Democrats are focusing on getting Asian Americans to turn out for the Georgia runoff elections next month after they helped boost President-elect Joe Biden to victory in November.
Some 30,000 Asian American voters in Georgia cast their first-ever ballot in November, which helped flip Georgia blue for the first time since 1992. TargetSmart, a Democratic firm, reported that exit polls had Asian American voters going for Biden by a 2-to-1 margin, and turnout among that demographic exceeded 2016 totals in almost every swing state except Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Neil Makhija, executive director of advocacy group and political action committee Indian American Impact Fund, said Asian American voters nearly doubled their turnout in Georgia from 2016.
“You can’t tell the suburban vote story without telling the Asian American vote story,” Makhija told Politico. “The Democratic Party couldn’t win the presidency or the Senate without Asian Americans.”
Mikhija’s group is investing $2.5 million into Georgia to try and recruit South Asian and other Asian Americans to vote for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on Jan. 5.
The money will go to mailers, digital ads on social media platforms, and operational resources to aid the Asian American Action Fund, a PAC that supports the election of liberal candidates and is mobilizing Asian American voters to cast their ballots for Democrats in the Georgia runoff elections.
Some of the attacks on the mailers involve President Trump’s rhetoric about the coronavirus. One mailer describes Trump calling the virus the “kung-flu” and the “China virus” and criticizes GOP senators who blamed China for the pandemic.
Warnock and Ossoff will face incumbent GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively. The runoff elections will determine control of the Senate, which is currently held by Republicans. Democrats will maintain control of the House next session but by a slimmer margin.
