Asian American Democrats Win Big In November 2022 Election

Clockwise from center: MI State Rep. Ranjeev Puri, MD House Rep. Chao Wu, MI State Sen. Sam Singh, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, MI Congressman Shri Thanedar, MD Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, CA Assemblywoman Stephanie Nguyen, CA Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains

Following several years of Trump and MAGA fueled anti-Asian racism, Asian Americans delivered huge gains for the Democratic Party. In addition to delivering the margin of victory to Democrats in key congressional races and reducing what was anticipated to be a red wave this cycle into a red whimper, Asian American Democrats won election to major local, state, and federal seats from coast to coast.

In California, Asian American voters consistently outperformed other ethnic groups in turnout as a percent of their number of registered voters. These votes contributed to Rep. Katie Porter's successful re-election in a year when she was highly vulnerable to defeat. According to the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund, the significant bloc of Asian American voters in the district favored Porter 53% to 36%. The poll found that Asian Americans nationally favored Democrats over Republicans 51% to 37%. The Washington Post reported an APVote Cast poll that show Asian Americans favored Democrats 64% to 34%.

Similarly, AALDEF conducted exit polls that showed Asian American voters favored Democrats 69.6% to 25.6% in the Nevada US Senate race and 74.4% to 21.8% in the Pennsylvania US Senate race that suggests the AAPI vote was the margin of victory for Democrats Catherine Cortez Masto and John Fetterman and allowed the Democratic Party to retain control of the United States Senate.

The only aberration to this trend was in New York were reports indicated that Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin carried Chinese American voters in key districts over Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. Democrats lost two highly competitive congressional races in California's heavily Asian American populated Orange County, reasons are less clear because these races involved Asian against Asian candidates from opposing parties.

While helping Democrats hold control of the US Senate and rejecting a Republican rout of Democrats in the House of Representatives, Asian American Democrats won their own seats in local, state, and federal races all across the nation. Hmong American Sheng Thao was elected mayor of Oakland and Vietnamese American Helen Tran was elected mayor of San Bernardino. Indian Americans Aruna Miller won election to Lt. Governor of Maryland and Shri Thanedar won election to the United States House of Representatives. Rhode Island voters made history and elected Japanese American Linda Ujifusa and Chinese American Victoria Gu to the state senate. Dr. Michelle Au, the first Asian American elected to the Georgia legislature who was redistricted out of her state senate seat, successfully pivoted over to the Georgia House of Representatives.

Other Asian American Democratic wins include (partial list):

Stephanie Chang re-elected to MI State Senate

Ranjeev Puri elected to MI State House of Representatives

Dr. Chao Wu elected to MD State House of Representatives

Sam Singh elected to MI State Senate

Stephanie Nguyen elected to CA State Assembly

Dr. Jasmeet Bains elected to CA State Assembly

Al Muratsuchi re-elected to CA State Assembly

Alex Lee re-elected to CA State Assembly

Phil Ting re-elected to CA State Assembly

Ash Kalra re-elected to CA State Assembly

Evan Low re-elected to CA State Assembly

Mike Fong re-elected to CA State Assembly

Aisha Wahab elected to CA State Senate

Rob Bonta elected to CA State Attorney General

Fiona Ma re-elected to CA State Treasurer

Tammy Duckworth to US Senate

Judy Chu re-elected to US House of Representatives

Grace Meng re-elected to US House of Representatives

Bobby Scott re-elected to US House of Representatives

Doris Matsui re-elected to US House of Representatives

Ted Lieu re-elected to US House of Representatives

Mark Takano re-elected to US House of Representatives

Ro Khanna re-elected to US House of Representatives

Pramila Jayapal re-elected to US House of Representatives

Ami Bera re-elected to US House of Representatives

Raja Krishnamurthi re-elected to US House of Representatives

Jill Tokuda elected to US House of Representatives

Samantha Vang re-elected to MN State House of Representatives

Ethan Cha elected to MN State House of Representatives

Fue Lee re-elected to MN State House of Representatives

Kaohly Vang Her re-elected to MN State House of Representatives

Liz Lee elected to MN House of Representatives

Jay Xiong re-elected to MN House of Representatives

Susan Kaying Pha elected to MN State Senate

Tou Xiong elected to MN State Senate

Foung Hawj re-elected to MN State Senate

Ya Liu elected to the NC State House of Representatives

Daniel Nguyen elected to OR State House of Representatives

Hoa Nguyen elected to OR State House of Representatives

Hai Pham elected to OR State House of Representatives

Khanh Pham elected to OR State House of Representatives

Thuy Tran elected to OR State House of Representatives

Karen Kwan re-elected to UT State House of Representatives

Sharon Chung elected to IL State House of Representatives

Duy Nguyen elected to NV State Assembly

Rochelle Nguyen re-elected to NV State Assembly

Tram Nguyen re-elected to MA State House of Representatives

Cyndi Munson re-elected to OK State House of Representatives

Priya Sundareshan elected to AZ State Senate

Nabeela Syed elected to IL State House of Representatives

Tarik Khan elected to PA State House of Representatives

Salman Bhojani elected to TX State House of Representatives

Suleman Lalani elected to TX State House of Representatives

Nabilah Islam re-elected to GA State Senate

Farooq Mughal elected to GA State House of Representatives

Kumar Bharve re-elected to MD State House of Delegates

Anita Samani elected to OH State House of Representatives

Megan Srinivas elected to IA State House of Representatives

Kevin Olickal elected to IL State House of Representatives

Theresa Mah re-elected to IL State House of Representatives

Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz re-elected to IL State House of Representatives

Janet Yang-Rohr re-elected to IL State House of Representatives

Hoan Huynh elected to IL State House of Representatives

Abdelnasser Rashid elected to IL State House of Representatives

Ram Villivallam re-elected to IL State Senate

Iwen Chu elected to the NY State Senate