Asian Americans and Latinos are the fastest growing populations in the U.S., with Latinos as the largest ethnic or racial minority group, and Asian Americans as the fastest growing electorate as seen in the last election. The 2020 election and subsequent elections at the state and local levels have seen a swing away from the Democratic Party by some Asian American and Latinx voters. Both groups have a large number of first generation immigrants, and while both have seen racial profiling and misinformation by Republicans, many are concerned that the Democrats are too left leaning.

A better understanding of these diverse communities and the issues related to their voting, or in many cases not voting at all, is needed. Some of these issues apply across all, but there are clear differences in the various sub-groups that need to be acknowledged and addressed if we are to move forward. 

Join the Democrats Abroad Global Asian American & Pacific Islander Caucus, Global Hispanic Caucus, and the California State Team as they hear from Rudy Espinoza Murray, President of the San Mateo County Latinx Dems and former chair of Redwood City’s Redistricting Commission, and Kathay Feng, National Redistricting Director of Common Cause, to discuss voting behavior among these communities. We will also discuss how we can prevent voter drift to the Republican party and how we ensure that these communities are heard.

Meet the Speakers

Rudy Espinoza Murray has held executive, board, and founding member positions in multiple organizations. He has a strong background in grassroots organizing - most recently co-founding a large coalition of progressive groups to support federal, state, and local races. Through strong partnerships, his field office was responsible for more than 10 million calls to voters in key states, including Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Iowa, and California during the 2020 election cycle. In 2021, following the 2020 Census, Rudy was appointed to serve on the San Mateo County Redistricting Commission, and was also appointed to serve on the Redwood City Redistricting Commission where his fellow commissioners voted him as chair.

During the day, Rudy works for a leading tech company as a Sr Product Marketing Manager. Rudy and his husband have a daughter, Avery Elena, and their cat, Leia.

Kathay Feng is Common Cause’s National Redistricting Director. Feng has led Common Cause’s work to challenge partisan and incumbent gerrymandering, through litigation, state-based organizing around ballot initiatives and legislation and creating new platforms for community-based redistricting. As Executive Director of California Common Cause, she championed and won election and redistricting reforms, stronger government sunshine and accountability laws, campaign finance reforms, stronger net neutrality laws, and the voting rights of traditionally disenfranchised communities. She also led efforts that secured passage of California laws bringing online voter registration and same day registration (called conditional voter registration) to the state.

Before joining Common Cause in 2005, she headed the Voting Rights and Anti-Discrimination Unit at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. She serves, or has served, on numerous boards including the California Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Voter Participation and Outreach, the LA County Human Relations Commission, and the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council. She is a graduate of Cornell University, and holds a law degree from UCLA School of Law.

Our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Caucus in Germany is excited to host a weekend retreat in Berlin from Friday, September 23rd until Sunday, September 25th. We will meet in person, socialize and share about our AAPI community issues as overseas Americans. 

You are encouraged to travel on Friday to meet for dinner and then spend all day Saturday and the morning/early afternoon on Sunday hanging out, visiting a cultural center or museum related to Asian heritage and also eating good Asian cuisine in Berlin!

You will need to cover all lodging, meals, and transportation costs. You are also welcome to join us for part of the events or for the entire weekend. 

We will update the itinerary for the retreat weekend closer to the event. Some ideas we have on our program are to visit interesting educational venues to learn and share, such as: 

• Contemporary Asian Art Platform 
• Museum for Asian Art 
• Korean Culture Center Art Exhibit 
• Thai Street Food Park 

Please RSVP to confirm your attendance. All are welcome. If you have any questions contact the AAPI Caucus team at [email protected]. We’re excited to see you in person at our retreat in September! 

The GWC Reproductive Justice Team is launching a project to promote voter registration under the theme Reproductive Justice for ALL.

As you certainly know, the rights of all women to choose when and if to start a family are being taken away with over 26 States prohibiting or restricting the right to abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy even in the cases of rape, incest and the mother’s and/or the  fetus’ health. Texas has empowered vigilantes to sue everyone and anyone aiding and abetting abortion once the fetal heartbeat can be heard (eg at approximately 6 weeks and before most women know they are pregnant).

We cannot allow this to continue particularly with Roe v Wade in peril and the Women’s Health Protection Act stuck in the Senate.

Our project is a video launch via YouTube. We are asking all DA members to make a short (60 sec) video explaining why the right to abortion is absolutely necessary. If you come from a State where it is practically impossible to obtain an abortion, you can speak about the discrimination against minority and poor women whose lives are in jeopardy and who cannot travel. If you come from “good States” such as MA, CA, NY for example, you can speak to the injustice of access depending upon where you live. Make sure you mention in the video VotefromAbroad.org for expat voter registration and vote.gov for non expat voter registration.

We believe that many of our voters will be motivated to register when we roll out the videos.

Here are a few subjects that you could choose for your video:

• If you live/vote in a country that has “good” reproductive freedom laws, you could refer to the country and the liberal law(s) and how lucky you are to be in that country and how unfair it is for American women LIVING IN THE US who can’t benefit from such laws

• If you live/vote in a US State that has good reproductive freedom laws, see above. And you can say that living in a “bad” State is  discriminatory since women in “good “US States have rights that you are denied.

• You can share a personal experience. You don’t have to use your name or even mention where you live. The videos will be anonymous unless you do give details.

• You can make a statement about women should have the right to control their bodies. Period. There is no justification for the government to decide when, how  or even if women should have children.

If you can’t think of anything to say but still want to make a video, feel free to contact Salli at [email protected]. She will set up a call and walk you through some ideas and we can help you make the video.

Here is a link on how to make a video:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O7wGPrZmmXocOuMI5zZutc1w62nHlQWZOat8Srq_bFQ/edit?usp=sharing

For more information, visit our blog space here:

https://www.democratsabroad.org/wc_reproductive_justice_action_team

All videos should be sent to Salli Swartz at [email protected]

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR EFFORTS TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN

Disclaimer: By submitting your video, you grant to Democrats Abroad a nonexclusive rights to use your video and your image only for the 2022 GWC Reproductive Justice Get Out the Vote video project. 

You therefore hereby waive all rights to any claims arising out of or in connection with Democrats Abroad GWC’s use of your video  and image in connection with the 2022 Reproductive Justice video project.

July News: Recharging for the Work Ahead

Posted by Powen Shiah · July 25, 2022 1:26 PM

June News: Continuing to Fight and Celebrating Pride Month

Posted by Powen Shiah · June 26, 2022 6:35 AM · 1 reaction

AAPI Mental Health Crisis

Posted by Susan Takao · June 26, 2022 6:27 AM · 1 reaction

On February 15, 2022 the Senate unanimously passed legislation authorizing the Amache National Historic Site in Colorado to become part of the National Park System "to preserve, protect, and interpret for the benefit of present and future generations resources associated with the incarceration of civilians of Japanese ancestry during World War II at Amache, also known as the Granada Relocation Center, and the military service of incarcerees from the Amache Center." Read the complete bill here.

Senator Michael Bennet, one of the co-sponsors of the bill in the Senate stated, "The incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II at sites like Amache is a shameful part of our country’s history. Our bill will preserve Amache’s story to ensure future generations can learn from this dark chapter in our history."

Late last year President Biden issued Executive Order 14031, authorizing the creation of the President’s Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. The Commission will advise the President on ways the public, private and non-profit sectors can work together to advance equity, justice, and opportunity for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, December 20, 2021). The 25 member Commission reflects the wide diversity and expertise within the AANHPI community. It is co-chaired by Health & Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. Former Congressional Asian Pacific Islander Caucus Executive Director Krystal Ka’ai will serve as Executive Director of the Commission.

Nov. 15th - 21st 2021 the Global Asian American & Pacific Islander Caucus (AAPI) and the Global Black Caucus (GBC) are teaming up to take over each other's social media accounts to raise awareness of mutual issues.

First thing we want people to know is that solidarity is there.