November 15, 2022
AAPI Dems are the Margin of Victory! Last Tuesday, AAPI Democrats across the country and in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire, and Nevada came out in record numbers to win critical races up and down the ballot and retain control of the Senate!
Democrats came out and made their voices heard. While the votes are still being counted, last week we lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than any Democratic president’s first midterm election in over 40 years. We made calls, knocked on doors, and showed up for Democrats so that AAPI voters can be the Margin of Victory. Thank you to all the staff, community leaders, and volunteers who empowered our commuinities.
The work is not over. The Georgia Senate runoff is three weeks away on December 6. We have 21 days for AAPIs to be the Margin of Victory for Sen. Warnock...again! Georgia Runoff: Canvass and Phone Bank Click here to register!CANVASS IN GEORGIA Asian Americans favored Democratic candidates in midterms, exit polls sayNBC News - May Yeung, 35, a New York City-based publicist, said she was impressed by the crowd at her polling place in Chinatown but not entirely surprised. Yeung, a moderate who voted for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, said her family had been actively discussing issues like the economy and crime leading up to the midterm elections.
“That’s what’s been blowing up on our family’s WeChat,” Yeung said.
She’s among the many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who showed up at the ballot box Tuesday. Surveys show that Asian Americans favored Democrats during the midterm elections, according to election night exit polls. An NBC News Exit Poll found that 58% had voted for Democrats, while 40% had voted for Republicans.
Sara Sadhwani, a senior researcher at the nonprofit demographic and policy research group AAPI Data, said the results are consistent with those of years past, proving that Asian Americans have emerged as a Democratic bloc with “growing reliability.” But the trend isn’t static, she said.
Read more here...Grassroots Groups Key to Turning Out Asian American Voters Translator Christie Yang (left) at a Philadelphia polling station on Nov. 8, 2022. Philadelphia joined several other US cities in offering new multilingual voting information and assistance this Election Day.
Photograph: Amy Yee Bloomberg - In the waning hours of US midterm elections last week, a Chinese American couple in their 70s in Philadelphia’s Chinatown voted for the third time in their lives. They were eager to do so, but Cun Jun Zheng and Shu Xiang Wang needed help to cast their ballots.
They speak limited English, so they’d been in touch with Wei Chen, 32, civic engagement director with Philadelphia nonprofit Asian Americans United (AAU). Chen is trilingual and fluent in Fujianese, the Chinese dialect the couple speak. At the voting booth, he walked them through instructions and helped them navigate the touch-screen machine, as is permitted under federal law.
Read more here...Where Asian Americans made history Several Asian Americans made history across the U.S. during the midterm elections Tuesday night. Driving the news: Among them are Shri Thanedar (D), who will be the first Indian American representative for Michigan, and Aruna Miller (D), who will be the first immigrant and first Asian American elected to statewide office in Maryland. In Rhode Island, Chinese American Victoria Gu (D) and Japanese American Linda Ujifusa (D) became the first Asians elected to the state legislature. Texas’ Salman Bhojani (D), a Pakistani American corporate lawyer, became the first Muslim and first South Asian ever elected to the state legislature. Fellow Democrat Suleman Lalani, a doctor who advocates for health care reform, will share the title of Texas’ first Muslim state legislator with Bhojani after winning his own race.
Read more here...Scenes from the Field |