Houston, Texas — Shen Huang is unhappy with the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and there are few things that could dissuade a Chinese-American software engineer who lives in Flower Mound from voting this fall.
The video above is from a previous story.
“The stakes are very high right now,” he said. “I was crawling through the broken glass to vote.”
After Huang began getting involved in politics during Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign, Huang has continued to be involved ever since, including collecting votes for Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 nomination for the US Senate. But in the process, note how Asian Americans are underrepresented in national and local offices—and how they have been largely ignored by both the Democratic and Republican parties.
“A definite Asian expansion, I haven’t seen much from either side,” he said. “I really hope we have a bigger voice in American politics.”
Huang is not alone who feels this way.
according to recent report By Asian Texans for Justice, a nonpartisan organization focused on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the state, about 80% of AAPI Texans surveyed said their interests “are not well represented in government.” while, July survey Of three national organizations, focused on Asian American voters across the country, it found that “less than half were contacted by either major party” in the past year. These trends have continued into this election cycle, amid the rapidly rising AAPI population and voter turnout.
Watch related story: South Asians in Texas see opportunity for inspiration and more voices in Kamala Harris
“We are approaching Election Day, and a whole swath of the population is missing out,” said Lily Trio, ASEAN Texans for Justice Interim Executive Director.
This does not mean that all political candidates completely ignore AAPI voters. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott He gave the keynote address at a lunch hosted by the Asia-American Alliance in San Antonio. On Saturday, O’Rourke, who is running to oust Abbott, is scheduled to speak at a rally in Houston’s Asiatown area with several AAPI candidates.
And while Trio is encouraged that two of the top candidates are making efforts to engage the community before early voting begins on October 24, she said more is needed for everyone.
“There is still a lot that needs to be done to deal with voters every day and to address the issues of the League once they are elected to office,” she said. “We would like to see more meaningful voter participation and listen to the community’s needs from all candidates.”
Texas lawmakers also discussed bills Narrowing access to voting And restricting access to abortion last year, some lawmakers pointed to the disproportionate effects that laws might have on people of color. But she remembered hearing little discussion about their impact on AAPI Texans specifically, even though this group made up roughly 20% of the state’s population growth in the past decade.
In 2021, Texas lawmakers also redrawn the political maps of the state and break up Many densely Asian communities, especially in Fort Bend and Harris counties, effectively reduce the political power of AAPI voters. While the Republicans in Texas have insist on That redistricting was “blind to race”, many AIP voters testified against the plans and some later replied By joining the legal battle against the new maps.
“It was very frustrating,” Trio said. “People were feeling blatantly ignored in the redistricting process.”
It was the federal trial of the case delay It will not affect the upcoming elections. But Trio believes that these challenges, along with the Stop Asian Hate movement that has grown amid the rise Racial attacks against Asian Americanswill motivate the community – especially young voters – to come out this fall.
“I really think it’s going to be a youth-led community effort,” she said.
A growing and motivated population
AAPI voters and organizations who spoke to The Texas Tribune noted several reasons for this persistent gap in political interest. But they added that governments and political candidates should pay attention to demographic trends and begin to deal with the rapidly growing portion of the electorate.
Trio attributed the candidates’ lack of communication and representation to the old notion that AAPI voters are indifferent. But she noted that nearly two-thirds of AAPI Texas are “extremely excited” to vote this year, based on her organization’s report. And while that rate is still below the general stimulus level for Texas residents, the state has also seen significant growth in Asian votes in recent years, including 71% jump — or an increase of 101,000 ballot papers — between 2016 and 2020.
On the other hand, Huang noted that the Texas AAPI population – although growing – still makes up only a small portion of the state’s population. According to the data of the nonprofit AAPI, such voters are leading just under 5% of voters in Texas this year.
“From the cost-benefit analysis, this may be the reason why politicians don’t really appear to want to spend a disproportionate amount of resources trying to reach a relatively small number of voters,” he said.
But with the polarization of the Republican Party An increasing number of Hispanic voters in recent yearsNabila Mansour, executive director of the progressive Rise AAPI and chairwoman of the Asian American Democrats in Texas, said the AAPI community could offer new avenues for the Democratic Party.
“There’s a lot of growth going on in Texas that you just can’t get past it,” Mansour said.
However, the AAPI community is not a homogeneous unit. According to AAPI data, the most populous Asian ethnicities in Texas are Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Pakistani. Meanwhile, society is mixed when it comes to political affiliations. According to an Asian Texans for Justice report, more than 40% of AAPI voters are Democrats while about 60% are split in half between Republicans and independents. There are also different voting styles within each ethnic group. For example, while Amerindians tend toward Democrats, Vietnamese Americans have historically been allied with Republicans—although there is a growing shift especially from the younger generation in the latter group.
“It takes some work on the part of the political parties to understand what the AAPI community wants and needs, but I think our community is worth it,” Trio said.
Common interests
Despite this diversity, Trieu noted that the Asian Texans for Justice report points to several key concerns shared by AAPI voters.
Since the state’s near-total ban on abortion and the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, access to abortion has grown as an important issue for many voters. Besides access, Chanda Barbhu, a progressive and founder of South Asians Voter Education + Participation + Empowerment, said the need to navigate the new rules and restrictions has created a lot of concerns for medical professionals and students, many of whom are from South Asia. Confusion over which treatments are still legal for pregnant patients may motivate some to leave Texas or choose other professions.
“The doctors would come to me and say, ‘Who do I need to talk to? Because I don’t feel safe as a doctor.” “They all feel very vulnerable and really uncertain,” she said.
Education is another major issue. Barbhu said that parents are concerned about the impact of the increasing politicization of critical race theory — even though it is not actually taught in Texans — on the quality of their children’s education.
“People are really afraid of what loud voices are talking about and what [they are] Turn education into, “she said. Our communities flock to really good school districts. They want to remain realistic.”
Public safety is also a hot topic, with gun reform a high priority, according to an Asian Texans for Justice report. At the same time, voters who spoke with Tribune such as Filipino-American Mark Sampelo also highlighted the need to ensure continued resources for individuals and businesses, as well as more education for police on the issue of anti-Asian hate. Texas had the fourth-highest number of anti-Asian incidents on record between March 2020 and February 2021, according to nonprofit organization Stop AAPI Hate.
“Although it’s hard to see what we’ve seen in the media, it’s a very small percentage of what’s going on,” he said. “So [we] I just want to make sure that going forward there is commitment and that there is accountability that our communities will be safe.”
And with AAPI Texans “more likely” to be immigrants than the state’s general population, immigration is a major area of concern for some voters who spoke with the Tribune. Huang said the H-1B visa program for highly skilled workers was a major concern for him and his wife before she recently became a US citizen. It is important to support the people of Tagu ng Tago, the Tagalog term for undocumented immigrants, said Sampelo, who works with several Filipino organizations including the Filipino American Unit for Advancement.
“These people are being exploited in ways we may not even recognize,” he said, describing a case in which 70 Filipino teachers, along with many Latin Americans, were tricked into coming to the Garland Independent School District through a fraudulent visa program. Victor Leos, a former GISD director of human resources and the central figure on the scheme, pleaded guilty to the fraud case in 2017.
But in the end, the most important issues in the upcoming elections are the things politicians know all too well: inflation and economic recovery.
“Everything is getting better, and that’s a concern for everyone,” said Anthony Nguyen, president of the Asian Republican Assembly of Texas in Austin.
And with Texas AAPI followers relatively moderately drawn on both sides, voters and regulators said there was still a centrist population ready to take over if major parties actually got involved.
“Unfortunately, a lot of our policies are devoted to issues of polarization,” Nguyen said. “You can’t change the opinions of core voters. But in the middle, you can change because they care about survival day in and day out, not the extreme issues that both sides have.”
Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that educates – and interacts with – residents of Texas about public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues.
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