Endorsements
At the heart of our mission is the endorsement and election of Democratically-aligned candidates with outstanding track records of supporting the AANHPI community.
With the support of our members, donors, bundlers, and volunteers, the AAAFund 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. We are proud to report that the vast majority of our endorsees have been elected.
Current Endorsements
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Kamala Harris
US President
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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries
NY-08
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Sen. Jacky Rosen
Nevada
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Sen. Mazie Hirono
Hawaii
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Sen. Sherrod Brown
Ohio
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Rep. Andy Kim
New Jersey
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Angela Alsobrooks
Maryland
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Rep. Pramila Jayapal
WA-7
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Rep. Mark Takano
CA-39
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Rep. Susie Lee
NV-03
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Rep. Tom Suozzi
NY-03
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Rep. Greg Landsman
OH-01
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Rep. Shri Thanedar
MI-13
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Derek Tran
CA-45
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Dave Min
CA-47
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Dr. Amish Shah
AZ-1
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Lanon Beccam
IA-3
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State Sen. Evan Low
CA-16
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State Sen. Suhas Subramanyam
VA-32
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Ginger Cruz
Guam, At-large
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State Sen. Clarence Lam
MD-3
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Susheela Jayapal
OR-3
Endorsement Process
HOW DOES AAAFUND PICK CANDIDATES?
Since our founding in 1999, we have endorsed candidates from every AANHPI ethnic community, in every region of the country, and at every level of government. We use three major factors when selecting candidates to support.
Political Strategy
We look strategically at races that are important to Democrats and races that are important to the AANHPI community. We often focus on races in which the AANHPI community can influence the outcome of the election. This is to ensure that our community is heard by their future representatives and to strategically build our relationships.
Rising Stars
We also think about the candidates themselves. We know it’s hard to run a campaign. So we want to support exciting, young AANHPI candidates through early, critical stages when campaigns often fail.
Support for AANHPIs
Each of our candidates is vetted through a questionnaire and an interview, and every one is asked about their work for the AANHPI community. Sometimes we support candidates to honor their extraordinary service to our community.
Our Endorsement Policy
AAAFund focuses our attention on candidates running for federal office (the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives) and statewide office (Governor, Attorney General, etc.). We have also endorsed in every Presidential election since 2004.
However, we love supporting our community’s most exciting candidates and they often start at the local or state legislative level. To build that pipeline, we make endorsements at this level each year and provide assistance through grassroots campaign support. Our local AAAFund chapters also play a critical role in their communities by supporting local and state legislative candidates, in addition to candidates seeking federal or statewide office.
We carefully vet our endorsees to ensure that we support only candidates who are dedicated to the AANHPI community and who are building strong, viable campaigns. All our candidates are vetted through a written questionnaire and an interview. This helps our community focus its campaign contributions and volunteer energy on candidates who stand a good chance of winning their races.