Back in June, I had blogged that Olympic skater Michelle Kwan had joined the Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. At the time, I wondered if Kwan was going to be the lead go-to-person for Asian American & Pacific Islanders (AAPI) outreach for the Clinton campaign. From the few Clinton fundraiser emails I’ve received from Kwan, her title is Surrogate Outreach Coordinator. But now it looks like the Clinton campaign has hired Lisa Changadveja, an experienced and passionate Clinton supporter as AAPI Outreach Director for Hillary for America:
“In an effort to target, mobilize, and win the fast-growing Asian American-Pacific Islander (AAPI) electorate, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign will announce today that Lisa Changadveja has been named the AAPI Outreach Director for Hillary for America.
According to the campaign, Changadveja was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Thai immigrants, and has a long history with Clinton campaigns.
She first joined Hillary Clinton’s 2007 presidential campaign team, mobilizing voters in Nevada, Ohio, and Indiana. In 2013, Changadveja served as the AAPI and LGBT Director for Ready for Hillary, an independent super PAC created to help launch Clinton’s 2016 presidential run.”
I look forward to seeing what Changadveja, and more broadly, all the presidential candidates and political parties do in terms of outreach to the AAPI community. As I have noted before, although nationally, Asian Americans make close to 6% of the U.S. population, in key swing states such as Nevada and Virginia, we could be a decisive factor as to who wins the presidency.
First of all, the Clinton campaign needs to update their website to add in AAPIs section in regards to creating an official email list for organizing, outreach and fundraising (like when Obama did back when he was running in 2008). There’s already (I believe) an independently created Facebook group for AAPI for Hillary group.
