Author: SAM METZ
Associated Press/U.S. Report
Carson City, Nevada (Associated Press)-From Hamtrak, Michigan, to Las Vegas, Nevada, activists are pushing states to ensure that the growing community of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is once in a decade The government can be represented equally in the process of re-division of constituencies.
Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the United States and now account for more than 10% of the population of Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Washington, and Nevada.
The demographic group—albeit politically, linguistically, and economically diverse—has become a powerful voting bloc in these states and elsewhere. Although the Republican Party has made progress in 2020, since 2000, most Asian American and Pacific Islander voters have supported the Democratic presidential candidate. In Nevada, they were a key district that candidates fought for in the last presidential primary.
Activists and scholars say that in the past two years, anti-Asian discrimination and violence triggered by the pandemic have politically participated and united the community.
Historically, the size or degree of unity of the Asian American community has not been enough to challenge the political map in court. However, the data showing the political cohesion between different subsets of population groups amplified the call to see it as a rezoning interest community.
Eric Jeng of the Nevada Asian Community Development Council said: “If we all see ourselves as our own race, then the number of people who negotiate, build power, or become the center is not important enough.” “Our community has a sense of immigration, health care, and education. Common concern. When anti-Asian hatred rose, they didn’t ask where you came from. People who looked like Asians were attacked.”
According to census data, more than 400,000 residents of Nevada are Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, or Native Hawaiians. Most people live in the Las Vegas area and are of Filipino, Chinese, Japanese or Vietnamese descent.
In the past ten years, the population has increased by 47.3%-more than three times the total population-mainly in areas such as Spring Valley and southwest Las Vegas.
But this growth also reflects the competing interests that emerged during the re-division of Congress and state legislative districts.
When the Democratic-controlled legislature of Nevada meets to re-division of electoral districts, it will inevitably face the question of whether to give priority to delimiting compact districts, protecting incumbents, or delimiting Asian American majority districts.
At least four Nevada lawmakers have identified as Asian Americans, but no one represents the most populous area of southwest Las Vegas.
At the conference, Speaker Jason Frierson, Assistant Majority Whip Sandra Jauregui, and Speaker Temporary Speaker Steve Yeager represented neighboring regions, which are 28% to 30% Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, or Pacific Islanders.
In the state Senate, the neighboring districts of Democrats Dallas Harris and Melanie Sheable have 31% and 27% of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, respectively.
Groups such as the Asian Community Development Council and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada hope that the Democratic-controlled legislature will attract AAPI-majority areas to encourage political participation and ensure that the population’s voting rights are not diluted or divided.
Zheng said that non-Asian politicians who represent a large number of Asian-American constituencies usually receive broad support and support issues that are vital to the community, but he hopes that the selection method of the constituency will ensure that Asian-American candidates will not Was prevented from participating in the election.
“When people who look like them represent them, the community is more involved. When they can’t see people who represent them like them, they won’t really participate,” Zheng said, noting Michelle Wu And Aftab Pureval won the mayoral elections in Boston and Cincinnati on November 2.
Janelle Huang, a professor at the University of Maryland, said that the communities belonging to “AAPI” (representing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) are diverse, but survey data show that this group is relatively united on certain political issues.
“There is too much discussion about the diversity of Asian Americans,” said Wong, who is also co-director of AAPI Data. “But one of the most critical and shocking characteristics of the Asian American community is that despite the tremendous diversity, there is actually a significant consensus on specific issues.”
Asian American Republicans are more likely than other Republicans to support the Affordable Care Act, and within different income ranges, they are also likely to support tax increases for the rich. Those with an annual income of more than $250,000 are almost as likely to support the Affordable Care Act. People who are low are just as supportive, Wang said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada is lobbying lawmakers to elect at least one district where the majority of residents are Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders to ensure that the voting rights of the growing group are not diluted.
“We are concerned that if the legislature is to advance a map that is relatively the same as today, this will result in the dilution of the voting power of the growing AAPI community in Nevada, which has been and will continue to be severely underrepresented statewide,” Athar The organization’s executive director Hasibra told lawmakers at a committee hearing in October.
