and decimated by irresponsible and apathetic GOP leadership.”

* * * 

Nikil Saval, 37, became the first South Asian American elected to Pennsylvania’s state Senate Nov. 3. 

Elected to represent Philadelphia’s diverse District 1, Saval was co-editor-in-chief of the literary magazine n+1. From 2012-19, he helped lead the Brooklyn-based publication, prioritizing coverage of issues like social justice and labor unions. He also wrote about architecture, urban planning and design as a contributor at The New York Times and the New Yorker.

“I do think working at n+1 and writing about culture and politics intellectually helped give me clarity on how to think about these subjects together,” Saval told NBC News.

Saval, whose parents emigrated from Bangalore, India,, talked about what his victory means for Asian American representation.

“I feel the significance of that especially when I walk into a room with a number of white people in it, which is Pennsylvania’s state Senate, for the most part,” he said. “Even more so, it’s when I encounter other Asian Americans who get pleasantly shocked that I won. There’s a pan-Asian solidarity that immediately develops.”

* * *

Marvin Lim's win was the result of the changing demographics of Georgia, especially the growth of the Asian American population.

Lim is the first Filipino American to be elected to the state legislature in the Nov. 3 elections. Lim won the primary with 62% of the vote and since the GOP didn't have a candidate to run against him. 

The Philippine-born Lim, 36, will represent House District 99, an Atlanta suburb comprised of 85% minorities, 53% of whom are immigrants.

* * *

Kesha Ram won in Vermont, a predominantly white state.

Democrat Kesha Ram, the daughter of an Indian immigrant father and a Jewish mother, made history Nov. 3 when she became the first woman of color to be elected to the Vermont Senate in a state that’s more than 94 percent white.

Throughout her campaign, Ram focused on a racial justice platform that included addressing disparities in access to health care, climate justice and support for criminal justice reform.

This is not her first foray into politics. At the age of 22, she became Vermont's youngest state legislature when she was elected to the state's House.

She hopes her win inspires other people of color to get involved in the political process.

“Particularly for young Asian American women, I think that we are really taught culturally and socially not to fail. And that it's a personal shortcoming if you fail,” she said. “That's just simply not true.” Ram knows this firsthand, as her 2016 run for lieutenant governor ended in her finishing third. “We can't live safe lives the way everybody wants us to if we want things to change,” she said. “Because, otherwise we won't change who's at the table.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this is news sprinkled with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions.

.

Georgia On My Mind: AAPI voters could decide who will rule the U.S. Senate

NPR

ANALYSIS:

Asian American voters played a key role in battleground states, according to exit polls taken during the Nov. 3 elections, according to an analysis by a an AAPI advocacy coalition. They can again play a crucial role in Georgia's Jan. 5 runoff elections for U.S. Senate.

Georgia's two senate  runoff between the GOP's Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock and Republican Sen. David Perdue against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoffs could determine which party will have the majority in the U.S. Senate during Joe Biden's first term as President starting Jan. 20, 2021.

Bloomberg News quoted  Sam Park, the first Asian American Democrat elected to the Georgia General Assembly: “There’s a saying that the Asian American community has gone from being a marginalized community to being the margin of victory.That could be very true here in Georgia.”

New data released by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) noted the importance of the AAPI vote in Georgia and three other battleground states: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada.

“Asian Americans, especially new voters, were part of the record turnout of communities of color in the 2020 elections. Asian American voters played an important role in close races in several battleground states, and our voices must not be overlooked in the political process,” said AALDEF Executive Director Margaret Fung.

Except for the Vietnamese and Hmong communities, all other Asian ethnic groups and nationalities voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris over the Republican incumbents Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

The four states in the survey, which for voted for Trump in 2016, flipped and went Democratic earlier this month.

The states were among the last counted and their electoral votes pushed Biden-Harris over the top, giving him enough electoral votes to proclaim the Democrats victors in the closer-than-expected presidential contest.

Georgia's flip is a tribute to the groundwork in registering voters by Stacey Abrams, a former member of the state's House of Representatives and who barely lost in her gubernatorial bid. 

None of the state's top-two vote-getters in the Senate races achieved more than 50% of the votes so by state law, a runoff is necessary. Survey findings may give an indication how Georgia's AAPI electorate will vote in the Jan. 5 runoff. 

The Asian American population has soared in counties surrounding Atlanta in recent years, drawn to the area by jobs in tech, science and medicine. The surge in AAPI voters -- almost a quarter million registered voters, or about 5% of the total voters -- have made them a critical demographic for politicians and marketers.

Highlights of the AALDEF survey of AAPI voters in Georgia:

• Asian Americans decisively chose Joe Biden over Donald Trump by a margin of 62% to 36%.
• In the U.S. Senate races, Asian Americans voted for Democratic candidates over Republicans by a margin of 61% to 34%.
• All Asian ethnic groups in the state supported Biden over Trump except for Korean American voters (60% for Trump and 39% for Biden).
• Among voters not enrolled in any party, the breakout was 63% for Biden and 30% for Trump, and among voters affiliated with other parties, 60% for Biden and 20% for Trump.
• First-time voters supported Biden by a wide margin 61% to 36%.

For the Presidential election, AAPI voters turned out in historic numbers. Despite facing a pandemic, hours-long lines at the polls, language barriers, and heightened fear and intimidation about voting, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities overcame unacceptable barriers to exercise their right to vote. 

Leaning heavily towards Democrats, the chief concerns of AAPI voters are in line with most other Democrats centering on economic issues income inequality and the call for higher taxes on the rich, pollsters say.

They heard the racist rhetoric from the White House and aware of the rise of attacks against their kids in school, the flagging economy shutting down their businesses and the toll the coronavirus has taken on healthcare providers.

Early voting was favored by many of elderly who had to overcome their fear of contracting COVID-19 in order to cat their ballots. 

"Being able to cast my vote with an absentee ballot means my voice still counts.” said 76-year-old Ok Hui Kim, who chose to vote absentee to decrease the risk of being exposed to the virus

The high vote total among AAPI can be attributed to an aggressive and unprecedented multi-lingual registration and get-out-the-vote drive. In the three months prior to the November vote, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta (Advancing Justice-Atlanta) dialed 92% of the estimated 238,000 eligible AAPI voters across the state. 

AAPI communities across Georgia showed up to vote early and began Election Day having already flexed our power - 50% of registered Asian American voters had already cast their ballots, increasing turnout by 141% since 2016. In Gwinnett County alone, there were three times more AAPI early voters than in 2016, over 30,000 compared to 9,500. Of those, 43% did not vote in 2012, 2016 or 2018, according to Advancing Justice. 

Besides having an impact on the Presidential and Georgia's U.S. Senate races, the huge turnout helped elect Marvin Lim, the first Filipino American to the state legislature. Lim won the primary with 62% of the vote and since the GOP didn't have a candidate to run against him, Lim's Nov. 7 victory was a foregone conclusion.

Lim will represent House District 99, an Atlanta suburb comprised of 85% minorities, 53% of whom are immigrants.

The nation's attention will be on Georgia this Jan. 5, 2021. Both Republicans and Democrats are mobilizing their people and devoting resources to the runoff contest. Already, 6e00,000 voters have requested absentee ballots, tweeted Abrams.

Georgians who didn’t get signed up in time to cast ballots in the Nov. 3 presidential election now have until Dec. 7 to register to vote in the Jan. 5 runoffs. Early voting for the runoffs starts Dec. 14 after a record of nearly 5 million Georgians voted in the general election. Qualified voters can register online with a valid ID through the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.

Democrats worry that without Donald Trump on the ballot to motivate anti-Trump voters, it will be difficult to energize Democratic voters for the Jan. 5 runoffs. Historically, conservative voters tend to turn out more in extra-inning contests.

Andrew Yang, a Presidential candidate during the Democratic primaries, said he'll be going to Georgia to help drum up excitement in the January election. “It looks like Democrats have an uphill climb in Georgia,” Yang told Yahoo Finance Live last week. “It seems like it’s because Democratic voters actually need a little bit more awareness raising to the fact that there is a special election on January 5, and conservatives are more plugged in to voting in Georgia.”

“The case to make in Georgia is exactly identical to the case that was just made with Joe at the top line,” continued Yang. He argues that the Democrats message should be getting a functional government.  “In this case, we need to deliver a Senate that will actually be looking to pass laws and not have a replay of Mitch McConnell being the obstructionist during the Obama years.”

 “AAPI communities are showing up at the polls and redefining what Georgia’s electorate looks like, said Stephanie Cho, executive director of Advancing Justice-Atlanta. "As the nation’s fastest growing population of immigrants eligible to vote, AAPI communities in Georgia will continue to grow in influence. We are only just beginning to come into our power. We will continue to show up and vote up and down the ballot for our issues, our rights, and our communities.”