Axios News reports that “Only 30% of Asian Americans said they've received ‘a great deal’ or ‘some’ contact from the Democratic Party in the last year. 40% said they have been contacted by Republicans.”
It’s no wonder, then, that Republicans have a slight edge among Asian American voters on issues like national security and the economy -- Democrats just aren’t making their case.
There’s still time to change that. According to UC professor and AAPI Data founder Karthick Ramakrishnan: “Many [AAPI voters] are still persuadable, but they're not getting contacted." It’s not only morally necessary that Democrats include AAPI voters in their outreach and in their policies -- it’s also politically vital. The over 1.5 million AAPI voters in Texas, for example, could help the Democratic party take a deep-red stronghold from the Republican party this election cycle.
But while Democrats sit back, Donald Trump is making significant inroads into the South Asian voting bloc, even launching an “Asian Pacific Americans for Trump” coalition. According to The Hill, “the president’s advisers hope that even marginal gains among AAPI voters and other demographics could help tilt the results in key swing states across the country.”
We can’t let Donald Trump and the GOP out-message us. But very few Democatic groups are focused on the needs of AAPI voters, which means it falls to us to lead the charge -- and right now, we’re $5,370 short of where we need to be to increase our campaign efforts and regain the ground we’re losing to the Republican Party.
We wouldn’t ask for your help closing the gap if we didn’t think this outreach effort was absolutely critical. But because you know the stakes, and so many others don’t, we need your help -- and we need it now.