AAPI political infrastructure and data driven strategy delivers results against all odds

WASHINGTON - On Wednesday, the run-off races for the two Georgia U.S. Senate seats were called with clear wins for Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. The races were won heavily due to the targeted mobilization of communities of color, who are too often hurt by voter disenfranchisement and suppression laws and actions. The wins in Georgia solidify the need to invest in Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), particularly better data and outreach for first time voters. 

The AAPI Victory Fund is proud to have been a part of this effort, building coalitions and partnering with several grassroots organizations across the state including AAPIs for Biden, They See Blue, Asian American Advocacy Fund, SAAVETX, South Asians for Biden and IMPACT and many more to get out the vote through virtual events, voter education programs and voter registration. 

“The AAPI Victory Fund’s investment in data in Georgia was incredibly successful,” said Varun Nikore, president of the AAPI Victory Fund. “While we’ve seen similar successes in Virginia and Nevada when we built out a winning strategy to be duplicated, Georgia in particular opens up new doors for a region that was previously seen as inaccessible.”

“Our data-first strategy and analytical approach had a huge payoff and there must be continued investment of millions of more dollars nationally for infrastructure built to get out the vote for AAPIs. Voters of color are the true silent majority in our country, and we will no longer be silenced or left behind.”

Notably, the AAPI Victory Fund focused its efforts in rural Georgia where volunteers assessed and organized Georgia’s voter files to better evaluate AAPI ethnicity data to correctly target voters. 

“Our analysis showed that over 165,000 voters in the voter file were mis-coded under another ethnicity. By fixing this error alone, it greatly expanded our known universe and allowed for better targeting of a largely Democratic-leaning electorate. Warnock won by approximately 81,000 and Ossoff won by 43,000 votes. The momentum and lessons learned from Georgia is only the beginning. We look forward to solidifying our victories in the states we’ve won and flipping more heavily AAPI states from red to blue.”

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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.