WASHINGTON D.C. — The AAPI Victory Fund, the only national political action committee devoted to mobilizing Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) voters and supporting AANHPI candidates for elected office, today endorsed Washington State Senator Manka Dhingra in her run for state attorney general. 

“State Senator Dhingra represents the common story that so many of us in the AAPI community share as an immigrant and barrier breaker,” said Shekar Narasimhan, chairman and founder of the AAPI Victory Fund. “She has taken her opportunities in life to fight for a more just world. I couldn’t think of anyone more worthy to support as the next attorney general of Washington State.”

Dhingra serves as the State Senate’s deputy majority leader and  brings two decades of experience as a prosecutor and behavioral health expert to her role as chair of the Senate Law & Justice Committee. When she was first elected to the Senate in 2017, Dhingra became the first Sikh state legislator elected in the nation.

"I am deeply honored to receive the endorsement of the AAPI Victory Fund. As an immigrant from India and a proud Sikh, my journey has been shaped by the values of hard work, resilience, and community,” said Manka Dhingra. “I am committed to bringing these values to the role of Attorney General, where I will fight for justice, equity, and the rights of all Washingtonians. If elected, I will be the first immigrant attorney general in the country and the first Asian American to hold this office in Washington State, and I am ready to make history together with all of you."

Dhingra builds on record numbers of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders who ran for office in both 2022 and 2023.

The AAPI electorate has largely been untapped. A survey from the summer of 2022 found more than half of AAPI voters have never been contacted by either political party – making AAPI Victory Fund’s work to engage these voters ever more critical.

Most recently, AAPI Victory Fund was behind a major independent expenditure program targeting AANHPI voters in New York’s 3rd Congressional District special election. The program targeted roughly 40,000 South Asian registered voters with focused messages deployed in four languages (English, Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic) and five modes of communication (multilingual direct mail, texting, live calls, robocalls, and in-language ads in prominent local cultural news outlets).

AAPI Victory Fund is planning further paid media campaigns in battleground states and key congressional and statewide races this fall to continue increasing AANHPI representation in elected offices and win elections for candidates that share our values.

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