As Congresswoman Judy Chu had mentioned on Day 1 at the AAPI Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) would be represented and speaking on the Convention stage at the convention, which Chu is the chairwoman. This is the first time CAPAC was ever represented on stage at a Democratic Convention (I don’t think there are any Republican members of the House or Senate that are Asian American). The above video is the official video taken and hosted on the Democratic National Convention YouTube page.
I definitely wanted to be at the Wells Fargo Center to witness this historic occasion and traded my daily press pass for a temporary press pass that allowed me to go into the convention floor for an hour to catch this historic moment.
The introductory video highlighted the history of Asian Americans in the U.S., including dark periods such as the era of the Chinese Exclusion Acts as well as the internment of Japanese during World War II and the death of Vincent Chin to today, where more and more Asian Americans are represented in Congress. Then a good number of Congressmen, Congresswomen and Senator Hirono made some brief comments, including why they supported Hillary Clinton for President.
Below is the video and photos I took from the convention floor in a press area:
- 0:00:00 – 0:02:15 – History video on Asian Pacific Americans
- 0:02:22 – 0:07:50 – Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-California, 32nd District)
- 0:07:50 – 0:08:35 – Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
- 0:08:35 – 0:09:15 – Congressowman Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam)
- 0:09:15 – 0:09:50 – Congressman Mark Takano (D-California’s, 41st District)
- 0:09:50 – 0:10:20 – Congressman Ami Bera (D-California, 7th)
- 0:10:20 – 0:10:50 – Congressman Bobby Scott (D- Virginia, 3rd District)
- 0:10:50 – 0:11:25 – Congressman Ted Lieu (D- California, 33rd District)
- 0:11:25 – 0:12:00 – Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D- Northern Mariana Islands)
- 0:12:00 – 0:14:00 – Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-California, 6th District)
Additional photos:
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Disgusted
- Sad
- Angry