AAPI Victory Fund, Latino Victory Fund, and The Collective PAC Announce Historic Memorandum of Understanding To Increase Diverse Representation and Power in the Political and Policy Space

AAPI Victory Fund, Latino Victory Fund, and The Collective PAC to Pool Resources to Ensure that Candidates of Color Across the Country Get Campaign Support and Elected Officials Fight For Their Issues

WASHINGTON - Today, the AAPI Victory Fund, Latino Victory Fund, and The Collective PAC announced the signing of a historic Memorandum of Understanding to increase allyship between the three organizations and ensure that candidates of color, organizations, and elected officials across the country are getting the resources they need ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

The new Memorandum of Understanding covers two main areas: political and policy advocacy and ensuring that early and decisive investments are made to organizations and candidates that support candidates of color.

Specifically, the new MOU includes the following:

Political

• The AAPI Victory Fund, Latino Victory Fund, and The Collective PAC will work together to increase representation and power in the political realm.
  
• When feasible, the three organizations will work together on key strategic campaigns, raising money, directly supporting candidates, and organizing constituencies to support candidates from each of our demographic groups. 

• Foster improved research, data and polling by encouraging more robust ethnic and sub-ethnicity information in the voter file along with language and country of origin data.

• Promote the hiring, collaboration, and investment of people of color at progressive organizations and encourage consulting contracts to go to people of color. 

Policy Advocacy

• Voting rights - as the bedrock of American democracy, our electoral system is incumbent upon free and fair elections with equal and open access to the voting booth.  The three groups will work in concert to support candidates who look to protect the voting rights of all Americans. 

• Immigration Reform -  The basis of growth of the U.S. for centuries has relied on and encouraged immigration and a properly functioning system that allows for population inflows into the U.S. The AAPI Victory Fund, Latino Victory Fund, and The Collective PAC will work together to support candidates who will champion Immigration Reform and a pathway to citizenship.

• Foster increased representation in the political sphere -- from the Biden Administration to Congress to the Campaign Committees, all three organizations will advocate for more diversity in the decision-making ranks to ensure that in the rooms where leaders are making decisions, all of America is represented.  

AAPI Victory Fund Chair Shekar Narasimhan issued the following statement:

“The AAPI Victory Fund couldn’t be more honored to join in this historic Memorandum of Understanding with our partners, the Latino Victory Fund, and The Collective PAC, to increase our representation at all levels of government and in the political space. For too long, staffers and candidates from our communities have been invisible and do not get the tools and resources they need to succeed. We’ve been forced to fight to even be included in the electoral calculus and for resources for our organizations and candidates. That ends today. 

“Thanks to this historic announcement, we will stop fighting for the loose change and crumbs in American politics and declare our independence to fight solely for our communities. This is a game changer to increase representation and influence of our candidates, political staffers, and elected officials.”

Latino Victory Fund President & CEO Nathalie Rayes issued the following statement:

“Latino Victory Fund is thrilled to partner with AAPI Victory Fund and The Collective PAC to strengthen our political power and increase our influential communities’ representation at all government levels. Our communities have a history of collaborating to ensure that our voices are heard, and this historic partnership reinforces our commitment to continue our efforts to move forward in unity. For far too long, the Latino, Black, and AAPI communities have struggled to be heard in politics, and this MOU will provide a blueprint to a path forward with more resources, staff and cohesive strategy.

“This partnership comes at a time when disinformation and attacks on voting rights are threatening our communities’ right to have full, equal access to our democratic system. It is through efforts like this that our organizations can work in unison to dismantle barriers so that our communities will have equitable representation and political power.” 

The Collective PAC Founders Quentin James and Stefanie Brown James issued the following statement: 

“The Collective PAC is honored to join in this historic partnership with The AAPI Victory Fund and The Latino Victory Fund to increase Black, Latino, Asian-American and Pacific Islander representation at all levels of government. This MOU has created a foundation for three of the largest political action committees centralized on supporting, engaging and uplifting candidates and staffers of color to join forces in our impact and influence to create equitable representation at all levels of government. 

“For the past five years, The Collective PAC has been dedicated to increasing Black political engagement, representation, and power across all levels of government to create racial equity and inclusion. In formalizing our partnerships with these two great organizations, we are ensuring the closing of the representation gap of our respective communities at every level of government.”

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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.

The Latino Victory Fund is a progressive political action committee with the mission of growing Latino political power by increasing Latino representation at every level of government – from the school board to the Senate to the White House.

The Collective PAC is working to create an America where Black people are equally represented at every level of government. The Collective PAC is strategically focused on creating a truly equitable democracy where our nation’s local, state, and federal governments have diverse and talented elected leadership and Black people are fully represented in positions of power to create the policies necessary to progress our communities forward. Over the past five years, The Collective PAC has endorsed and supported 300 successful Black candidates across the United States.