Yuh-Line Niou will not challnge Democrat in New York's congressional contest

Yuh-Line Niou will not challenge Democratic candidate Daniel Goldman in New York race.

Yuh-Line Niou will not run against Democratic nominee Daniel S. Goldman, who narrowly beat her in the New York Primary election last month.

Niou, one of the several progressive candidates running for Congressional District 10 in New York City, conceded the contest to the moderate Democrat.

In a video released Tuesday, Niou said: “We are conceding the primary and I will not be on the WFP line for the general.”

Niou could not match the campaign chest of Goldman, an heir of Levi-Straus, who used his own millions to finance his campaign.

“We simply do not have the resources to fight all fights at the same time, and we must protect our democracy now,” Niou stated/

The three progressive candidates who ran Aug. 23, had more votes than Goldman but Democrats worried that if Niou challenged Goldman, she would take Democrat votes away from Goldman opening the door for a victory for the Republican candidate Benine Hamdan.

Niou's decision deeply disappointed her supporters whose passion was expressed on social media.

The Working Families Party issued a statement Tuesday that Niou will not be running as their candidate against Goldman.

Following is the WFP statement:

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

Yuh-Line Niou mulling running against Democrat candidate, says Washington Post

Daniel Goldman, left, and Yuh-Line Niou.

Tuesday night, former federal prosecutor Daniel Goldman, declared himself the winner of New York's Congressional District 10 Democratic Primary, beating his closest rival, Yuh-Line Niou, by about 1100 votes.

Within hours, the Associated Press and other mainstream media, dubbed Goldman the winner after 95% of the votes counted 

With about 7,000 absentee ballots still to be tabulated, Niou has not conceded. While most observers believe it would be difficult for Niou to make up the difference as the uncounted votes will be split among the 13 Democrat candidates.

The Washington Post on Thursday reported that Niou, who is the current Assemblymember for the area, is considering running against Goldman in November as a candidate for the New York Working Families Party.

In the primary, progressive voters were split among Niou, Rep. Mondaire Jones and City Councilmember Carlina Rivera, who finished who are expected to come in second, third and fourth, respectively when all the votes are counted.

As of now, Goldman, heir to the Livi-Strauss fortune, has 16,686 votes; Niou,15,380; Jones, 11,777; and Rivera, 10,985. Assemblymember JoAnn Simon is standing in fifth spot with 3,991 votes.

In the final days of the campaign, Niou teamed up with Jones and Rivera in joint appearances and attacked Goldman, who spent millions of dollars of his fortune to finance his campaign. Observers assume that the progressive voters who went with Jones and Rivera  in the Primary, would transfer their votes to Niou if she decides to run against Goldman in November.

The New York Working Families Party hasn’t said whether the party will have a candidate in November, but it endorsed Niou's candidacy for the Democratic Party Primary. After Election Day Tuesday, it continued to praise Niou and noted that there were votes that still hadn’t been counted.

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

The question of the day is: How will Asian Americans vote in New York's primary elections?

Tuesday, Aug. 23, is New York's Primary. Polls open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The Asian American vote is being courted in New York's primary, August 23 

ANALYSIS

New York City voters have a chance to elect another Asian American to Congress but Yuh-Line Niou is running against big money and big names to represent two Chinatowns.

On August 5, 2022, Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-North Hills) joined Korean American Civic Empowerment (KACE), Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and the Korean American Sanctuary Church Network (KASCN) for a rally in support of the New York State Asian American History Education Bill, which seeks to combat Asian hate through improved education.

Recognition of a specific issue such as teaching Asian American history is an example of how the state's political powers are recognizing the emerging influence of New York's Asian American community. Eighteen percent of Kaplan's Senatorial 7th District are Asian Americans who sought the suburban lifestyle offered on Long Island.

As New York voters go to the polls today, focus has been put on the Asian American electorate, which voted overwhelmingly Democratic in 2020. However, Republicans were able to sway enough of those voters to switch allegiances in the New York City mayoral race to raise alarm bells among Democrats.

While Manhattan and Queens voters went with Democratic candidates, the city's outlying districts voted for Republican Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa lost to Eric Adams but the signs of a wavering voting constituency were evident.

Even districts represented by an Asian Democrat, such as that of Queens Assemblymember Ron Kim, saw the rightward shift. “Education policy is certainly a part of that frustration. Working immigrant families believe their sacrifices and hard work are discounted by the Democratic Party establishment,” Kim said. “If you ignore us on education policy, you’re going to get a backlash.”

This growth in Asian voter participation in NYC was also spurred by community groups like the AAF-led AAPI Power Coalition. Their in-person, in-language, and culturally relevant outreach helped to mobilize so-called “unlikely voters,” — so much so that Asian voters who were outreached to increased their turnout by a whopping 73%. 

That successful outreach and result reveals the incredible political potential of the Asian community to shape the City they call home.

Over the last decade, Asian Americans have been the fastest-growing voting bloc in New York City—accounting for almost 18% of the city’s overall population. Over 27% of eligible Asian voters cast their ballots in last year’s mayoral primary, driven by strong grassroots organizing, an increase in Asian candidates, and the community’s reaction to hate crimes. 

This represented not only a record turnout in New York City’s 2021 mayoral primary, but also the highest Asian turnout in history for a local New York election, according to an analysis by the Asian American Federation. 

Turnout by Asian voters surpassed Black voters, at 26.5 percent, and Hispanics, at 17.4%. It's a dramatic shift since 2013, when Asian voters had the lowest turnout rate of any major racial group at 16.3%. White voters still had the highest turnout overall last year, with 36.4% of them casting primary ballots.

Authors of the report say the new stats dispel the myth that Asian New Yorkers are unlikely voters — and urge politicians to spend more effort courting the emerging group.

“We are a very powerful voting bloc,” said AAF ED Jo-Ann Yoo, noting that Asian Americans make up more than 10% of the population in 28 of the 51 City Council districts. “Our elected officials, no matter who they are…it’s to their peril if they ignore us.”

Yuh-Line Niou is running for Congress in New York's District 10.

DISTRICT 10: Yuh-Line Niou is running for Congress

A test of the Asian American electorate's emergence wil be in the contest for Congressional District 10. In the newly remapped Congressional District 10, Yuh-Line Niou has a chance to become New York's second Congressional representative. District 10 represents two Chinatowns, Manhattan's and Brooklyn's.

When the new Congressional maps were drawn up, it created an electorate with more than 20% Asian American voters. Already an Assemblymember, Niou was running for the NY Senate. When the new District 10 was created, the Taiwanese American saw an opportunity. She switched from running for the state Senate to the new US House seat. 

Niou's chances increased dramatically when former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped out of the race. The winner of the Aug. 23 primary will likely win the House seat in November because Democrats are the overwhelming majority of registered voters.

“I feel like it would have almost been like a disservice not to run, in some ways,” Niou, told Politico. “We really need to make sure that we have representation, because when we do have that representation, it changes a lot of the perspective and the lenses that we legislate in.”

Even with de Blasio's departure, Niou still faces some better known and well-funded  Democrats, frontrunner, Dan Holtzman, a Democratic stalwart for years and who has a personal fortune of $23 million and the endorsement of the NY Times; City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera; former House Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman and Rep. Mondaire Jones.

Jones candidacy is interesting is that he won his District 17 seat in New York City's northern suburbs in 2020. However, with the new districts, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Patrick Maloney decided to run for that district, leaving Jones out in the cold. Jones chose to run for the newly created District 10, which he has never represented. However, as the first openly gay black Congressmember, he has the backing of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

It is a crowded and competitive field of candidates. Niou won her Assembly races with overwhelming majorities and her Assembly district lies entirely within the newly drawn Congressional District 10. A strong base, recognition of her local roots,  her popularity among progressives, her army of energetic, young volunteers, plus the two Chinatowns, could give New York a second Asian American representative in Congress.

“I see myself as the underdog, but I also see myself winning,” she said. “There’s a lot of erasure, especially when women and women of color run. There’s a lot of focus on when big names are running — or like when, you know, it’s men.”

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Although in the minority, Republicans noticed the cracks emerge in the Asian American community over the school admission policies instituted by the NYC school board. In an effort to increase the diversity of its competitive high schools that prepare students for college, the school board launched policies that some thought discriminated against qualified Asian American students. 

The other high-profile issue was the perceived lack of action on the part of the NYPD to protect Asian Americans from the attacks in public places and a reluctance  by law enforcement officials to label the attacks as hate crimes (because of legal interpretations) fostering an atmosphere of fear, but, more troublesome was the promoting the perception that local government officials dominated by Democrats are ignoring the issue of anti-Asian hate.

The GOP hammered those wedge issues enough to almost nullify the tendency to vote for Democrats in the Chinese American community.

Noting the swing to the right by Asian voters after New York's 2021 elections, As a  forewarning to the 2022 midterms, Congresswoman Grace Meng, the only Asian American House member from New York, tweeted a warning to Democrats, “our party better start giving more of a shit about #aapi (Asian-American and Pacific Islander) voters and communities. No other community turned out at a faster pace than AAPIs in 2020.”

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

New York state awards $10 million to AAPI community to combat virus and hate

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announces $10 million to the Asian American community.

The State of New York is awarding $10 million to Asian American organizations that were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and surge of anti-Asian hate. It is the largest investment in the Asian American community in New York history.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on so many vulnerable and marginalized communities across New York State,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul Feb. 20. “The Asian American community was especially hard hit, not only by the virus, but by an increase in hate and violent crimes."

"With this $10 million in funding, we are sending a strong message that hate has no home here, and we will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with our sisters and brothers in the Asian American community. My administration is laser focused on continuing to help communities that have for too long been forgotten, not only as we recover from this pandemic, but for years to come,” said Hochul.

The funding, allocated in the FY 2021-22 budget, will be distributed to community-based groups through the Asian American Federation (AAF), the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF), and the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), as well as other organizations. 

There will be a focus on community programs and providers that bring services and supportive programs directly to New York's Asian American communities. 

 "With the tragedies that our community has experienced since the start of the pandemic, and painfully so over the last few months, many Asian Americans are fearful for their own lives when stepping out of their homes<" said Executive Director of the Asian American Federation Jo-Ann Yoo.

"Governor Hochul’s leadership shows that our voice is not going unheard as we ask for support to overcome this trauma.”

The award was announced as New York's Asian American community was still reeling from the brutal fatal stabbing of Christina Lee and Michelle Go's death from being pushed into the path of an oncoming subway train.

Hate attacks against New York City's AAPI have risen 361% last year, according to NYPD data. 

The Asian American Federation (AAF) will receive a total of $6.8 million in funding intended to reinforce the community support offered by a network of organizations that have witnessed a sudden increase in demand for services due to the pandemic. AAF will direct the funding to 59 community organizations listed below that provide direct services, case management, and mental health support that serve Asian New Yorkers throughout New York State. 

In addition, the New York State Assembly is directing $1.4 million in Legislative aid to another 40 organizations that serve a wide array of communities in New York. 

“The AAPI community has been the target of relentless hatred, bigotry, and violence for the last two years, and we desperately need resources that would address the root cause of these attacks," said New York state Sen. John Liu.

"While we are grateful to see the implementation of last year’s $10 million budget allocation, the siege against Asian Americans continues unabated, as does our need for additional resources," said Liu. "We must address a range of needs such as community safety, services for youth and senior citizens, mental health support for Asian New Yorkers, and the implementation of AAPI curriculum in public schools.”

The following organizations will receive aid from AAF:

• A Place for Kids
• Academy of Medical & Public Health Services
• Adhikaar for Human Rights and Social Justice
• Arab American Association of New York
• Arab-American Family Support Center
• Asian American Arts Alliance
• Asian American Community Empowerment
• Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Asian Americans for Equality
• Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs
• Bridges From Borders
• Brooklyn Chinese-American Association
• Brooklyn Community Improvement Association
• Burmese Community Services
• Caribbean Equality Project
• Center for the Integration and Advancement of New Americans
• Chhaya Community Development Corporation
• Chinatown Partnership LDC
• Chinatown YMCA
• Chinese American IPA
• Chinese American Social Services Center
• Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
• Chinese Progressive Association
• Chinese-American Family Alliance for Mental Health
• CMP
• Council of Peoples Organization
• Damayan Migrant Workers Association
• Desis Rising Up and Moving
• Garden of Hope
• Hamilton-Madison House
• Homecrest Community Services
• Immigrant Social Services
• India Home
• Jahajee Sisters
• Japanese American Association of New York
• Japanese American Social Services, Inc.
• Karen Society of Buffalo
• Korean American Family Service Center
• Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York
• Laal NYC
• Mekong Center NYC
• Midtown Utica Community Center
• Migrant Center
• MinKwon Center
• Refugees Helping Refugees
• Sakhi for South Asian Women
• Sapna NYC
• Sikh Coalition
• South Asian Council for Social Service
• South Asian Youth Action
• Turning Point for Women and Families
• United Chinese Association of Brooklyn
• Womankind (formerly NYAWC)
• Women for Afghan Women
• YWCA of Queens

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families will receive over $1 million, and they will be partnering with a host of organizations -- including Apex for Youth, the Arab American Family Support Center, Asian Americans for Equality, Chinese-American Planning Council, South Asian Youth Action! Korean American Family Service Center, MinKwon Center for Community Action, and Mekong NYC -- to enhance youth and young adult services targeting Asian American communities by focusing on social emotional development and mental well-being.

Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung, Co-Executive Directors of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families said: "Through this crisis intervention funding, CACF with eight of our organizations have collaboratively developed a curriculum to support young people’s healthy sense of self, community connection and belonging, and self-agency.”

The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), a social services organization that creates positive social change, will receive almost $700,000 to help empower Asian American, immigrant, and low-income communities in New York City by ensuring they have equitable access to the resources and opportunities needed to thrive. 

The funding will support CPC’s culturally competent, linguistically appropriate community services and programs to improve the social determinants of health for children, youth, students, families, and seniors. Through this initiative, they will expand public access to resources, expand workforce service, enhance wrap-around case management and expand early childhood development.

 “Our Asian American communities are facing a crisis of anti-Asian hatred and violence. We are frightened. We are angry," said Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou. 

"This is a great start, but we can and must do better. I urge my colleagues in Albany to support additional resources our community so desperately needs."

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

NY governor signs bill to make AANHPI "invisible no more"

 A woman holds up signs during a Rally Against Hate to end discrimination against Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders in New York City,

A bill signed last week by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul mandates that any state agency collecting data about ethnicity or ancestry will have to discard the overly broad "Asian American" category and break it down to specific ethnicities and nationalities.

In the future, state departments will have to have data on Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Laotian, Cambodian, Bangladeshi and Hmong communities as well categories for Pacific Islander groups, including Native Hawaiians, Guamanians, Chamorros and Samoans.

The new law signed by Hochul on Dec. 22 was hailed by AANHPI community groups that have pushed for data disaggregation for over a decade. As the AANHPI community has grown, the fastest growing group in New York, so has the community's needs. AANHPI make up about 6% of New York, or almost 2 million, most of whom are concentrated in New York City, according to teh 2020 Census.

Vanessa Leung and Anita Gundanna, Co-Executive Directors of the Coalition of Asian American Children+Families, said in a statement:

"Asian American communities across New York State embody much diversity in ethnicity, and also in experiences of poverty, immigration, and in languages, cultures, and histories. For too long, the systemic erasure of the inequities within the Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander communities has resulted in failed policy responses. With the passage of this bill through the Assembly and Senate, we are one step closer to dispelling the model minority myth and providing a better understanding of the real challenges facing New York's fastest growing population.

"Such data is critical to ensuring that Asian American communities across NY State are better understood and provided the resources and services needed to recover and heal from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the recent increase in anti-Asian violence."

Community advocates united to form the Invisible No More Campaign to lobby for the disaggregation bill.

The wide disparities within the broad Asian American communities masks the needs of those groups who are on the low end of the economic scale, hides the health needs of different ethnicities and erases housing woes and poverty experienced by many Asian American groups and political representatives.

"Asian Americans are not a monolith. Our communities are the most impoverished but receive the least help, often due to the lack of culturally appropriate services or language access," state Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement.

“As New York continues to face the devastation caused by the COVID-19 public health crisis, it is essential that the needs of all of our communities be understood and met," said Senator Julia Salazar, who led the effort in the state senate. "For the diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in New York this cannot be accomplished without detailed data that recognizes and respects the experiences of the numerous groups that make up the AAPI communities. This law takes a bold step towards making that possible."

“For too long and too often, NYS has broken down data by race/ethnicity for other communities, but has completely omitted Asian Americans - often categorizing us as simply ‘others,’ said Rep. Grace Meng, who in 2011 first introduced a bill asking for the disaggregation of AAPI data.

"Without this broken down data, it has been very difficult to assess where the greatest needs are and to properly match language needs with populations who need the most help such as which students and their families need which types of language resources, which types of resources are needed to provide help to address mental health, which communities suffer from which chronic illnesses, etc.

"Even as Asian Americans, we don’t know the true extent as to who needs help the most. If we truly care about our Asian American community, we have to make sure that no one is left behind and no one is invisible, especially the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us," said Meng. "The amount of funding that has gone towards helping the AAPI community has for too long fallen drastically behind the rate of population growth, and this law will finally help us bridge some of that gap and provide long overdue resources and funding to our community.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and reviews from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd

New York's Grace Meng retains her seat in Congress, newcomer Qasim Rashid will challenge in Virginia

TWITTER

Congressmember Grace Meng, left, campaigned with her family on election day.

The primary elections Tuesday in New York and Virginia introduced some new Asian American faces to the political landscape in those two states.

With some mail-in ballots yet to be counted, Rep. Grace Meng has enough votes to safely be declared the winner for New York's 6th Congressional District primary Tuesday.

"So grateful for the overwhelming show of support for our campaign," she tweeted late Tuesday. "While we must wait until all votes have been counted, I'm confident that our grassroots support will lead us to victory. I dedicated my career to fighting for Queens families & I’m ready to continue that fight.

At last count, the four-term member of Congress was leading with 61 percent of the vote, prevailing over Democratic rivals Sandra Choi and Melquiades Gagarin with 74 percent of precincts reporting, according to The Associated Press.

It marked the first time that Meng has faced primary challengers since taking office, as a number of progressive Democrats challenged House incumbents this campaign cycle.

In November, Meng will face Republican Thomas Zmich, who ran unopposed in his primary.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring 12th District which includes parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, its still to close to tell. Incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who has been in Congress 25 years, narrowly leads attorney Suraj Patel. The 75-year old Maloney held an edge of less than 2 percentage points over Patel on Wednesday morning.

Down ballot, New York Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou (D-Financial District, Chinatown) secured a decisive victory over Grace Lee in last night’s primary.

According to the unofficial numbers, Niou nabbed 56.77 percent of the vote in District 65 – more than 20 percent higher than Lee’s 35.41 percent margin.

“I’m so proud and incredibly grateful to my hardworking team, countless volunteers, and every New Yorker who cast their ballot in this very unusual and challenging election,” said Niou. “I am proud of our campaign, putting our grassroots support up against a flood of money from Wall Street and the 1%.

Incumbent Democrat, Assemblymember Ron Kim easily won his race with 63% of the vote of District 40, which encompasses the New York borough of Queens, where Asian Americans make up 26% of the population.

Two progressive Democrats who had the backing of Congresswoman Alajandra Ocasio-Cortez will be taking seats in the New York Assembly.

JENEFIR RAJKUMAR

In Queens’ Assembly District 38, challenger Jenifer Rajkumar led incumbent Michael Miller 52 percent to 25 percent with more than 80 percent of the votes in. If she holds on to her lead, the former staffer for Gov. Cuomo would become the first Indian American to be elected to the New York Assembly.

Meanwhile in AD 36 (Astoria, Long Island City) favorite Ugandan Indian Zohran Mamdani leads incumbent Aravella Simotas by seven percentage points with more than 75% of the vote counted. 

For complete primary election results for New York, click here.

In Virginia, a Pakistani American attorney, won the Democratic primary to challenge the Republican incumbent, Rep. Rob Wittman. 

QASIM RASHID

With 99% of the vote counted, Qasim Rashid had almost 53% of the vote in Congressional District 1 over rival Lavangelene Williams.

After Rashid was declared winner, he recalled his journey overcoming bias in his tweet: 

"10 years ago a major law firm rescinded a job offer b/c I was 'too Muslim' & would “make clients uncomfortable. "Last night I became the first American Muslim in Virginia history to win a Congressional primary election. "That firm has since folded. "My fight for justice won’t stop."


For complete Virginia primary election results, click here.