Nevada candidates court Asian-American voters

With glossy campaign mailers Rochelle Nguyen’s mailbox has been inundated. The materials run the gamut of hot-button topics under discussion in the midterms, because her household includes registered Republicans as well as Democrats.

 

One thing is different in this election, “I can tell you, everything from social media messaging to mailers I’ve never received so much in Vietnamese”, The Nevada assemblywoman said. 

Particularly in key battlegrounds like Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, one of the most expensive congressional races in the country, the pile of political mail sitting in Nguyen’s home as a critical constituency for both Republicans and Democrats in Las Vegas is one indicator that Asian American communities have emerged.

Including Nevada, which has large Filipino and Chinese American populations in the United States Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group and make up more than 10% of the population in five states. The population is roughly 350,000, the state’s Asian American voting age. By about 34,000 votes President Joe Biden won in 2020. 

Including the region’s largest, neighborhoods west and southwest of the Las Vegas Strip both parties are testing whether their campaign messaging about crime, inflation and abortion resonates in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. 

In the Las Vegas area district more than any other in the nation the GOP’s Congressional Leadership Fund has spent $10.9 million to campaign. According to data aggregated by California Target Book, which tracks federal campaign finance filings, the Democrats’ House Majority PAC has spent $3.4 million.

To talk to business owners about how she and other Democrats have worked in the U.S. Rep. Susie Lee spent an afternoon this week visiting Las Vegas’ Chinatown Plaza to ensure that they have the resources to withstand skyrocketing costs and the scars the pandemic inflicted on the nation’s economy.

Including her opponent, April Becker, to direct the party’s economy-focused message toward Asian American voters the second-term Democrat said her district’s Asian American community has always been a focus, but Lee’s eleventh-hour push comes amid unprecedented efforts from Republicans in Nevada.

“At the gas pump it’s causing us to be hurt and in the grocery store; I continue to remind people that, yes, inflation is affecting all of us. Lee said, noting that Asian American business owners often thank her for supporting economic relief throughout the pandemic but there’s one party that has taken action to take on inflation and there’s one party that wants to use it as a talking point”.

When they redrew the state’s political maps last year without Republican support the Democratic-controlled Legislature prioritized uniting the Asian American community into the 3rd District. Asian Americans now account for 21% of the voting-age population.

The new boundaries could backfire but the district now leans bluer than it did previously on paper.

Republicans are working to further their inroads in places like southwest Las Vegas, where the Republican National Committee opened an “Asian Pacific American Community Center” to headquarter their outreach efforts six months ago, after outperforming their expectations in 2020 with Asian Americans.

Republicans are publishing campaign materials in Chinese, Hindi, Korean and Vietnamese more than ever before, they say, and advertising in community newspapers like the Philippine Times of South Nevada and the Asian Journal of Las Vegas, where RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel published an op-ed last month titled: “Filipino Americans Strengthen Our Country. Democrats Don’t”. 

To get out the vote in Asian American communities similar outreach tactics have for years been employed by Democrats. 

This year in Nevada, including in Tagalog, to draw contrast between Lee and Becker, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running abortion and hate crime-focused ads. 

As Republicans as well as in the bimonthly Korea Times Las Vegas and on the Filipino radio station PHLV they’re running ads in the same community newspapers.

Republicans hope to narrow the margin though Asian Americans historically have leaned Democratic.

“It’s going to be the GOP earning more votes while Democrats keep losing Asian voters, it’s not going to be winning the AAPI vote outright. Nainoa Johsens, the RNC’s AAPI outreach director said they’re going to be the margin of victory in close races, whether that’s in Nevada, whether that’s Texas, Arizona or Georgia”.

He added “In places that people in the past we’ve made inroads didn’t traditionally think the GOP would”.

Their emphasis this year on public safety will resonate in Asian American communities, Amid a spate of anti-Asian hate crimes, Republicans have said. 

By the experience of Asian American students in college admissions they also hope turnout will be encouraged, in front of the U.S. Supreme Court which is at the center of a high-profile affirmative action case.

Both parties have contacted more voters than in elections past, Janelle Wong, a University of Maryland professor who co-directs the research group AAPI Data, said.

Including in support of access to reproductive health care Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are a diverse group linguistically, economically and politically, yet survey data show the group in comparison to certain issues other demographics is relatively united.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade though Democrats have made abortion a centerpiece of their midterm campaigns, if Republicans are able to motivate voters around issues such as crime or a sluggish economy, in races their efforts could be decisive that come down to a few thousands of voters.

“In the Democratic bloc if their goal is to eat away and if the past is any indication, they could be successful”, Wong said.