IMPACT IN GEORGIA

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In the Georgia Senate Run-off election, AAPN organizations and leaders convened to support the Georgia-based Asian American Advocacy Fund to mobilize Asian American voters and win two U.S. Senate seats. AAPN organizations loaned dozens of staff, recruited hundreds of volunteers, and provided important infrastructure support to the local organization. This contributed to the success of a campaign that completed 50,000 direct conversations, reached voters in 8 Asian languages, knocked on 100,000 doors, and secured the margin of victory. This once-in-a-lifetime election solidified the need for more collaboration and support from within our network. We will build on this momentum in 2022 through multi-state, large-scale outreach to reach hundreds of thousands of Asian American voters at the door, by phone, and in any other way necessary to win critical elections up and down the ballot.

 

Innovative Structure - National Network of State-Based Asian American Organizations: Prior to 2021, a formal network had not existed for Asian American organizations to develop shared political assessments of our communities, nor to hone best practices and tactics for Asian American voter engagement, nor implement political strategy to move Asian Americans broadly. While these organizations do receive support from various state tables, what we find is that those organizations are often the only Asian American group in their state.

 

This network compliments and augments work done in states. Our engagement strategy and approach ensures that as new organizations emerge or get built up, that we can maintain a political orientation that prioritizes racial, gender, and economic justice; is pro-worker; and rooted in the practice of multiracial solidarity.

 

This network has been formed in service to state-based Asian American organizations and movement ecosystems to:

• Scale grassroots Asian American electoral organizing

• Cultivate, convene, and develop progressive Asian American power across the country

• Build Asian American power nationally and across the states

• Identify strategies for investing in emerging states and regions which lack existing infrastructure

• Coordinate federal electoral and legislative activity

• Allocate and raise the necessary resources to execute our strategy

• House Asian American-specific research, analysis, and polling, including the voter data and tactical testing that is crucial to our members’ day-to-day work on the ground

• Develop and invest in leadership pathways and training programs for young and emerging Asian American political organizers and community leaders to build the next generation of Asian American Field Directors, Political Directors, Digital Directors, and more.

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