Group launches $10 million push to reach Asian American voters in battleground states
The Asian American Power Network, a progressive advocacy group, has launched a $10 million effort to turn out Asian American voters in seven key battleground states.
The Asian American Power Network, a progressive advocacy group, has launched a $10 million effort to turn out Asian American voters in seven key battleground states ahead of the midterms.
The funds are meant to help mobilize AAPI voters who speak different languages in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania. With more support for door knocks and phone calls, progressives hope to spur an increasingly powerful bloc to the ballot box while Republicans attempt to do the same.
The effort comes ahead of a number of tight races that will determine the balance of power in Washington come November and amid record increases in voter turnout in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in recent years. Between 2000 and 2019, the growth rate of Asian Americans in the U.S. was higher than that of any other race or ethnicity, at 81%, a 2021 Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. census data showed.
In the 2020 presidential election, the number of Asian Americans who voted in five battleground states was larger than the presidential margin of victory, according to the nonpartisan group Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, or APIAVote.
The Asian American electorate has been higher on the radar of political campaigns since 2018, Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and director of demographic data and policy research at the nonprofit group AAPI Data, told NBC Asian America. That midterm election cycle saw an increase in competitive congressional districts with significant Asian populations, he said.
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