By Emily Laycock
Heading into the final day of the 2024 Election, two AAPI women candidates from opposite ends of the aisle, Michelle Kang (D), a first-generation Korean American immigrant, running for Georgia’s State House District 99, and State Rep. Charlice Byrd (R), a Chinese American, running for reelection in District 20 discuss their campaign priorities and the significance of this presidential election for the AAPI community in Georgia.
Unbeknownst to many, Georgia has been home to the largest AAPI caucus in the country for the past two years, with 11 members during the 2024 legislative session—nine Democrats and two Republicans. According to the Washington Post, this number is more than both California (10), where Asian Americans represent 15 percent of the population, and New York (10), where Asian Americans represent 10 percent of the population.
This growth in representation for the AAPI community in state government positions coincides with the growth of Asian Americans in Georgia, which has become one of the fastest-growing population groups in the state, numbering more than 610,000, or about 4%.
Addressing the economy
When asked about key issues driving their campaigns, Kang (D) and Byrd (R) both addressed the increasing concerns among Americans about the economy and inflation. Since the pandemic, more than four years ago, grocery prices have risen by 22 percent and home prices have gone up by 28 percent in the country, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Byrd shared ideas to fix the economy that closely aligned with Trump’s agenda, as she pointed towards the Biden/Harris administration’s “uncontrolled spending on unnecessary programs such as green energy and unnecessary wars” as the reason for the rise in inflation over the past few years.
“With Trump’s proposals to make the 2017 income tax cuts permanent; eliminate the income tax on Social Security;abolish the income tax on tips; and immediately ramp up domestic energy production, I believe there will be a rapid path to economic recovery instead of more prolonged economic agony under Harris,” said Byrd.
While Kang stated her priorities aligned with Harris’s agenda, which included “protecting rights, lowering costs and [promoting] economic mobility and opportunity,” according to Kang.
“I’ve been advocating housing costs because housing costs have increased exponentially since the pandemic. I want to serve the homeowners as well as renters. I want to control housing costs for renters, such as doing rental caps. Another concern of mine is supporting small businesses. As you see, small businesses are the backbone of our economy in the local area. I used to run small businesses in Gwinnett County and across Georgia as well. So supporting small businesses, especially for increased access to capital and training programs. There is so much access to federal money and state money we can utilize, but that information was not disseminated amongst our AAPI community,” said Kang.
Importance of the presidential election
The race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris remains a highly contentious battle in Georgia and nationally, with just a day before Election Day. Nationally the two candidates are tied, with 49% of the vote each, according to a poll released on Sunday by NBC News. Another poll, conducted by Emerson College, found that 1% of voters support a third-party candidate, and only 1% remain undecided leading into the final day of voting.
In Georgia, the election continues to be neck and neck, similar to the 2020 presidential election where Georgia had the tightest margins of any swing state. President Biden won by just 11,799 votes and became the first Democrat to win the state’s electoral votes since 1992.
Trump is favored to win the state in most polls including the FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker which has Trump winning 48.6% of the votes and Harris winning 47.1% of the votes in Georgia.
Byrd seemingly echoed the sentiment of the majority of Georgians, endorsing Trump’s campaign.
“We must re-elect Donald Trump. He will make America affordable, safe and thriving again. We cannot do another 4 years of the disastrous Biden/Harris administration risking our safety and security,” said Byrd.
While Kang stressed the importance of AAPI voters getting out to the polls on Nov. 5 to vote for Harris, even going as far as to say that this election is “the matter of life or death of AANHPI people.
“This election is the most consequential election because we already experienced the 2016 through 2020 Trump era with the Trump administration. We already experienced the exponential rise of Asian hate because of his rhetoric, like, kung fu virus, China virus, and kung fu flu. That’s very discriminatory, and it puts our Asians in danger. I want to press the AANHPI members to vote for Kamala Harris because she was the one helping President Biden pass the COVID-19 Hate Act in 2021, right after we had a shooting in Atlanta. So for our sake, protecting ourselves, we need to vote for Kamala Harris,” said Kang
Power of the Asian American vote
Over the past few years, Asian Americans have become the fastest-growing voting bloc in the United States. With many experts pointing toward increased Asian American turnout, as a key to President Biden’s Electoral College victory in 2020. The Asian American vote is especially critical in Georgia, which is a key battleground state in the 2024 presidential election.
Increased Asian American turnout at the polls, seen in the 2020 presidential election, seems to be becoming a trend within the AANHPI community, as they had the largest increase in voter registration of any other racial group from January to June (2024), according to an analysis conducted by APIAVote, a civic engagement nonprofit, and research company TargetSmart.
“AANHPI voters have the power to decide the course of our country. Because we are swing voters. We are the marginal victory. Any races, any local races in Georgia, especially the metro Atlanta area, including my district, because my district has a 33% Asian population and then 25% are registered voters. So the weight of each AANHPI person’s vote is heavyweight. They must be very discerning as to who is the true person to serve the AANHPI people and advance the power of the AANHPI people,” said Kang.
