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Welcome to our new quarterly newsletter!

The AAPI community is the fastest growing ethnic and racial minority in the United States. This cycle, AAPI voters and candidates played a key role in protecting the Democratic majority in the United States Senate and ensuring the community’s interests are represented in the halls of state legislatures and Congress. The Asian American Action Fund (AAAFund) is proud to be in this fight to ensure the AAPI community has a seat at the table.

Endorsement Corner

This month, AAAFund was proud to endorse Julie Su for Labor Secretary after endorsing her in 2020.

• “Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial and ethnic minority in the United States and a key reason that the Biden-Harris Administration has the opportunity to work with a Democratic Senate this session. We are confident the White House will keep this in mind and proactively find ways to ensure eminently qualified AAPI leaders like Julie have a seat at the table,” [The Hill, 2/12/23]

2024 Watch

AAAFund is also thrilled to endorse Dave Min for Congress in California’s 47th Congressional District.

THE AAPI WAVE

Earlier this month, AAAFund, ASPIRE PAC, Asian American Power Network, and National AAPI Power Fund hosted an election cycle debrief to discuss the growing influence of the AAPI community in Democratic politics.

• “AAPI voters played an undeniable role in shaping the midterm elections and delivering a decisive Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate. But the AAPI vote is not a monolith – and in order to ensure success in 2024, the Democratic party must continue to devote more resources towards recruiting AAPI candidates and increasing AAPI voter turnout. We look forward to working together to ensure our AAPI candidates, representatives, and communities have a seat at the table.” — Albert Shen, National Chair of AAAFund
  

AAAFund and other national AAPI groups were proud to host several panels on AAPI voter trends, messaging, and on what it’s like to be an AAPI candidate and elected official.

• The groups hosted a panel featuring Minnesota State Representative Liz Lee, Pennsylvania State Senator Nikil Saval, Illinois State Representative Nabeela Syed, and former Democratic Nominee for California’s 45th Congressional District Jay Chen.

• The panel discussed the value of knowing the AAPI community when it comes to driving community engagement and what representation means in practice.

[@IreneHLin]

WELCOME ABOARD

AAAFund is thrilled to announce the addition of four new board members.

• Jason Mida is the president and CEO at Mida Associates and is the former Vice President of Development at the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

• KJ Bagchi is the Senior Director of Technology Policy at the Chamber of Progress and is a veteran of Capitol Hill and public interest organizations including New America’s Open Technology Institute and Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

• Linda Shim previously served as special assistant to the president for economic agency personnel in the White House, and as chief of staff for Representative Judy Chu (CA-28).

• Devang Shah currently serves as Treasurer for the Maryland Democratic Party. He previously served as Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party AAPI Leadership Council. Shah is also an immigration attorney.

• Jay Cho is currently Director of U.S. Federal Government Relations, Commercial Lead at VMware. In this role, he leads VMware's private sector advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill and Administration.