AAPI Victory Fund early engagement strategy pays dividends as community overperforms expectations

WASHINGTON—With eight days left before the 2020 general election, AAPIs have returned more early voting ballots in Texas than the total AAPI votes in the 2016 general election. In 2016, approximately 338,000 ballots were cast by AAPI voters, an increase of approximately 124,000 as compared to the 2012 election. Today, statewide there are approximately 795,600 eligible AAPI voters representing 5.5% of the electorate.

Texas is key to delivering victory for Democrats in both chambers of Congress and the presidency. In addition to winning federal races, winning the state legislature will have a lasting impact on communities and 2020 redistricting. This is even more critical, as Texas is projected to gain potentially three U.S. House seats after the 2020 Census. AAPI candidates represent half of the DCCC Red to Blue candidates in Texas and AAPI communities are a key vote in Texas. 

“AAPI voters in Texas and nationwide are engaged more than ever with early voting to ensure their voice is heard in restoring our democracy,” said Varun Nikore, president of AAPI Victory Fund. “Our ‘All In’ Texas strategy that we launched in August is showing immediate results. While most campaigns are doing a better job recognizing the importance of AAPI votes in their electoral equation, many gaps exist.  The vital work of the AAPI Victory Fund fills in those gaps to ensure that all AAPI communities are effectively communicated to in culturally relevant and nuanced ways.  We succeeded in doing this in battleground states like North Carolina, Virginia and Nevada. We hope to add Texas to this list in a little over a week.”

Through the AAPI Victory Fund Texas Project and its partners They See Blue, PIVOT and Asian Americans against Trump, extensive outreach to the AAPI community can be seen in the ethnic press across the state, including on Viet TV, STV (Chinese TV),  Hum FM Radio (South Asian), Viet Radio and in the Indo American News, Thoi Bao, Southern Chinese Daily News and Dallas Chinese News to name a few. AAPI Victory Fund is also engaging AAPI voters targeted on digitally. 

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The AAPI Victory Fund is focused on mobilizing Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) eligible voters and moving them to the ballot box.