MILWAUKEE — The largest national organization focused on increasing voter participation and civic engagement in the Asian and Pacific Islander American community will focus its efforts on the Hmong community in Wisconsin for the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
APIAVote is a bipartisan organization that hosted a briefing at the Republican National Convention Monday. They plan to go to the Democratic National Convention next month as they continue to work with nonprofits in over 29 states, providing them with resources so they can educate and register voters.
With over 58,000 Hmong people living in Wisconsin, APIAVotes is working with nonprofit Freedom Inc. and other local organizations to send mail, phone bank and follow up as much as possible with all identified Asian American voters, according to Executive Director Christine Chen.
In their survey of roughly 3,000 Asian American voters, APIAVote found 90% of respondents plan to vote in the upcoming election. Combined with the Asian American population having grown by double digits in 49 out of 50 states since 2022, Chen said high voter participation shows the importance of the Asian American vote in battleground states.
The organization hopes to replicate their voter mobilization efforts in Minnesota, the state with the second highest Hmong population, where nine of 10 APIA legislators are Hmong.
“Our community is not only growing in size, but we can make a huge impact in a number of battleground states,” Chen said. “A number of folks were not even thinking about our community [in these areas] 10 or 20 years ago.”
In many swing states, including Wisconsin, the Asian American population is greater than the state’s margin of victory in the 2020 election. Additionally, around a fifth of Asian American voters are still undecided, with 46% planning to vote for President Joe Biden and 31% for former President Donald Trump.
It’s up to the parties and the policies they emphasize in the next few months to turn independents one way or the other, Chen said. The top three issues for Asian American voters, according to the survey, are the economy, health care and inflation.
Mary Bosch is the photo editor for The Daily Cardinal and a first year journalism student. She has covered multiple stories about university sustainability efforts, and has written for state and city news. Follow her on twitter: @Mary_Bosch6
