The Endorsement Process
At the heart of the AAA-Fund’s mission is the endorsement and election of progressive candidates who have an outstanding track record of support for the APIA community. We often focus on races where the APIA community is large enough to influence the outcome of the election.
All of our endorsed candidates have demonstrated the following attributes:
- Participate actively in Asian Pacific American organizations
- Demonstrate electoral viability
- Publicly endorse federal civil rights legislation, and similar state and local
anti-discrimination laws or legislation - Advocate for policies that assist the Asian Pacific American community,
including on issues relating to civil rights, immigration, glass ceilings,
underrepresentation, racial profiling, and women’s reproductive freedom.
The AAA-Fund has endorsed in every Presidential election since 2004, and we generally focuses our attention on candidates running for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Governor or other statewide office. However, we have a long history of endorsing select candidates for local office or state legislative office in particularly compelling races. As an increasing number of outstanding APIA candidates are running for local or state legislative office, we will continue to make endorsements at this level each year and provide assistance through social media and grassroots campaign support. At the chapter level, the AAA-Fund focuses on endorsing local and state legislative candidates, in addition to candidates seeking federal or statewide office.
Since our founding in 2000, we have endorsed hundreds of candidates from every APIA ethnic community, in every region of the country, and at every level of government. We carefully vet our endorsees in order to ensure that we support only candidates who are dedicated to the APIA community and are building strong, viable campaigns. Our vetting process includes a written questionnaire and an in-person or telephone interview. Using these methods, we help our community to focus its campaign contributions and volunteer energy on candidates who stand a good chance of winning their races.
With the support of our members, donors, bundlers, and volunteers, the AAA-Fund and its chapters have raised millions of dollars for our endorsees, knocked on thousands of doors, called tens of thousands of likely voters, and assisted our candidates through mainstream, ethnic and social media. The vast majority of our endorsees have been elected.