Filipinos in the coming US midterm elections

THE world is closely watching the midterm elections in the United States (US) three weeks from today, largely to see how the new administration of President Donald Trump fares in the face of so many issues against it.

Filipinos are well aware of these issues linked to many of President Trump’s policies that have alienated many governments around the world, including some in Western Europe, as well as in Asia, notably China, with which the US has launched a trade war.

But apart from these issues, Filipinos have a special interest in the coming US elections for all 435 seats of the House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 Senate seats, and governors of all 50 states. A Filipino-American is expected to run for governor of Utah. A mayor is seeking reelection in Ohio, and a congressman is seeking reelection in Virginia. Three women are running for Congress in Texas, California, and Florida.

We had long believed that there are some two million Filipino-Americans in the US today, blending so well into their respective communities, and seen as part of the growing Asian-American group in the total American population, along with European whites and Latin Americans.

The US Census Bureau has now released its latest American Community Survey results — there are today four million Filipino-Americans living and working in the US. There are also many undocumented Filipinos — the TNT (for tago-ngtago), just as there are so many undocumented illegal immigrants from Central and South America.

But it is the 4 million Filipino Americans who are expected to make their presence felt not only in American community life, but also in its political and economic life as a fast-growing segment of the American population. We will thus be watching closely how the Fil-Americans who have dared to join American politics fare in the coming elections.

Fil-Americans have blended well in American society. But they somehow retain their Filipino values – notably their key role of the family and their faith – and they maintain their ties to their family hometowns and many hope to return someday.

There are millions of other Filipinos now working in countless other countries — in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, in India, Japan, and other Asian nations, in all the European countries — but it is the US that has the biggest expatriate group of Filipinos today.

We wish them well as they join other Americans in the coming mid-term elections on November 6, 2018.