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Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders Gather For Presidential Forum

Elaine Thompson
/
AP Photo
A voter drops a ballot into a ballot drop box Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016, in Seattle.

Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders plan to gather in Tacoma, Seattle and elsewhere Friday to watch the presidential campaigns vie for their votes.

They’ll tune into a live stream of a Las Vegas forum featuring Bill Clinton, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein.

Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, the national group hosting the event, said Wednesday it was still in talks with Donald Trump’s campaign. 

Lenora Noble, a Gig Harbor resident whose parents came to the United States from the Philippines, said the forum represents a historic level of political attention for Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

“The Caucasian population, the African-American vote, the Hispanic vote, has always been out there,” she said. “And I think maybe, as a group, we’ve been a little more silent, maybe a little more accommodating. But things affect us now.”

Noble, a retired school principal, sits on the executive board of the Asia Pacific Cultural Center in Tacoma, which is hosting a presidential forum viewing party for residents in and around Pierce County. 

She said the event comes as Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders statewide look to show they have the numbers and the organization to sway elections. 

The Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of Washington State, a political advocacy group, has a platform that includes positions on immigration reform, senior housing and Medicare, she said. 

Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders make up 8 percent of the state’s eligible voters, according to an analysis by Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote. It found the number of eligible voters from those populations had swelled 43 percent, nearly triple the rate of the state’s total eligible voters, between 2000 and 2010.

“We are the dominant group in Washington state when it comes to the education levels and the power to vote and so we want to make sure it’s heard,” Noble said. “We’re not going to just be silent anymore.” 

At the Friday viewing party in Tacoma, organizers plan to register voters and talk politics in the many languages spoken at the center, whose members have roots in the Philippines, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and elsewhere. And Noble said that’s just the beginning. The Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of Washington State has planned a Sept. 15 political summit at the Tacoma Dome.

Will James is a former KNKX reporter and was part of the special projects team, reporting and producing podcasts such as Outsiders and The Walk Home.