The White House, U.S. Senate Democratic leadership, and the congressional caucuses have pledged full support to confirm Harvard and Stanford graduate, Deputy U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su, as U.S. Labor Secretary. The White House promised a “full-court press” to confirm Su.
If successful, the appointment would make her the highest-ranking AAPI cabinet member in the Biden Administration. Su has the balanced support of business and labor organizations and has been described as imminently qualified for the job. Su was the recipient of the McArthur Foundation Fellowship that is unofficially known as the “Genius Grant”, in recognition or her work on human and labor rights.
However, a paid effort by anti-Biden Republicans and their allies is targeting voters in key Democratic battleground seats in an effort to scare three Democratic and one independent senator to balk on voting for Su. Democrats hold a one vote majority in the U.S. Senate so every Democrat must vote for Su in order for her to be confirmed.
The Republican playbook has been to delay confirmations of Biden nominees in what could be perceived as an effort to deny him victories and weaken his presidency going into re-election. In addition, Republican officials continue leave breadcrumbs of China race-baiting messaging for online trolls and social media disinformation operations. Kentucky Republican U.S. Senator James Comer issued this racially charged political statement on Su:
“In fact, murderers, people on death row, deceased individuals, and organized crime members in China and Russia fraudulently amassed extraordinary amounts of money on her watch.”
That was then amplified on social media and Fox News:
However, Republicans may come to regret targeting Su the same way they regretted supporting Trump and MAGA candidates. With the support of enraged AAPI voters, Democrats held the U.S. Senate and reduced what was expected to be a Republican wipeout of Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives to a mere whimper that nearly crippled Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s effort to become Speaker of the House.
Going into 2024, key U.S. Senate and Electoral Vote battleground states are home to significant numbers of AAPI voters tired of being the butt of Republican attacks that have led to physical attacks and discriminatory legislation on AAPIs all across America.
Sources: CNN and AAPIVote
Organized efforts to mobilize AAPI voters against Republican candidates in 2022 proved to be highly effective and the political infrastructure exists for Democrats to appeal to these voters to help Democrats hold the presidency and U.S. Senate and flip key seats in California and New York that could deliver the House majority back into Democratic hands in 2024.
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