AAPI government representation must be a priority for Florida

I was reflecting on the month of May when we celebrated Asian Pacific Islanders Heritage. We recognized the progress we have made and how much work remains to be accomplished, but we still wonder why the issues facing the Asian American Pacific Islanders community are not being addressed.

Let’s start with AAPI statistics, share the issues, and then offer a solution to fix the status quo.

AAPI population is about 25.6 million in the United States, about 7% of the total population.

We are a fast-growing, affluent, well-educated and technologically savvy demographic with a buying power of over $1.3 trillion. And yet, AAPI representation in the federal government is less than 1%.

A recent AAPI survey shows that 50% of registered AAPI voters were not contacted by either of the major parties. This means we are not only underrepresented but also ignored. As a result, historically the AAPI community has been the least likely to vote of any group in America. For example, in the 2022 midterms, in Orange County, 58 out of 100 AAPI registered voters stayed home. We “wasted” about 22,000 votes.

The AAPI community is especially affected by many of the issues facing the nation, including hate crimes, gun control, reproductive rights, immigration, health care, education, the economy, environment and democracy itself. Then there are the local issues, such as high home insurance rates, high rents and affordable housing. Most of these issues have been around for years. So the question is, why aren’t these issues being fixed?

Are we keeping our policymakers accountable? Let’s take hate crime and gun control as an example.

In July of 1984 in San Diego, someone went into a McDonald’s and shot 20 people point-blank. That was 39 years ago. It is now 2023 and If anything, the problem has gotten worse. In 2014 there were 273 mass shootings; In 2022 there were 647. As of May 9, this year there were 203. This is not something new. This issue has been around for years, and we still don’t have solutions to comprehensively address this problem. Even when over 80% of Americans would prefer commonsense gun control, the policymakers cannot pass legislation.

This is exacerbated by the fact that 95% of incumbents get reelected, nearly a third of them unopposed. This shows that most of the legislators who have failed to fix the problem in the past are still in office. There is no accountability!

So how do we hold the lawmakers accountable? All of us must go out and vote in droves. If we want our issues to be resolved, we must elect candidates whose policies are consistent with what we care about. We all must know what each candidate stands for, what has been his or her voting record.

The good news is that in the 2020 presidential election, the AAPI turnout in Orange County was 71%. Plus, there are burning issues such as reproductive rights, crime/gun violence and immigration where Americans are just fed up with the non-action. With a block of over 60,000 votes, AAPI population can make a huge difference in the 2024 election cycle.

The hardest part of democracy is not about elected officials, it’s about us — the voters. Let’s all get involved, let’s participate in the process, most importantly let’s all vote and by doing that let’s hold elected officials to account and make change happen.

A recent AAPI survey shows that 50% of registered AAPI voters were not contacted by either of the major parties. This means we are not only underrepresented but also ignored. As a result, historically the AAPI community has been the least likely to vote of any group in America.