Speaker 1: Good morning, Peepsen. Welcome to WIKA F Daily with Meet
Speaker 1: your Girl Danielle Moody back recording from the Home Bunker. Friends,
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to bring to you today an interview
Speaker 1: with brid Jenkins, who is the president and CEO of
Speaker 1: AAPI Victory Fund, And you know, we get into a
Speaker 1: conversation about the Asian American Pacific Islander community, this very
Speaker 1: complex and diverse and layer community and how it is
Speaker 1: oftentimes overlooked in this country when we're talking about the electorate, right,
Speaker 1: we are always talking about you know, suburban voters and
Speaker 1: we know who the fuck that is. And then we
Speaker 1: talk about the black vote and will black people turn out?
Speaker 1: Then we talk about the Latin X vote, right, and
Speaker 1: this growing population. But folks, the AAPI community is one
Speaker 1: of the fastest growing communities in the country, with over
Speaker 1: twenty million citizens in this country from over you know,
Speaker 1: thirty different countries, and Brad will break down to us.
Speaker 1: You know, some startling news that came up in their
Speaker 1: latest report that was done by API Victory Fund along
Speaker 1: with their Progressive Coalition members that set off kind of
Speaker 1: alarm bells in my head about once again, how Democrats
Speaker 1: seem to be neglecting these growing populations and also their base,
Speaker 1: which is black people and black women, in order to
Speaker 1: tend or run after the white vote, which they haven't
Speaker 1: had in decades. And so you know, as I'm talking
Speaker 1: to Brad, you know he is and by virtue of
Speaker 1: this report signaling the fact that Democrats are losing a
Speaker 1: foothold in this community. I won't give away what he
Speaker 1: says in the interview, but I will say this that
Speaker 1: you know, by the time that you listen to this, right,
Speaker 1: we will still have a handful of days until polls close,
Speaker 1: meaning that people have been early voting. Election day is
Speaker 1: the last day, right is how we look at it nowadays,
Speaker 1: is the last day to vote, and we have no
Speaker 1: idea where things are going to end up. And President
Speaker 1: Biden spoke about the fact that people are going to
Speaker 1: need to be patient because votes are going to take
Speaker 1: time to be counted. This is just our new normal
Speaker 1: unless something is a blowout, which no elections really going
Speaker 1: forward will in fact be blowouts. We won't know on
Speaker 1: election night who won. Right, And in this upcoming midterms,
Speaker 1: it's truly hair raised and terrifying because the balance of
Speaker 1: power is either going to rest with a party that
Speaker 1: believes in preserving democracy, believes in human decency, believes in
Speaker 1: equity and justice, or with a rapid cult that believes
Speaker 1: in violence, that champions lies, and that celebrates ignorance. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, as I talk to my friends who are
Speaker 1: from you know, around the US and our children of
Speaker 1: immigrants or our immigrants themselves, and they're watching their own
Speaker 1: elections at home, be a raiser thin and recognizing that
Speaker 1: this push for fascism and authoritarianism isn't unique to the
Speaker 1: United States. It is happening everywhere. And the religious right
Speaker 1: and white evangelical Christians and you know, fascists and Nazis
Speaker 1: and all of these people have their tentacles in all countries.
Speaker 1: And so are we going to wake up to that
Speaker 1: right or are we going to wake up, you know,
Speaker 1: several days after the election wondering what it's going to
Speaker 1: be like to stand in breadlines, wondering what it's going
Speaker 1: to be like to not have social safety nets like
Speaker 1: social security and medicare to recognize that, you know, we
Speaker 1: have a politicized and weaponized Supreme Court that is gutting
Speaker 1: civil liberties and rights, and what happens to a desperate
Speaker 1: and broke people. There is nothing more that signals revolution
Speaker 1: than all of the things that I just named. So
Speaker 1: we are living in frightening times and there is no one,
Speaker 1: no community, no vote should be left behind. And so
Speaker 1: that's the conversation that I'm getting into next with the
Speaker 1: President and CEO of AAPI Victory Fund, Brad Jenkins. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm David Plots of SLA Political Gabfest. As another election
Speaker 1: season accelerates, it can be tricky to sort through all
Speaker 1: the ways in the news. Each week on the gap Fest,
Speaker 1: John Dickerson, Emily Bathlon and I decipher the headlines, break
Speaker 1: down the races, and tell you what issues really matter.
Speaker 1: We do not always agree, We definitely do not always agree,
Speaker 1: but we always deliver thoughtful debate and we always have
Speaker 1: a good time. So subscribe to Slate's Political Gapfest, new
Speaker 1: episodes every Thursday, folks. I am very excited to welcome
Speaker 1: to wok a f daily for the first time President
Speaker 1: and CEO of AAPI Victory Fund, Brad Jenkins, who is
Speaker 1: also a former Associate Director of the White House Office
Speaker 1: of Public Engagement under Obama, our forever and favorite president.
Speaker 1: So Brad, you know, first, I want to give you
Speaker 1: an opportunity to tell people exactly what AAPI victory fund
Speaker 1: is and what you all focus on. Yeah, well, first off,
Speaker 1: thank you so much everything you do, UM, which is education,
Speaker 1: firing people a huge fan um so presidency of a
Speaker 1: victory fund. And my name is Brad Jenkins, which I
Speaker 1: know is the worst Asian name of are very confused,
Speaker 1: like what what is it? Yeah, that is black. My
Speaker 1: mom is curring. So so that's where that's where that
Speaker 1: comes from. But uh, you know, we're the first Asian
Speaker 1: American superpath were formed about eight years ago. Normanetta mayhe
Speaker 1: rest in peace UM founded it with our our chair
Speaker 1: Shaker Ramison. And you know, look, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, our community is always overlooked when it comes
Speaker 1: to voting for a lot of different reasons, and so
Speaker 1: there's this vicious cycle. Our community votes the least of
Speaker 1: all communities. Asian Americans vote the least, they're the least
Speaker 1: civically engaged, they're the least uh least available to donate
Speaker 1: right of all communities, which is crazy if you think
Speaker 1: about it. So I took over the Helm about a
Speaker 1: year ago to change that. And the biggest reason why
Speaker 1: was we were facing a moment, right, a moment of
Speaker 1: Asian hate, a moment where Donald Trump was weaponizing words
Speaker 1: against our community that was leading to very real violence
Speaker 1: and discrimination in the streets. And it was great that
Speaker 1: we were sort of galvanizing and coming together, but we
Speaker 1: weren't seeing that at the ballot box. And so our
Speaker 1: work this year and our work beyond November is to
Speaker 1: really change that that dynamic, is to make sure that
Speaker 1: Asian American voters are invested in, that we are thought
Speaker 1: of and centered and polling and data and voter turnout
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, all of the
Speaker 1: candidates that we care about, right, especially candidates like Stacey
Speaker 1: Abrams or Ralph Warnock or folks who are in Nevada,
Speaker 1: folks who are in Arizona, they're not winning without Asian
Speaker 1: American votes. So we are working in locks that speaking
Speaker 1: up a lot of those folks like Center, We'reknock and others.
Speaker 1: We're working very closely with the turnout the vote to win.
Speaker 1: So so let's unpack a couple of things, Uh that
Speaker 1: that you stated that you know I a are of
Speaker 1: surprise to me, which is one, why does the AAPI
Speaker 1: community vote the least and what is what is the thing?
Speaker 1: And again we will talk about the report that was
Speaker 1: done by your organization in coalition with a group of
Speaker 1: other progressive organizations kind of digging into this issue. But
Speaker 1: why is it that they vote the least and what
Speaker 1: do you believe, Sho, is that is an activation point
Speaker 1: that maybe Democrats have been missing. Yeah, well, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons why. I mean the biggest reason
Speaker 1: in my opinion, I mean we see this in polls
Speaker 1: is you know, campaigns, candidates parties, you know, the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party in particular, they're they're not investing to actually reach
Speaker 1: our voters. So you'd be surprised. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of folks just assume, well, you know, maybe this community.
Speaker 1: By the way, our community which is very diverse, right,
Speaker 1: I mean there's like thirty different countries and nationalities, languages,
Speaker 1: So that in and of itself makes it challenging for
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party or state democratic parties to reach our community,
Speaker 1: especially in language, in culture, in religion. So because of that,
Speaker 1: it's just costs more and it's more more labor intensive,
Speaker 1: and it's work to reach our community to turn out
Speaker 1: to vote. And I think the second thing, and this
Speaker 1: is a generational thing, especially for my you know, my
Speaker 1: mom who's a Korean immigrant, and a lot of Asian Americans,
Speaker 1: younger Asian Americans talk about that older generation. You know,
Speaker 1: the culture of voting is just not as embedded in
Speaker 1: a lot of these immigrant communities, and so the idea
Speaker 1: of being an active citizen running for office being you know,
Speaker 1: holding elected officials accountable not as present in a lot
Speaker 1: of our our parents generation or our grandparents generation. But
Speaker 1: what we're finding, and the exciting thing for me, is
Speaker 1: that this younger generation, eighteen to thirty four year old
Speaker 1: Asian Americans, very different, very very different, voting at higher rates,
Speaker 1: very progressive as it relates to you know, issues like
Speaker 1: lack lives matter, issues like climate change, issues like abortion access,
Speaker 1: and so we're breaking that cycle. In fact, in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: you know, largely because of Donald Trump. We can kind
Speaker 1: of thank him for galvanized our community together. Asian Americans
Speaker 1: voted at the highest rates that we've ever voted before
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, especially in early vote numbers. So it's happening.
Speaker 1: I think that you're you're starting to see our community
Speaker 1: understand that you know, Donald Trump, you know, his hatred
Speaker 1: was for everyone. His hatred was directed at black people,
Speaker 1: at LGBTQ, at immigrants, right, and also in Asian Americans.
Speaker 1: And so there's a you know, a reckoning, right, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a realization and awareness that we have to
Speaker 1: be in solidarity with the black community, we have to
Speaker 1: be in solidarity with the immigrant rights community, we have
Speaker 1: to be in solidarity with the LGBTQ movement. Because it's
Speaker 1: like that you know old adage, you know they're coming
Speaker 1: for us next. Clearly Trump was coming for us, you know,
Speaker 1: kung flu and wuhan and all of this awful rhetoric
Speaker 1: every single day from the White House. It led to
Speaker 1: real debts, It led to real violence in the streets.
Speaker 1: And so the exciting things we mentioned is that organization
Speaker 1: that typically have never invested in Asian American research, you know,
Speaker 1: organizations like Planned Parenthood, organizations like nay roll and vegu
Speaker 1: of conservation voters all came together to do the biggest,
Speaker 1: most comprehensive poll of Asian American voters and we've never
Speaker 1: done before, largely because they all want to win the
Speaker 1: other one day, it's like, yes, it's good, we should
Speaker 1: understand where Asian American voters are, but we all need
Speaker 1: we all know it's at stake. We know democracy is
Speaker 1: at stake, and we know we are not going to
Speaker 1: win these elections if we are just completely overlooking the
Speaker 1: Asian American community. So while it's a good thing to do, right,
Speaker 1: obviously we should always be including Asian American polling and
Speaker 1: we should be reaching out to the Asian American community
Speaker 1: because it's the right thing to do. At the end
Speaker 1: of the day, you know, my job is to win elections, right.
Speaker 1: My job is making the case that if we want
Speaker 1: to win, we want to win in Pennsylvania, we got
Speaker 1: to turn out Asian Americans in Philadelphia, right. If we
Speaker 1: want to win in Nevada, we had to turn out
Speaker 1: Filipinos in Clark County. If we don't, then these big elections,
Speaker 1: right or it's John Fetterman, you know, whether it's court
Speaker 1: as Master, we are going to lose. So it's an
Speaker 1: exciting moment for our community. It's a moment that again
Speaker 1: there's still a lot of work that we need to
Speaker 1: do in catching up to you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: larger institutions, but it's work that we're really proud of. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I want to talk a bit about Trumpism
Speaker 1: and the rise of uh Asian hate, um, and the
Speaker 1: way you know, you mentioned with all of the rhetoric
Speaker 1: that surrounded the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic um, and
Speaker 1: how that rhetoric translated into into violence. Um. You know
Speaker 1: it's it's as as an outsider looking into the community,
Speaker 1: I've always looked at the AAPI community as one that
Speaker 1: is readily ignored, right. Um. That is that is yet
Speaker 1: still put up in many ways portions of the community
Speaker 1: as the model quote unquote minority, but then readily ignored
Speaker 1: right with the violence and the issues that are facing
Speaker 1: the community. And so do you think that as we
Speaker 1: are seeing once again a rise in anti Semitism, the
Speaker 1: consistent you know, rise in anti blackness, that Democrats do
Speaker 1: a good job of being able to weave together all
Speaker 1: the ways in which the right has pitted communities against
Speaker 1: each other. Right, but then are using the same tactics,
Speaker 1: but just with different targets at different times. So our
Speaker 1: democrats exploiting what it is that the right is doing
Speaker 1: as a way to forge this coalition that frankly Obama
Speaker 1: had in hand, and then he left and it left
Speaker 1: with him. I couldn't agree more. No, Democrats are not
Speaker 1: doing good enough job. And I'll just say, and by
Speaker 1: the way, I think that and I would I think
Speaker 1: that probably the Democratic Party would agree to it, that
Speaker 1: there needs to be a lot more work when we're
Speaker 1: talking about intersectionality, we're talking about building power as communities
Speaker 1: of color together. And you're right. You know, I'm an
Speaker 1: Obama baby, right, so I'm like, I volunteered from the president.
Speaker 1: I then worked for him in the White House. And
Speaker 1: it was easier to do under an Obama administration because
Speaker 1: he embodied it. He embodied it front to back, from
Speaker 1: staffing to the rhetoric. You know, it was all really
Speaker 1: about how do we bring all of these disparate communities
Speaker 1: of color together in common purpose to win? And I
Speaker 1: think you're exactly right. I think the one thing that
Speaker 1: Trump did a very good job of is pitting communities
Speaker 1: against each other. And we saw that, I mean, we
Speaker 1: saw that play out a lot with Asian American violence.
Speaker 1: We saw a lot online viral videos hitting the black
Speaker 1: community against the Asian American community. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: not new. They've been doing this to the black and
Speaker 1: Asian American community forever, you know, like since there's been redlining,
Speaker 1: and since poor people have lived in concentrations of poverty.
Speaker 1: You know, Black people and Asian people have been pitted
Speaker 1: against each other. And so the short answer is no.
Speaker 1: But the exciting thing is, you know, that's where groups
Speaker 1: like ours come in. Because that's the first thing I
Speaker 1: did when I joined the Victory Fund was we reached
Speaker 1: out to Collective Pack, which is the largest African American pack.
Speaker 1: We reach out to the Latino Victory Fund, which is
Speaker 1: the largest Latino pack, and we formed an MoU together
Speaker 1: to say, we got to share all this data. We
Speaker 1: got to work together when we're knocking doors. We had
Speaker 1: to fund race together, we had to do donor pitches together,
Speaker 1: because to your point, we cannot let them divide us.
Speaker 1: That's that's a recipe for success with the right. Right
Speaker 1: is when we start feeling like, oh, well, you know
Speaker 1: the Asians, but I don't mean really care about the
Speaker 1: Asian violence. We care about our issues. And we saw
Speaker 1: a little bit of that play out in a lot
Speaker 1: of local elections this past year or past two years.
Speaker 1: And you know, our work this year is really breaking
Speaker 1: that cycle. In a state like Georgia, you're seeing it
Speaker 1: on the ground because we have just an incredible ticket.
Speaker 1: We have Center Warrenot, we have the win who's running
Speaker 1: for Secretary of State, a young Asian American woman who's incredible,
Speaker 1: and then obviously of Stacey Abrahams and the three of them,
Speaker 1: as they're going out to communities, not just black communities,
Speaker 1: not just Asian communities, not just the team of communities,
Speaker 1: all communities. They're doing it together, they're doing it coordinated,
Speaker 1: and they're bringing all of these disparate communities together. So
Speaker 1: it's hard work and at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: this work isn't easy. And I do think that the
Speaker 1: one thing I will say about these communities is that,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of money and a lot of polling,
Speaker 1: and a lot of stations on NPR and you know,
Speaker 1: MSNBC and CNA focus on white voters. We love to
Speaker 1: talk about white voters. We love to talk about whether
Speaker 1: they're college educated, what kind of minivans they drive, if
Speaker 1: they're soccer moms, you know, like if they work in
Speaker 1: coal mines. Like all of that work is focused on
Speaker 1: white voters. And at the end of the day, the
Speaker 1: opportunities and we want to thank well, okay yuh for
Speaker 1: giving us this opportunity. Very rarely are Asian Americans even mentioned. Right,
Speaker 1: there's twenty four million Asian Americans in this country, but
Speaker 1: if you were to turn on the news, you would
Speaker 1: not think that we even know that we are even
Speaker 1: a part of the conversation. So the other thing that
Speaker 1: we were really trying to do here and working with
Speaker 1: our friends at Collective Pack in others, is that, you know,
Speaker 1: we when we do get that spotlight, when we as
Speaker 1: organizations do get shine, we want to bring our partners together,
Speaker 1: you know, and give them the opportunity to shine as well.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of work, you know, It's it's not
Speaker 1: going to happen overnight, but it's work that we just
Speaker 1: have to do if we want to win. Get a
Speaker 1: behind the scenes look at Comedy Central's The Daily Show
Speaker 1: on Beyond the Scenes, an original podcast from The Daily
Speaker 1: Show with Trevor Noah. Every week, host Roy Wood Junior
Speaker 1: goes deeper with the notable guests and experts from the
Speaker 1: Emmy Award winning series. Together, they use comedy to tackle
Speaker 1: current topics from gentrification to gun laws and take a
Speaker 1: closer look at how and why these topics matter. Listen
Speaker 1: to Beyond the Scenes from the Daily Show with Trevor
Speaker 1: Noah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast, new episodes every Tuesday. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: your the report that was done by the Progressive Coalition.
Speaker 1: Where in it? And you know, and I'll allow you
Speaker 1: to lay out this specifics, but we're in it it.
Speaker 1: There's an alarming stat which is that, you know, support
Speaker 1: for Democrats has fallen and I believe it was from
Speaker 1: fifty four percent to fifty one percent. Now when I
Speaker 1: say that, people will hear well, it's still about fifty percent,
Speaker 1: so we're fine. On the opposite side, there's been a
Speaker 1: rise by two percentage points to support for Republicans. And
Speaker 1: I sit here and I say to myself, Bread, how
Speaker 1: the hell does that happen when you have an entire
Speaker 1: Republican party that was out here essentially raising the flag
Speaker 1: for Asian hate, essentially pointing at this community and saying, oh,
Speaker 1: you see these people that are on the trains and
Speaker 1: on your subways and in the stores and whatever. They're
Speaker 1: the reason why you're you know, held up quarantine in
Speaker 1: your home. That's essentially what they did. So how did
Speaker 1: the hell do you see a tick up in support
Speaker 1: for Republicans and a tickdown for support with Democrats in
Speaker 1: the report that you, along with your coalition members put together. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: first off, thank you for reading the report. And it's
Speaker 1: a learning I mean again, shows that we as Democrats
Speaker 1: have not done a very good job of educating right
Speaker 1: and telling the story of what this party, what this president,
Speaker 1: what a lot of our elected officials had done to
Speaker 1: get us out of the munk of the Donald Trump administration.
Speaker 1: The short answer is why is honestly, it's, you know,
Speaker 1: a majority of Asian American voters, much like the majority
Speaker 1: of most voters, not just the Asian American feel like
Speaker 1: the country's on the wrong track. The cost of living, inflation,
Speaker 1: costs of you know, gas prices, all of these things
Speaker 1: have risen, and the jobs in the economy are scaring
Speaker 1: a lot of our voters. So while you know, anti
Speaker 1: Asian hate is an issue that's important, these other issues
Speaker 1: take priority, and these other issues were public have you know,
Speaker 1: like any other party, like any midterm right, it's it's
Speaker 1: the party that's out of power. Can just say, these
Speaker 1: guys will know what they're doing, give us a shot.
Speaker 1: And that is resonating with with some Asian Americans who
Speaker 1: are fearful that Democrats don't have a plan to get
Speaker 1: the economy back on track. The good news with all
Speaker 1: of this, though, there're a couple of bright spots. One,
Speaker 1: young Asian Americans, do not believe. Young Asian Americans are
Speaker 1: essentially the base of the Democratic vote for Asian Americans.
Speaker 1: They're more progressive and fired up to vote than they've
Speaker 1: ever been. And so again this is a community that
Speaker 1: typically doesn't vote as high as as you know, older
Speaker 1: Asian American voters, but this cycle they are very motivated
Speaker 1: to vote. And so that's that's a bright spot for me.
Speaker 1: And then the other bright spot I think broadly speaking,
Speaker 1: is issues like abortion access that was typically not as
Speaker 1: crucial or important of an issue for Asian Americans has skyrocketed,
Speaker 1: you know, especially among Asian American women. So you are
Speaker 1: going to find and what we're seeing with early voting
Speaker 1: from pulling that especially first time voters and young Asian
Speaker 1: American women, they are inspired to vote up and down
Speaker 1: the ballot for Democrats. But you know, the question that
Speaker 1: you're asking is the right one. I mean, you know
Speaker 1: this is not going to be not through the Debbie
Speaker 1: Downer I'm sure you're like, I need help. This in
Speaker 1: term is not going to be pretty, you know, it's not.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, if you're just kind of looking
Speaker 1: at the numbers across the board, I think you know,
Speaker 1: most Americans are, you know, very uneasy with the direction
Speaker 1: of the country and Democrats are in control, and so
Speaker 1: m what I am most concerned about right now is
Speaker 1: that all of these races, right, you know, states like Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: states like Georgia, states like Nevada, if you live in
Speaker 1: any of these states, by the way, like God blessing,
Speaker 1: please vote, Please get all of your friends to vote.
Speaker 1: The margin of victory or defeat is going to be
Speaker 1: so small, it's going to be one point point one
Speaker 1: and a half point And so I know for a
Speaker 1: fact that you know, if we are leaving any votes
Speaker 1: you know, on the table, so to speak, or we're
Speaker 1: you know, there are a lot of Democrats right now
Speaker 1: who are feeling a little disillusion and don't understand, as
Speaker 1: you know, and you've been talking about on your pot,
Speaker 1: what's at stake this election, any election deniers that are
Speaker 1: running and are likely going to win, right, and what
Speaker 1: this means for our next election? Right, whether it's Trump
Speaker 1: or DeSantis or whomever is going to be running at
Speaker 1: the top of the ticket. How many election deniers are
Speaker 1: running and could potentially win is what keeps me up
Speaker 1: at night. So we just have to do everything that
Speaker 1: we can, you know, not just at the federal level,
Speaker 1: but especially at the local level. We're doing a lot
Speaker 1: of work. I mentioned be Win who's running for secretary
Speaker 1: of state in Georgia, but Steve Hobbs is another Asian
Speaker 1: American running for secretary of State in the state of Washington.
Speaker 1: Like these secretary of state races are only now how
Speaker 1: important they are. Yep, We're just important. They are going
Speaker 1: to be there. There are last line of defense. They're
Speaker 1: counting these votes and making sure that there's you know,
Speaker 1: real election integrity. So you know, again I urge all
Speaker 1: of your listeners, you know, when you're going out to vote,
Speaker 1: please vote for Democratic secretaries of state, because that's our
Speaker 1: last last line of defense, um Brad. With the time
Speaker 1: that we have left, um you know, I wouldn't stay
Speaker 1: on the report for a second and then give you
Speaker 1: some closing thoughts, but you know, in in the report
Speaker 1: as well, the issues that are important to AAPI voters,
Speaker 1: UM It is about the is about inflation, is about
Speaker 1: the economy, is about quote unquote kitchen table issues. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you too, though, where does this community,
Speaker 1: your community fall as it pertains to the rising gun violence,
Speaker 1: as it pertains to abortion which was overturned, and frankly
Speaker 1: our democracy, right because if you're stating earlier that you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: Asian hate, that was a thing. But like people also
Speaker 1: need jobs, um, you know, and are concerned about meeting
Speaker 1: their day to day needs. The things that Democrats have
Speaker 1: been banging the drum on, um, are you know the
Speaker 1: fact that our democracies hanging on by a thread. This
Speaker 1: may in fact be our last free and fair election.
Speaker 1: That you know, gun violence is rampant, um, we have
Speaker 1: we don't miss it day without a mass shooting, um.
Speaker 1: And then the overturning of rov Wait. So I just
Speaker 1: also want to understand as it pertains to what democrats
Speaker 1: have been focusing on and what your community is actually
Speaker 1: interested in. Where are the overlaps or where are the
Speaker 1: where where are the gaps? It's a it's a great question,
Speaker 1: and you know, I wish I could tell you that
Speaker 1: the fate of our democracy was the top issue for
Speaker 1: Asian American voters. It's just not it's not I mean,
Speaker 1: it's up there. Gun control, surprisingly, in my opinion, was
Speaker 1: number three of the most important issues to Asian American voters.
Speaker 1: Number one was inflation and the cost of living. Overwhelmingly
Speaker 1: that was number one. Almost half of Asian American voters
Speaker 1: that we pulled list of that as their number one.
Speaker 1: Jobs in the economy was number two, and then gun
Speaker 1: violence was number three. Again, I don't think most people
Speaker 1: think of Asian American voters as gun violence voters, but
Speaker 1: we are. And so again, I you know, urge I
Speaker 1: urge Democrats and candidates to talk about this issue. You know,
Speaker 1: people think of Asian Americans and you're like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: we should just talk about cookie, you know, kitchen table issues,
Speaker 1: but no, I mean gun violence. And the fourth, to
Speaker 1: your point, is abortion access. So these are central issues.
Speaker 1: A lot of the other issues that follow our close.
Speaker 1: You know, healthcare is right up there, climate changes right
Speaker 1: up there. As you go through that sort of different
Speaker 1: sub ethnic groups, what you'll find is because we are
Speaker 1: not a monolith, right, I mean, there's very different You're
Speaker 1: talking to a Filipino voter in Vegas than an Indian
Speaker 1: American voter in Gwinnette County, Georgia. So these issues do
Speaker 1: change state by state, but I will say that overall
Speaker 1: your question is right, which is yes, we have to
Speaker 1: be talking about reducing the cost of living, you know,
Speaker 1: getting you know prices, you know, gas prices and food
Speaker 1: prices down, making sure that we have jobs in the economy.
Speaker 1: But particularly for young Asian American voters, they want to
Speaker 1: see a vision of what do we stand for, right,
Speaker 1: How are we fighting for abortion access, how are we
Speaker 1: codifying row V we are we doing on gun violence.
Speaker 1: There's some really great first steps this administration did, but
Speaker 1: clearly we have so much more to go. And so
Speaker 1: again we'll see in these final days and you're seeing
Speaker 1: in the debates as well. You know, I think Democrats
Speaker 1: have to do a little bit of a better job
Speaker 1: of pointing out what we are actually fighting for, um
Speaker 1: and not just you know, trying to explain away why
Speaker 1: the economy is not doing so well at the moment.
Speaker 1: So closing arguments, right, um, you know, when when this airs,
Speaker 1: we will have heard from the President uh giving his
Speaker 1: closing argument for for midterm elections. For you, Brad and
Speaker 1: you know, AAPI victory fund what would your closing argument?
Speaker 1: What is your closing argument for America? I mean, especially
Speaker 1: for a community that feels as if their voice doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: And I say this a lot, especially speaking to younger voters,
Speaker 1: where they feel like, well, our issues aren't prioritized and
Speaker 1: I don't feel like my vote, my vote matters. What
Speaker 1: I would say to you is that's what they want
Speaker 1: you to feel, right, those in power, particularly Republicans, they
Speaker 1: want you to feel like your vote doesn't matter, because
Speaker 1: that means, in large respects a lot of the status
Speaker 1: quo Republicans remain in power. And so you know, at
Speaker 1: this moment, especially when there's so many election deniers, and
Speaker 1: I know that this is something that's we're still kind
Speaker 1: of wrapping our heads around. And it's almost been almost normalized.
Speaker 1: It's almost normalized that almost half of Republicans still believe
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump won the election. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's it's crazy. We have to vote. And I know
Speaker 1: sometimes when you say that, you're like, oh, voting it
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter. There's no difference between these parties. I
Speaker 1: will guarantee you there is. There is one hundred percent
Speaker 1: a difference between these parties and there's one hundred percent
Speaker 1: of difference, especially at the local level, of who's going
Speaker 1: to be fighting for communities of color and who's not.
Speaker 1: And so for any not just Asian Americans, but for
Speaker 1: anyone listening to this. You know, if you're feeling a
Speaker 1: little disillusion if you're not that excited about your candidate,
Speaker 1: or maybe even not that excited about Joe Biden or
Speaker 1: Kama Harris or remember, that's fine. But do know that
Speaker 1: this idea of democracy, this idea that we should have
Speaker 1: to say and that we should have free and fair elections,
Speaker 1: that's at stake this election cycle because Republicans believe that
Speaker 1: they can run on lies. They believe that they can
Speaker 1: literally trick the American public into believing things that just
Speaker 1: aren't true. And so if you are pro facts and
Speaker 1: pro truth, please find other friends of yours who are
Speaker 1: may be like, oh, I don't know that my vote
Speaker 1: is important. It is, Every single one of our votes
Speaker 1: are important. The last thing I'll say is every election cycle,
Speaker 1: all of this money is spent trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: get you to vote Republican or Democrat. And the largest
Speaker 1: subset if you look at a pie chart of the
Speaker 1: voting electorate are people that don't vote, right eligible non voters,
Speaker 1: that is the biggest majority of voters. If those people voting,
Speaker 1: everything can change because a lot of those people that
Speaker 1: are not voting are people that look like you and
Speaker 1: I you know, people that are that are younger, people
Speaker 1: that are people of colors that just don't believe that
Speaker 1: their voice matters. And so the other thing I say
Speaker 1: too is, you know, if you're not into the red
Speaker 1: team or blue team, that's fine, but you have to
Speaker 1: be for your team, you have to be for your family.
Speaker 1: And when you're not voting, you're letting other people make
Speaker 1: decisions for you. And so, you know, I hope the
Speaker 1: president makes that case. It sounds like you're right. It
Speaker 1: sounds like he's gonna be making that case that this
Speaker 1: is bigger than Republicans and Democrats. This is really about
Speaker 1: what kind of a country do we want to live in.
Speaker 1: And so you've got we've got what six days left
Speaker 1: we vote, Get out there and get out there and
Speaker 1: like make honestly get out there and make your voice,
Speaker 1: make your voice heard. Brad Jenkins, President and CEO of
Speaker 1: AAPI Victory Fun, thank you so much for joining w
Speaker 1: F and thank you for the work that you're doing,
Speaker 1: and I hope that you will join us again post
Speaker 1: midterms and we will see where we are and what
Speaker 1: the strategies we need to move forward in order to
Speaker 1: create the country we all want to live in. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you. That is it for me today, Dear friends.
Speaker 1: Woke app as always, Power to the people and to
Speaker 1: all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.
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