Asian-Americans scored critical victories in US legislative elections as they rode on the wave of a Democratic comeback and displayed political clout beyond traditional strongholds in California and Hawaii.
As victorious Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives and Senate in Tuesday's polls, the Asian-American community added another crucial seat in the House and expanded their influence in state legislatures.
Democrat Mazie Hirono, a Japanese-American former lieutenant governor, beat a state senator in Hawaii to become the seventh representative from the Asian-American community in the House of Representatives.
She will be the first Japan-born American to serve in the House.
Several other Asian-American lawmakers scored big victories to retain their seats, including sole senator from the community, Daniel Akaka, a Japanese-American, in Hawaii.
Others included House law-makers Chinese-American David Wu in Oregon as well as Japanese-Americans Michael Honda and Doris Matsui in California.
Bobby Jindal, who became the first Indian-American in 2004 to enter the House of Representatives, also retained his Republican seat with ease in Louisiana.
"This election underscores a new reality in American politics," said Toby Chaudhuri, spokesman for Campaign for America's Future, a think tank.
"Asian Americans can run for office and win -- not just in traditional Asian-American population centers like Hawaii and California, but in states like Ohio, Iowa, Texas and Kansas," he said.
Numbering 14 million, Asian-Americans make up only about 4 percent of the 300 million US population but their votes were seen critical in about 100 of the 435 congressional districts, said William Marumoto, president of the Asian-Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.
The US Census Bureau says the community's population could jump to 40 million or more in the next 50 years.
"The numbers don't lie -- our community is growing and becoming naturalized at higher rates than years past," said Christine Chen, executive director of APIAVote, a non-partisan group championing greater participation by the community in the electoral processes.
"However, unless we mobilize our community to participate in the political process, these numbers will not transfer into political empowerment," she said.
In Connecticut, political novice William Tong wrested a traditionally Republican seat in the state legislature while in Maryland, Pakistani-American Saqib Ali gained his maiden victory to the legislature.
Indian-American Kumar Barve, the majority leader in the Maryland legislature, regained his seat to become the community's longest-serving lawmaker.
Asian-Americans also stamped their mark in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Texas, where lawmakers coasted to re-election.
But in one of the most closely watched congressional races, Tammy Duckworth, a Thai-American US Army helicopter pilot who lost both her legs in Iraq, failed to wrest a traditionally Republican seat in the suburbs of Chicago.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS