Asian American & Pacific Islanders Running for Elected Office at Record High Numbers

Being a blogger for 8Asians, I am on a lot of email lists, including the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies one, and was pleasantly surprised to hear recently that Asian American candidates are running in record numbers this November in the mid-term elections, with the highlights including:

• Top 4 states with AAPI’s running for elected office: Hawaii (73), California (17), Washington (11), and Maryland (10).
• Many candidates are trailblazers in their communities: Republican George Leing could become the first Asian American to represent Colorado in the U.S. House of Representatives; Democrat Stephanie Chang could potentially be the first Asian American woman to win a seat in the Michigan legislature.
• The Democratic Party leads in AAPI candidacy for state legislatures with 57.2% of  AAPI candidates running under the Democratic ticket. The Republican Party holds 37.7% of AAPI state legislature candidates.
• 40% of AAPI candidates in state legislative elections are women.
• California leads in AAPI’s running for Congress with 8 candidates followed by Hawaii with 3 candidates.

 Other highlights include:

“The November election will include 22 Asian-American congressional candidates in 12 different states and territories; 39 ran in the primaries. In the 2008 elections, only 13 Asian-American candidates ran for Congress. … APAICS leaders say representation of Asian Americans is crucial to encouraging engagement and participation, and point out that only 14 of the 485 federal legislature members are Asian American/Pacific Islander.”

Of course, amongst politicos, the most watched race is Asian American vs. Asian America race of Ro Khanna vs. Congressman Mike Honda.

Whatever your political persuasion is, I recommend that you vote. In a Democracy, if you don’t vote, then you shouldn’t’ complain about your government since you might as well be living in a dictatorship, IMHO.