Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to OK Daily with Meet
Speaker 1: your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: you know, as we take this long march, the ten
Speaker 1: months it is going to take to get to election day,
Speaker 1: there is so much, so much that is going to happen.
Speaker 1: There is so much that is going to test our faith,
Speaker 1: to test our perseverance, to test our sanity. And I
Speaker 1: cannot express enough how important it is going to be
Speaker 1: to take care of yourself on a daily basis, to
Speaker 1: whatever that looks like right, to take care of those
Speaker 1: around you, to check in with people. How are you feeling,
Speaker 1: How is your heart? How is your energy?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Not just the how are you? Oh, I'm fine, and
Speaker 1: keep moving on, because to be honest, folks, none of
Speaker 1: us are fucking fine. All of us are dealing and
Speaker 1: reeling from a lot. That's why rest is important, but
Speaker 1: continued conversation is really important. And that's why today I'm
Speaker 1: really excited and happy to welcome back to wokf Veronicor,
Speaker 1: who is the executive director of the AAPI Victory Alliance.
Speaker 1: Why I'm excited to welcome him back is because we
Speaker 1: get into a conversation of course, about the AAPI community
Speaker 1: and where he believes the most important issue to lie
Speaker 1: and how they have changed over the course of the
Speaker 1: last election, but also why this younger demographic in terms
Speaker 1: of how it is, you know, measured against the black community,
Speaker 1: the LATINX community and others. How twenty twenty was really
Speaker 1: the first time that this community, this very diverse, big
Speaker 1: community of twenty four million people showed up for the
Speaker 1: first time, and will they show up again in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four and if so, for who, and if so
Speaker 1: why so Varun and I get into a deep conversation
Speaker 1: about what the stakes are, what his fears are, because
Speaker 1: let us not forget what the Trump administry and Donald
Speaker 1: Trump said and did during the beginning of COVID while
Speaker 1: trying to pinpoint what would be a global pandemic on
Speaker 1: one demographic, and how the violence against that community escalated
Speaker 1: to numbers that they had not seen. And so what
Speaker 1: happens to the AAPI community if another Trump administration were
Speaker 1: to happen. So while we plan right for while we
Speaker 1: expect the best, we plan for the worst. So Veron
Speaker 1: and I get into a really honest conversation about how
Speaker 1: his organization is planning and how AAPI Victory Aligned is
Speaker 1: talking about the existential threat that MAGA supremacy poses to
Speaker 1: the AAPI community and the country at large. Folks, I
Speaker 1: am very happy and excited to welcome back in this
Speaker 1: new year, Executive Director of AAPI Victory Alliance, Varun nekur
Speaker 1: to wokf and Varun, I want to start out with
Speaker 1: you know, it was funny I was looking through your
Speaker 1: statement for twenty twenty three as you close out the year,
Speaker 1: and it said, you know, off years are supposed to
Speaker 1: be like quiet years, like we're just supposed to you know,
Speaker 1: be able to breathe through them, and it just be
Speaker 1: in preparation for the next election cycle. And that is
Speaker 1: not at all what twenty twenty three, or frankly any
Speaker 1: of the years have felt like as of late. And
Speaker 1: so I wanted to give you an opportunity to tell us,
Speaker 1: you know, how you felt, you know, as you had time,
Speaker 1: you know, in a course of reflection of the last
Speaker 1: year of closing down twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you and great to be with you Danielle again,
Speaker 2: and a pleasure to speak to you and your your
Speaker 2: fantastic audience. It was a year of consternation, right, I mean,
Speaker 2: there was so many cross curnts happening, not only in
Speaker 2: the United States, but geopolitically, right, I mean, right, we
Speaker 2: hit the anniversary of the Ukraine War, we had another
Speaker 2: unfortunate milestone in the attacks in Israel and the resulting
Speaker 2: war in Gaza, and it's pervading, I think in our
Speaker 2: domestic politics today. Certainly, I think that's a concern of
Speaker 2: a lot out of a lot of people, but primarily
Speaker 2: a lot of younger people that we rely on as
Speaker 2: our core base on the left. And then, of course,
Speaker 2: you know, I think too looking at how the Republicans
Speaker 2: are getting prepped for their primary in a matter of
Speaker 2: one week, the Iowa caucuses, and then shortly thereafter the
Speaker 2: other successive you know, primaries and caucuses. So we're kind
Speaker 2: of getting a glimpse, if you will, of what's ahead.
Speaker 2: And I think as we looked at twenty twenty three, right,
Speaker 2: which you know, as you mentioned, was supposed to be
Speaker 2: the down year. It was supposed to be the year
Speaker 2: that you could perhaps take a little bit of a
Speaker 2: breather because you knew twenty four was going to be
Speaker 2: busy the presidential year. It really wasn't because we you know,
Speaker 2: at least organizers like me, executive directors who run organizations
Speaker 2: like my like mine. You know, we all know what's
Speaker 2: really ahead, and we felt I think, you know, I
Speaker 2: don't want to speak for everyone, but I feel like
Speaker 2: we were all very much in preparation mode, knowing that
Speaker 2: we know the boogeyman that Donald Trump is because we
Speaker 2: had four years of him, and we know we don't
Speaker 2: want to go back. And yet in some ways we
Speaker 2: feel like there's a lot of ground that we have
Speaker 2: to retread, right, we have to write. We didn't think
Speaker 2: we would have to necessarily motivate our own core base
Speaker 2: to the extent that we're looking at all the pulling
Speaker 2: and saying, oh my gosh, yeah, we haven't done a
Speaker 2: great job with black people. We haven't done it. You know,
Speaker 2: there's still a lot of work to do with with
Speaker 2: latinos Asians. You know, we're sort of the new kid
Speaker 2: on the block, if you will. In terms of the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty election, you know, it was sort of in
Speaker 2: some ways our coming out ceremony from the perspective of
Speaker 2: there was fifty percent of all the voters in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty in the API realm. We're first time voters, right,
Speaker 2: so we're looking at next year saying, wow, we we
Speaker 2: have a lot of work to do with our own days. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that doesn't even speak to you know, how most elections
Speaker 2: are decided, which are folks in the middle, the so
Speaker 2: called persuadable voters. That's not even talking about the persuadable voters, right,
Speaker 2: So we have to shore up our base, which means
Speaker 2: we have to do a better job speaking about how
Speaker 2: you know, there's a lot of negatives about the economy. Certainly,
Speaker 2: inflation is still too high, but we've seen it coming down.
Speaker 2: Gas prices are coming down. But I think we on
Speaker 2: the left haven't done a really great job in speaking
Speaker 2: about economic populism in a way that that's really gaining
Speaker 2: any traction with younger people and even the middle class
Speaker 2: folks that you know, live paycheck to page, people who
Speaker 2: now have to restart paying their student loans. We've done
Speaker 2: a good job, and I don't know why, I mean,
Speaker 2: why are we having these conversations every two years, every
Speaker 2: four years? Wow, you know, we really suck at this
Speaker 2: and we get to a better job. But we obviously
Speaker 2: do right because we're looking at the pony. We're looking
Speaker 2: at the data and it's all pointing in the same direction.
Speaker 2: So we have a lot of work to do before
Speaker 2: we even get into the main center of the fight,
Speaker 2: which is fighting for those you know, three to five
Speaker 2: percent of people in the middle. Just imagine we're going
Speaker 2: to spend about four billion dollars on this election to
Speaker 2: speak to that three to five percent in the middle. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so we got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 2: And I think we're we're a lot smarter than we
Speaker 2: were at this point in time four years ago, eight
Speaker 2: years ago. But I think at least this time we've
Speaker 2: got a lot more clarity about the fight ahead versus
Speaker 2: we were really shocked in surprise when we woke up
Speaker 2: on you know, election day eight years ago when Donald
Speaker 2: Trump got elected.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to talk for a minute about
Speaker 1: the stat that you mentioned with regard to fifty percent
Speaker 1: of the AAPI voters in twenty twenty were first time voters.
Speaker 1: And you know what prompted folks for the first time
Speaker 1: to decide to go into the voting boots. And do
Speaker 1: you suspect that there is still energy there for them
Speaker 1: to return four years later?
Speaker 2: That is the big question. I mean, you hit the
Speaker 2: nail on the head. And I think the only evidence
Speaker 2: that we have that perhaps there is a little bit
Speaker 2: more gas in the tank is the fact that we
Speaker 2: looked at all these elections in states prior to today, the
Speaker 2: Virginia election in most recently last year, where we were
Speaker 2: able to flip the state House in Virginia and so
Speaker 2: and then you looked at all the elections where abortion
Speaker 2: was on the ballot, and the anecdotal data from those
Speaker 2: elections in Ohio, in Kansas, all those other states point
Speaker 2: to continued enthusiasm at least on this issue. Right. But
Speaker 2: that being said, there's probably more that we still don't
Speaker 2: know about what drives the API community. And that's why
Speaker 2: at least you know, as we look forward in planning
Speaker 2: about next year. For next year, we I think we
Speaker 2: can point to some other issues like gun violence, which
Speaker 2: is now ticked up the ranks in terms of priority
Speaker 2: for not only our community, but others that I think
Speaker 2: we have to speak to not only our community but
Speaker 2: all communities that this is not necessarily going to be
Speaker 2: a single issue election, right that if we had a
Speaker 2: little bit of tactical diversity in how we campaign next year,
Speaker 2: that perhaps we can achieve gains that not only get
Speaker 2: us certain levels of win at the top of the ballot,
Speaker 2: but where we really need them to have a strong democracy,
Speaker 2: and that's in the bottom of the ballot, right. That's
Speaker 2: why state ledge races, city council races, court circuit court races.
Speaker 2: These are all like the bedrock of our society, in
Speaker 2: our democracy, and we can't let our foot off the
Speaker 2: gas there more than anywhere. And that's unfortunately the areas
Speaker 2: of our electoral politics that get the least amount of
Speaker 2: attention until it's late in the process, they get the
Speaker 2: least amount of money. They're not as sexy because it's
Speaker 2: not for Congress, it's not for Senate, it's not for
Speaker 2: the presidency. And so one of the things that we
Speaker 2: looked at as we were doing all this planning and
Speaker 2: preparing in twenty twenty three was how do we develop
Speaker 2: a strategy such that if we were to lose at
Speaker 2: the top, if we were to lose the Senate, if
Speaker 2: we were to lose the White House at the very least,
Speaker 2: where could we get some gains that could be our
Speaker 2: insurance policy, and that is in the states. So we
Speaker 2: looked at states that where perhaps we can flip a
Speaker 2: state Senate or a state you know, house to delegates.
Speaker 2: Arizona is a great case where if we you know,
Speaker 2: we're close, we're in a deficit, but we're close to
Speaker 2: perhaps knocking off some incumbents that could turn the tide
Speaker 2: for us, and that could preserve Arizona as a state
Speaker 2: that you know, you know has for example, reproductive freedoms
Speaker 2: you know, cemented in their state constitution. Right. So we
Speaker 2: looked at all those states when we were developing our
Speaker 2: campaign plan, and it's really more bottom up focused than
Speaker 2: it is top down. We'll have plenty of time to
Speaker 2: talk about Joe Biden, We'll have plenty of time to
Speaker 2: talk about federal races. They're not going to starve if
Speaker 2: we don't help them directly today. But where we need
Speaker 2: the most attention is on those lower rungs of the
Speaker 2: ladder because there's not as much attention paid. They're not
Speaker 2: household names people can't name, oftentimes as their local state center. Right.
Speaker 2: So that's really what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1: You know, I wonder too, because you had brought up
Speaker 1: the wins that we had seen, particularly around those states
Speaker 1: that put up amendments around abortion right that abortion, you know,
Speaker 1: outside of what Democrats have believed for decades, is actually
Speaker 1: a very key issue for more than half of the
Speaker 1: popular And I wonder how you find, as you're listing
Speaker 1: out the priorities in gun violence having ticked back up,
Speaker 1: where you see the AAPI community as it relates to abortion.
Speaker 1: And just recently, you know, you have Missouri Republicans coming
Speaker 1: out and proposing legislation that will most likely pass to
Speaker 1: have the death penalty for as an option for women
Speaker 1: who who go and get reproductive care who have an
Speaker 1: abortion outside of you know, outside of their of their
Speaker 1: state lines. And so I wonder how that issue plays
Speaker 1: and where it is in your list of priorities.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're we're we're not a reproductive rights organization
Speaker 2: because we we want you know, women led organizations and
Speaker 2: organizations that have this on the front burners. So we
Speaker 2: often follow their lead and take their their advice in
Speaker 2: terms of how to message. But that being said, we
Speaker 2: still have to independently kind of track the nature of
Speaker 2: this issue given its huge salience since the Dobbs decision.
Speaker 2: And we know two things. One, we know it's a
Speaker 2: turnout issue, but we need a lot more research into
Speaker 2: the sub demographics within the AAPI community that make up
Speaker 2: this large you know, Frankenstein of a term AAPI, Right,
Speaker 2: we didn't invent it, right, it was some white guy
Speaker 2: in the census. I asked, who probably came up with
Speaker 2: this term? This term. But once again, when the term
Speaker 2: was made up in the seventies, there was only one
Speaker 2: million AAPIs. And now we're twenty four million. We are
Speaker 2: the fastest growing you know stats I think a lot
Speaker 2: of your listeners already know of. And so that being said,
Speaker 2: there are like, for example, to kind of get into
Speaker 2: a little bit more nuanced but also to bring home
Speaker 2: the point that we're not this monolith, which is, we
Speaker 2: need to know how a sixty year old, for example,
Speaker 2: first generation Filipino American immigrant feels about abortion because we
Speaker 2: know that the Filipino community is very highly religious and
Speaker 2: highly Catholic, right, and so but we need to know
Speaker 2: what messages perhaps we could persuade that that person versus
Speaker 2: a twenty four year old second generation Korean American male.
Speaker 2: Let's say, right, and you think about it. We you know,
Speaker 2: we've got six plus major ethnicities that make up the
Speaker 2: API community. They make up about eighty five percent of
Speaker 2: all the APIs in this country, right, And so when
Speaker 2: we're trying to do our type of campaign politics, it's
Speaker 2: not one size fits all. It is essentially we need
Speaker 2: to know how each of these demographics think. But also
Speaker 2: given the fact that you know, roughly thirty percent or more,
Speaker 2: forgetting the figure I apologize, I think it's sixty percent
Speaker 2: or more of APIs, our first generation immigrants. The immigrant mindset,
Speaker 2: the immigrant sort of you know, attitude is different than
Speaker 2: a person who's been here for generations, who may not
Speaker 2: even know their ancestral history. And it's because because of
Speaker 2: that specific dynamic that I think is largely unique to
Speaker 2: APIs and also to Latinos to a degree that we
Speaker 2: need to know the mindset of you know, each generation
Speaker 2: in our community. And once we do, we'll have a
Speaker 2: much better idea on how to test and message to
Speaker 2: each levels of those demographics. But you know, no other
Speaker 2: demographic really has to go through the level of detail,
Speaker 2: through the level of nuance that we do because of
Speaker 2: this Frankenstein term, if you will, right, and because we
Speaker 2: would be doing our own people a disservice trying to say, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, there's one API message and it is this
Speaker 2: and it will work on everybody. And I think unfortunately
Speaker 2: a lot of campaigns who don't have the time or
Speaker 2: the intellectual, you know, curiosity, that they just want to
Speaker 2: appeal with one message because you know, and I think
Speaker 2: to their detriment in the end. Given that a lot
Speaker 2: of districts that are battleground districts in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia,
Speaker 2: North Carolina, a lot of places that are going to
Speaker 2: be the current and the future battlegrounds in the United
Speaker 2: States of America. I can't forget our friends in Texas
Speaker 2: too that, you know, unless we get to that level
Speaker 2: of nuance, we're going to be missing out on tens
Speaker 2: of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands of votes.
Speaker 2: And that's where all this where these elections local, state,
Speaker 2: federal are going to be decided.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, vern because it's something that
Speaker 1: you know that I am kind of battling with as
Speaker 1: I delve into conversations with folks in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: which is that while we you know, various organizations and
Speaker 1: movements make plans to win, right, I think that the
Speaker 1: stakes of losing in twenty twenty four are the highest
Speaker 1: that they have ever been, And I wonder, you know,
Speaker 1: while I do believe and wholeheartedly agree with you, you
Speaker 1: have plenty of time to focus on the top of
Speaker 1: the ticket. I think it's much more important to do
Speaker 1: the ground game in local and state and city elections.
Speaker 1: What do you find will be the recourse if Republicans
Speaker 1: who we know are racist, these you know, Christian nationalism
Speaker 1: that this takes hold. What does the recourse look like
Speaker 1: for a community that was made a target right during
Speaker 1: COVID by the president, former president of the United States,
Speaker 1: by an entire party. What is that? What is you know?
Speaker 1: I'm just curious as to the fear level and threat
Speaker 1: level that you that you foresee.
Speaker 2: I mean, it is what we all experience collectively as
Speaker 2: a nation between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty on steroids. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, I was listening to twenty year prior podcasts.
Speaker 2: You had mentioned that, and common knowledge in the news
Speaker 2: was that Trump admitted that on day one he will
Speaker 2: be a dictator for only one day apparently, but we
Speaker 2: know his track record, and so what does he planned
Speaker 2: on doing? I think it was the week prior days
Speaker 2: prior week prior to the October seventh attack in Israel,
Speaker 2: Donald Trump said that he was going to enact another
Speaker 2: Muslim ban. This was even before what had happened. So
Speaker 2: now he has further fodder that he's going to use
Speaker 2: to terrorize the people of color of our country. He's
Speaker 2: going to terrorize the LGBTQ community, he's going to terrorize
Speaker 2: poor people. He's going to terrorize anybody that is not
Speaker 2: of you know, Anglo heritage and of Christian faith. We
Speaker 2: know that, and it's going to be worse because they've
Speaker 2: already started collecting binders of people that you know, have
Speaker 2: drunk the kool aid, but have you know, have not
Speaker 2: left him, right, A lot of his former cabinet, a
Speaker 2: lot of his former political appointees have left him. A
Speaker 2: lot of his supporters have left him. So that's why
Speaker 2: they're developing these binders full of people that are as bad,
Speaker 2: if not worse. There was somewhat of a you know,
Speaker 2: to a degree like some folks in his last administration
Speaker 2: that we're trying to temper his craziness. Yeah right, and
Speaker 2: we're not going there anymore. They've already let those quotes out.
Speaker 2: And you think it's bad enough where you've had some
Speaker 2: tempering authority in the last administration. Without those restraints in
Speaker 2: another administration, we are all doomed. Yeah, And and it
Speaker 2: almost seems hyperbolic to say, yes, this is the most
Speaker 2: important election of our lifetime. But I mean, I hope
Speaker 2: it's obvious that given you his words, which we have
Speaker 2: only heard part of because we're in maybe not tuning
Speaker 2: into Truth Social and Fox News on a daily basis,
Speaker 2: but it's all there for you know, folks to see.
Speaker 2: But once the nomination becomes secure, once we start ticking
Speaker 2: down these caucuses and primaries on the Republican side, it's
Speaker 2: going to become much more mainstream and we're going to
Speaker 2: hear about it on a daily basis. And maybe we
Speaker 2: just needed to break from all this batshit crazy stuff. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I certainly did. I mean, how much can.
Speaker 1: Person can you take? Yeah, But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day.
Speaker 2: Right, well, you know, whether you want to hear it
Speaker 2: or not, you're going to see it on Business and News.
Speaker 2: You're going to see it on you know, even the
Speaker 2: most you know, uh uh, it might be on like
Speaker 2: if you're watching you know, the outdoor channel, it's going
Speaker 2: to be on the outdoor channel. It's going to be
Speaker 2: on every channel known to man because we won't be
Speaker 2: able to escape it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, with the minute that we have left,
Speaker 1: please tell people how they can get involved with AAPI
Speaker 1: Victory Alliance, you know, how keep up with what is
Speaker 1: going on and how they support.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for the opportunity. You can visit
Speaker 2: API Victory Alliance dot com, sign up for our newsletter.
Speaker 2: We're very easy to find on social through the same channels,
Speaker 2: and I would say, at the very least sign up
Speaker 2: for our newsletters because I think what we're really focused
Speaker 2: on this year is getting out ways that if you
Speaker 2: are even inkling to spend five minutes a day, five
Speaker 2: minutes a week to do a text bank, to do
Speaker 2: a phone bank, to donate money, whatever you're able to do,
Speaker 2: you know it's going to be full steam ahead. We're
Speaker 2: going to need everybody in this election to really kind
Speaker 2: of fight back. And I hope that your listeners come
Speaker 2: and visit because or do something, you know, whether it's
Speaker 2: API or not, because we are really are going to
Speaker 2: see armageddon this time around. It's going to be worse.
Speaker 2: We won't have the I think certain tools in our
Speaker 2: tool belt that we had last time around, and so
Speaker 2: we're going to get everybody to fight, state, local, national,
Speaker 2: It's it's it's really gonna I can't say this enough.
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm saying the sky is falling, because
Speaker 2: from my vantage point, it really is. It looks like
Speaker 2: Donald Trump has secured the nomination. It's locked in, and
Speaker 2: now we have to get ready for what's next.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent Varunicour, thank you so much for making
Speaker 1: the time to join wok F really appreciate you, and
Speaker 1: we'll check in with you as the calendar ticks down.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today, dear friends on wok app.
Speaker 1: As always, power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.