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API Hopefuls in Big Apple

By Neela Banerjee

Evergreen Chou, the only API Green Party candidate for New York’s city council, speaks at a recent Asian American Federation reception about his role as one of 13 API candidates in the council elections. Photo courtesy of Asian American Federation.

Hoping to end over 150 years of non-representation on New York’s City Council, 13 Asian American candidates are running for seats in seven districts.

All 13 candidates came together at the beginning of the month at a reception hosted by the Asian American Federation, a nonprofit leadership organization, in honor of a new era of increased political participation and as a way to usher in Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

“Asian American New Yorkers now constitute over 10 percent of the city’s population, yet our community’s concerns have been ignored and our voices have gone unheard,” Asian American Federation executive director Cao O said. “But this is changing.”

Due in part to term limits that have freed 35 City Council seats of incumbents, there is an unprecedented number of Asian Americans running in districts from Queens to Manhattan. The Federation emphasized how the increased political participation of APIs will play a significant role in the outcome of the elections.

“Studies have shown that Asian Americans voters turn out at higher rates when there is an Asian American candidate on the ballot,” O said. “In a closely contested mayoral race, a higher turnout of Asian Americans could make the difference.”

The candidates are a diverse group of community activists, journalists, educators and lawyers. They range from Chinese American to Korean American to South Asian. Of the 13, 11 candidates are Democrats, with one each representing the Green party and the Republican party.

Federation executive director O said that the community must now work toward registering more Asian American voters, so that voter participation will match the population trends.