No Vote Left Behind

your Girl Danielle Moody back recording from the Home Bunker. Friends, I'm very excited to bring to you today an interview with brid Jenkins, who is the president and CEO of AAPI Victory Fund, And you know, we get into a conversation about the Asian American Pacific Islander community, this very complex and diverse and layer community and how it is oftentimes overlooked in this country when we're talking about the electorate, right, we are always talking about you know, suburban voters and

we know who the fuck that is. And then we talk about the black vote and will black people turn out? Then we talk about the Latin X vote, right, and this growing population. But folks, the AAPI community is one of the fastest growing communities in the country, with over twenty million citizens in this country from over you know, thirty different countries, and Brad will break down to us.

You know, some startling news that came up in their latest report that was done by API Victory Fund along with their Progressive Coalition members that set off kind of alarm bells in my head about once again, how Democrats seem to be neglecting these growing populations and also their base, which is black people and black women, in order to tend or run after the white vote, which they haven't

had in decades. And so you know, as I'm talking to Brad, you know he is and by virtue of this report signaling the fact that Democrats are losing a foothold in this community. I won't give away what he says in the interview, but I will say this that you know, by the time that you listen to this, right, we will still have a handful of days until polls close,

meaning that people have been early voting. Election day is the last day, right is how we look at it nowadays, is the last day to vote, and we have no idea where things are going to end up. And President Biden spoke about the fact that people are going to need to be patient because votes are going to take time to be counted. This is just our new normal unless something is a blowout, which no elections really going forward will in fact be blowouts. We won't know on

election night who won. Right, And in this upcoming midterms, it's truly hair raised and terrifying because the balance of power is either going to rest with a party that believes in preserving democracy, believes in human decency, believes in equity and justice, or with a rapid cult that believes

in violence, that champions lies, and that celebrates ignorance. And so, you know, as I talk to my friends who are from you know, around the US and our children of immigrants or our immigrants themselves, and they're watching their own elections at home, be a raiser thin and recognizing that this push for fascism and authoritarianism isn't unique to the

United States. It is happening everywhere. And the religious right and white evangelical Christians and you know, fascists and Nazis and all of these people have their tentacles in all countries.

And so are we going to wake up to that right or are we going to wake up, you know, several days after the election wondering what it's going to be like to stand in breadlines, wondering what it's going to be like to not have social safety nets like social security and medicare to recognize that, you know, we have a politicized and weaponized Supreme Court that is gutting civil liberties and rights, and what happens to a desperate and broke people. There is nothing more that signals revolution

than all of the things that I just named. So we are living in frightening times and there is no one, no community, no vote should be left behind. And so that's the conversation that I'm getting into next with the President and CEO of AAPI Victory Fund, Brad Jenkins. Hey, I'm David Plots of SLA Political Gabfest. As another election season accelerates, it can be tricky to sort through all

the ways in the news. Each week on the gap Fest, John Dickerson, Emily Bathlon and I decipher the headlines, break down the races, and tell you what issues really matter. We do not always agree, We definitely do not always agree, but we always deliver thoughtful debate and we always have a good time. So subscribe to Slate's Political Gapfest, new

episodes every Thursday, folks. I am very excited to welcome to wok a f daily for the first time President and CEO of AAPI Victory Fund, Brad Jenkins, who is also a former Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement under Obama, our forever and favorite president. So Brad, you know, first, I want to give you an opportunity to tell people exactly what AAPI victory fund

is and what you all focus on. Yeah, well, first off, thank you so much everything you do, UM, which is education, firing people a huge fan um so presidency of a victory fund. And my name is Brad Jenkins, which I know is the worst Asian name of are very confused, like what what is it? Yeah, that is black. My mom is curring. So so that's where that's where that comes from. But uh, you know, we're the first Asian

American superpath were formed about eight years ago. Normanetta mayhe rest in peace UM founded it with our our chair Shaker Ramison. And you know, look, at the end of the day, our community is always overlooked when it comes to voting for a lot of different reasons, and so there's this vicious cycle. Our community votes the least of

all communities. Asian Americans vote the least, they're the least civically engaged, they're the least uh least available to donate right of all communities, which is crazy if you think about it. So I took over the Helm about a year ago to change that. And the biggest reason why was we were facing a moment, right, a moment of Asian hate, a moment where Donald Trump was weaponizing words against our community that was leading to very real violence

and discrimination in the streets. And it was great that we were sort of galvanizing and coming together, but we

weren't seeing that at the ballot box. And so our work this year and our work beyond November is to really change that that dynamic, is to make sure that Asian American voters are invested in, that we are thought of and centered and polling and data and voter turnout because at the end of the day, all of the candidates that we care about, right, especially candidates like Stacey Abrams or Ralph Warnock or folks who are in Nevada, folks who are in Arizona, they're not winning without Asian

American votes. So we are working in locks that speaking up a lot of those folks like Center, We'reknock and others. We're working very closely with the turnout the vote to win. So so let's unpack a couple of things, Uh that that you stated that you know I a are of surprise to me, which is one, why does the AAPI community vote the least and what is what is the thing? And again we will talk about the report that was done by your organization in coalition with a group of

other progressive organizations kind of digging into this issue. But why is it that they vote the least and what do you believe, Sho, is that is an activation point that maybe Democrats have been missing. Yeah, well, there are a lot of reasons why. I mean the biggest reason in my opinion, I mean we see this in polls is you know, campaigns, candidates parties, you know, the Democratic Party in particular, they're they're not investing to actually reach

our voters. So you'd be surprised. I think a lot of folks just assume, well, you know, maybe this community. By the way, our community which is very diverse, right, I mean there's like thirty different countries and nationalities, languages, So that in and of itself makes it challenging for the Democratic Party or state democratic parties to reach our community,

especially in language, in culture, in religion. So because of that, it's just costs more and it's more more labor intensive, and it's work to reach our community to turn out to vote. And I think the second thing, and this is a generational thing, especially for my you know, my mom who's a Korean immigrant, and a lot of Asian Americans,

younger Asian Americans talk about that older generation. You know, the culture of voting is just not as embedded in a lot of these immigrant communities, and so the idea of being an active citizen running for office being you know, holding elected officials accountable not as present in a lot

of our our parents generation or our grandparents generation. But what we're finding, and the exciting thing for me, is that this younger generation, eighteen to thirty four year old Asian Americans, very different, very very different, voting at higher rates, very progressive as it relates to you know, issues like lack lives matter, issues like climate change, issues like abortion access, and so we're breaking that cycle. In fact, in twenty twenty,

you know, largely because of Donald Trump. We can kind of thank him for galvanized our community together. Asian Americans voted at the highest rates that we've ever voted before in twenty twenty, especially in early vote numbers. So it's happening. I think that you're you're starting to see our community understand that you know, Donald Trump, you know, his hatred was for everyone. His hatred was directed at black people, at LGBTQ, at immigrants, right, and also in Asian Americans.

And so there's a you know, a reckoning, right, there's a there's a realization and awareness that we have to be in solidarity with the black community, we have to be in solidarity with the immigrant rights community, we have to be in solidarity with the LGBTQ movement. Because it's like that you know old adage, you know they're coming for us next. Clearly Trump was coming for us, you know, kung flu and wuhan and all of this awful rhetoric

every single day from the White House. It led to real debts, It led to real violence in the streets.

And so the exciting things we mentioned is that organization that typically have never invested in Asian American research, you know, organizations like Planned Parenthood, organizations like nay roll and vegu of conservation voters all came together to do the biggest, most comprehensive poll of Asian American voters and we've never done before, largely because they all want to win the other one day, it's like, yes, it's good, we should understand where Asian American voters are, but we all need

we all know it's at stake. We know democracy is at stake, and we know we are not going to win these elections if we are just completely overlooking the Asian American community. So while it's a good thing to do, right, obviously we should always be including Asian American polling and we should be reaching out to the Asian American community because it's the right thing to do. At the end of the day, you know, my job is to win elections, right.

My job is making the case that if we want to win, we want to win in Pennsylvania, we got to turn out Asian Americans in Philadelphia, right. If we want to win in Nevada, we had to turn out Filipinos in Clark County. If we don't, then these big elections, right or it's John Fetterman, you know, whether it's court as Master, we are going to lose. So it's an

exciting moment for our community. It's a moment that again there's still a lot of work that we need to do in catching up to you know, a lot of larger institutions, but it's work that we're really proud of. So, you know, I want to talk a bit about Trumpism and the rise of uh Asian hate, um, and the way you know, you mentioned with all of the rhetoric that surrounded the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic um, and

how that rhetoric translated into into violence. Um. You know it's it's as as an outsider looking into the community, I've always looked at the AAPI community as one that is readily ignored, right. Um. That is that is yet still put up in many ways portions of the community as the model quote unquote minority, but then readily ignored right with the violence and the issues that are facing

the community. And so do you think that as we are seeing once again a rise in anti Semitism, the consistent you know, rise in anti blackness, that Democrats do a good job of being able to weave together all the ways in which the right has pitted communities against each other. Right, but then are using the same tactics,

but just with different targets at different times. So our democrats exploiting what it is that the right is doing as a way to forge this coalition that frankly Obama had in hand, and then he left and it left with him. I couldn't agree more. No, Democrats are not

doing good enough job. And I'll just say, and by the way, I think that and I would I think that probably the Democratic Party would agree to it, that there needs to be a lot more work when we're talking about intersectionality, we're talking about building power as communities of color together. And you're right. You know, I'm an Obama baby, right, so I'm like, I volunteered from the president.

I then worked for him in the White House. And it was easier to do under an Obama administration because he embodied it. He embodied it front to back, from staffing to the rhetoric. You know, it was all really about how do we bring all of these disparate communities of color together in common purpose to win? And I think you're exactly right. I think the one thing that Trump did a very good job of is pitting communities

against each other. And we saw that, I mean, we saw that play out a lot with Asian American violence. We saw a lot online viral videos hitting the black community against the Asian American community. I mean, this is not new. They've been doing this to the black and Asian American community forever, you know, like since there's been redlining, and since poor people have lived in concentrations of poverty. You know, Black people and Asian people have been pitted

against each other. And so the short answer is no. But the exciting thing is, you know, that's where groups like ours come in. Because that's the first thing I did when I joined the Victory Fund was we reached out to Collective Pack, which is the largest African American pack. We reach out to the Latino Victory Fund, which is the largest Latino pack, and we formed an MoU together to say, we got to share all this data. We

got to work together when we're knocking doors. We had to fund race together, we had to do donor pitches together, because to your point, we cannot let them divide us. That's that's a recipe for success with the right. Right is when we start feeling like, oh, well, you know the Asians, but I don't mean really care about the Asian violence. We care about our issues. And we saw a little bit of that play out in a lot of local elections this past year or past two years.

And you know, our work this year is really breaking that cycle. In a state like Georgia, you're seeing it on the ground because we have just an incredible ticket. We have Center Warrenot, we have the win who's running for Secretary of State, a young Asian American woman who's incredible, and then obviously of Stacey Abrahams and the three of them, as they're going out to communities, not just black communities, not just Asian communities, not just the team of communities,

all communities. They're doing it together, they're doing it coordinated, and they're bringing all of these disparate communities together. So it's hard work and at the end of the day, this work isn't easy. And I do think that the one thing I will say about these communities is that, you know, a lot of money and a lot of polling, and a lot of stations on NPR and you know, MSNBC and CNA focus on white voters. We love to

talk about white voters. We love to talk about whether they're college educated, what kind of minivans they drive, if they're soccer moms, you know, like if they work in coal mines. Like all of that work is focused on white voters. And at the end of the day, the opportunities and we want to thank well, okay yuh for

giving us this opportunity. Very rarely are Asian Americans even mentioned. Right, there's twenty four million Asian Americans in this country, but if you were to turn on the news, you would not think that we even know that we are even

a part of the conversation. So the other thing that we were really trying to do here and working with our friends at Collective Pack in others, is that, you know, we when we do get that spotlight, when we as organizations do get shine, we want to bring our partners together, you know, and give them the opportunity to shine as well. It's a lot of work, you know, It's it's not going to happen overnight, but it's work that we just

have to do if we want to win. Get a behind the scenes look at Comedy Central's The Daily Show on Beyond the Scenes, an original podcast from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Every week, host Roy Wood Junior goes deeper with the notable guests and experts from the Emmy Award winning series. Together, they use comedy to tackle current topics from gentrification to gun laws and take a

closer look at how and why these topics matter. Listen to Beyond the Scenes from the Daily Show with Trevor Noah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast, new episodes every Tuesday. Let's talk about your the report that was done by the Progressive Coalition. Where in it? And you know, and I'll allow you to lay out this specifics, but we're in it it. There's an alarming stat which is that, you know, support for Democrats has fallen and I believe it was from

fifty four percent to fifty one percent. Now when I say that, people will hear well, it's still about fifty percent, so we're fine. On the opposite side, there's been a

rise by two percentage points to support for Republicans. And I sit here and I say to myself, Bread, how the hell does that happen when you have an entire Republican party that was out here essentially raising the flag for Asian hate, essentially pointing at this community and saying, oh, you see these people that are on the trains and on your subways and in the stores and whatever. They're the reason why you're you know, held up quarantine in

your home. That's essentially what they did. So how did the hell do you see a tick up in support for Republicans and a tickdown for support with Democrats in the report that you, along with your coalition members put together. Yeah, well,

first off, thank you for reading the report. And it's a learning I mean again, shows that we as Democrats have not done a very good job of educating right and telling the story of what this party, what this president, what a lot of our elected officials had done to get us out of the munk of the Donald Trump administration. The short answer is why is honestly, it's, you know, a majority of Asian American voters, much like the majority of most voters, not just the Asian American feel like

the country's on the wrong track. The cost of living, inflation, costs of you know, gas prices, all of these things have risen, and the jobs in the economy are scaring a lot of our voters. So while you know, anti Asian hate is an issue that's important, these other issues take priority, and these other issues were public have you know, like any other party, like any midterm right, it's it's the party that's out of power. Can just say, these guys will know what they're doing, give us a shot.

And that is resonating with with some Asian Americans who are fearful that Democrats don't have a plan to get the economy back on track. The good news with all of this, though, there're a couple of bright spots. One, young Asian Americans, do not believe. Young Asian Americans are essentially the base of the Democratic vote for Asian Americans. They're more progressive and fired up to vote than they've

ever been. And so again this is a community that typically doesn't vote as high as as you know, older Asian American voters, but this cycle they are very motivated to vote. And so that's that's a bright spot for me. And then the other bright spot I think broadly speaking, is issues like abortion access that was typically not as crucial or important of an issue for Asian Americans has skyrocketed,

you know, especially among Asian American women. So you are going to find and what we're seeing with early voting from pulling that especially first time voters and young Asian American women, they are inspired to vote up and down the ballot for Democrats. But you know, the question that you're asking is the right one. I mean, you know this is not going to be not through the Debbie Downer I'm sure you're like, I need help. This in term is not going to be pretty, you know, it's not.

I mean, I mean, if you're just kind of looking at the numbers across the board, I think you know, most Americans are, you know, very uneasy with the direction of the country and Democrats are in control, and so m what I am most concerned about right now is that all of these races, right, you know, states like Pennsylvania, states like Georgia, states like Nevada, if you live in any of these states, by the way, like God blessing, please vote, Please get all of your friends to vote.

The margin of victory or defeat is going to be so small, it's going to be one point point one and a half point And so I know for a fact that you know, if we are leaving any votes you know, on the table, so to speak, or we're you know, there are a lot of Democrats right now who are feeling a little disillusion and don't understand, as you know, and you've been talking about on your pot, what's at stake this election, any election deniers that are

running and are likely going to win, right, and what this means for our next election? Right, whether it's Trump or DeSantis or whomever is going to be running at the top of the ticket. How many election deniers are running and could potentially win is what keeps me up at night. So we just have to do everything that we can, you know, not just at the federal level, but especially at the local level. We're doing a lot

of work. I mentioned be Win who's running for secretary of state in Georgia, but Steve Hobbs is another Asian American running for secretary of State in the state of Washington. Like these secretary of state races are only now how important they are. Yep, We're just important. They are going to be there. There are last line of defense. They're counting these votes and making sure that there's you know,

real election integrity. So you know, again I urge all of your listeners, you know, when you're going out to vote, please vote for Democratic secretaries of state, because that's our last last line of defense, um Brad. With the time that we have left, um you know, I wouldn't stay on the report for a second and then give you some closing thoughts, but you know, in in the report as well, the issues that are important to AAPI voters, UM It is about the is about inflation, is about

the economy, is about quote unquote kitchen table issues. I want to ask you too, though, where does this community, your community fall as it pertains to the rising gun violence, as it pertains to abortion which was overturned, and frankly our democracy, right because if you're stating earlier that you know, yeah, Asian hate, that was a thing. But like people also need jobs, um, you know, and are concerned about meeting

their day to day needs. The things that Democrats have been banging the drum on, um, are you know the fact that our democracies hanging on by a thread. This may in fact be our last free and fair election. That you know, gun violence is rampant, um, we have we don't miss it day without a mass shooting, um. And then the overturning of rov Wait. So I just also want to understand as it pertains to what democrats have been focusing on and what your community is actually

interested in. Where are the overlaps or where are the where where are the gaps? It's a it's a great question, and you know, I wish I could tell you that the fate of our democracy was the top issue for Asian American voters. It's just not it's not I mean, it's up there. Gun control, surprisingly, in my opinion, was number three of the most important issues to Asian American voters. Number one was inflation and the cost of living. Overwhelmingly

that was number one. Almost half of Asian American voters that we pulled list of that as their number one. Jobs in the economy was number two, and then gun violence was number three. Again, I don't think most people think of Asian American voters as gun violence voters, but we are. And so again, I you know, urge I

urge Democrats and candidates to talk about this issue. You know, people think of Asian Americans and you're like, oh, well, we should just talk about cookie, you know, kitchen table issues, but no, I mean gun violence. And the fourth, to your point, is abortion access. So these are central issues. A lot of the other issues that follow our close. You know, healthcare is right up there, climate changes right

up there. As you go through that sort of different sub ethnic groups, what you'll find is because we are not a monolith, right, I mean, there's very different You're talking to a Filipino voter in Vegas than an Indian

American voter in Gwinnette County, Georgia. So these issues do change state by state, but I will say that overall your question is right, which is yes, we have to be talking about reducing the cost of living, you know, getting you know prices, you know, gas prices and food prices down, making sure that we have jobs in the economy.

But particularly for young Asian American voters, they want to see a vision of what do we stand for, right, How are we fighting for abortion access, how are we codifying row V we are we doing on gun violence. There's some really great first steps this administration did, but clearly we have so much more to go. And so again we'll see in these final days and you're seeing

in the debates as well. You know, I think Democrats have to do a little bit of a better job of pointing out what we are actually fighting for, um and not just you know, trying to explain away why the economy is not doing so well at the moment. So closing arguments, right, um, you know, when when this airs, we will have heard from the President uh giving his closing argument for for midterm elections. For you, Brad and you know, AAPI victory fund what would your closing argument?

What is your closing argument for America? I mean, especially for a community that feels as if their voice doesn't matter. And I say this a lot, especially speaking to younger voters, where they feel like, well, our issues aren't prioritized and

I don't feel like my vote, my vote matters. What I would say to you is that's what they want you to feel, right, those in power, particularly Republicans, they want you to feel like your vote doesn't matter, because that means, in large respects a lot of the status quo Republicans remain in power. And so you know, at this moment, especially when there's so many election deniers, and I know that this is something that's we're still kind

of wrapping our heads around. And it's almost been almost normalized. It's almost normalized that almost half of Republicans still believe that Donald Trump won the election. I mean, it's it's it's it's crazy. We have to vote. And I know sometimes when you say that, you're like, oh, voting it doesn't really matter. There's no difference between these parties. I

will guarantee you there is. There is one hundred percent a difference between these parties and there's one hundred percent of difference, especially at the local level, of who's going to be fighting for communities of color and who's not. And so for any not just Asian Americans, but for anyone listening to this. You know, if you're feeling a little disillusion if you're not that excited about your candidate, or maybe even not that excited about Joe Biden or

Kama Harris or remember, that's fine. But do know that this idea of democracy, this idea that we should have to say and that we should have free and fair elections, that's at stake this election cycle because Republicans believe that they can run on lies. They believe that they can literally trick the American public into believing things that just aren't true. And so if you are pro facts and pro truth, please find other friends of yours who are may be like, oh, I don't know that my vote

is important. It is, Every single one of our votes are important. The last thing I'll say is every election cycle, all of this money is spent trying to, you know, get you to vote Republican or Democrat. And the largest subset if you look at a pie chart of the voting electorate are people that don't vote, right eligible non voters,

that is the biggest majority of voters. If those people voting, everything can change because a lot of those people that are not voting are people that look like you and I you know, people that are that are younger, people that are people of colors that just don't believe that their voice matters. And so the other thing I say too is, you know, if you're not into the red team or blue team, that's fine, but you have to be for your team, you have to be for your family.

And when you're not voting, you're letting other people make decisions for you. And so, you know, I hope the president makes that case. It sounds like you're right. It sounds like he's gonna be making that case that this is bigger than Republicans and Democrats. This is really about what kind of a country do we want to live in. And so you've got we've got what six days left we vote, Get out there and get out there and like make honestly get out there and make your voice,

make your voice heard. Brad Jenkins, President and CEO of AAPI Victory Fun, thank you so much for joining w F and thank you for the work that you're doing, and I hope that you will join us again post midterms and we will see where we are and what the strategies we need to move forward in order to create the country we all want to live in. We appreciate you. That is it for me today, Dear friends. Woke app as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.

Get a behind the scenes look at Comedy Central's The Daily Show on Beyond the Scenes, an original podcast from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Every week, host Roy Wood Junior goes deeper with the notable guests and experts from the Emmy Award winning series. Together, they use comedy to tackle current topics from gentrification to gun laws and take a closer look at how and why these topics matter.

Listen to Beyond the Scenes from the Daily Show with Trevor Noah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. New episodes every Tuesday.