In Nevada, Both Parties Court a Booming Vote Bloc: Asian Americans

When Vida Lin moved to Las Vegas in 1994, she found few fellow Asian Americans, and even fewer businesses that catered to them. Even after a small Chinatown emerged near the Strip, Ms. Lin and her sister-in-law would pile their children into a van every few months and drive four hours through the desert to Los Angeles to stock up on the specialty groceries they needed to make their family’s beloved Cantonese dishes.

Those days are long gone. A small plaza in Chinatown has become a strip in its own right, stretching more than three miles, with everything from Korean barbecue spots to Chinese ginseng shops and Vietnamese pho restaurants.

The Asian American population has boomed in Nevada over the past three decades, and Asian Americans now make up about 10 percent of the state’s eligible voters, a larger share than in any state except Hawaii or California. Republican and Democratic leaders believe that Asian Americans could decide congressional races in the state that will help determine control in Washington — and they are devoting a lot of time and effort to reaching those voters.

“Everyone knows to pay attention to the Asian community now, because we’re here,” said Ms. Lin, the president and founder of the Asian Community Development Council, a community-based nonprofit in Las Vegas.

Nationwide, Asian Americans now comprise about 5.5 percent of the eligible voter population, according to the Pew Research Center, nearly twice their share in 2000. Asian American turnout surged nationally in 2020, up by about 40 percent compared with the 2016 election — the largest increase for any racial or ethnic group. In Nevada, the increase was nearly 45 percent.

Asian Americans in Nevada have tended in the past to reliably support Democrats, but that is not certain this year, with many voters concerned about inflation, education and crime — and both parties see an opening.

They are sending out mailers in multiple Asian languages and placing ads in local Korean, Chinese and Tagalog-language newspapers. Traditional Filipino kamayan communal dinners have become regular stops on the Nevada campaign trail; so have small businesses in Chinatown and local mosques and temples.

Progressive Asian American groups like One APIA Nevada have sought to get out the vote with events that have included “Puppies and Boba” and “KPOP BOPS: Phone Bank & Jam.” Republican candidates have rallied volunteer canvassers from the party’s new Asian Pacific American Community Center in Chinatown, one of five such outreach offices opened by the party across the nation in the last two years.

“I can tell you, we’re spending more money than we ever have before on outreach to the community — like, well into the six figures” in Nevada, said Jeremy Hughes, a Republican strategist who is advising the super PAC supporting Joe Lombardo, the party’s nominee for Nevada governor. He is also advising the campaign of April Becker, who is trying to unseat Susie Lee, a Democrat whose redrawn congressional district includes Las Vegas’s western suburbs.

In Nevada and elsewhere, Republicans are trying to appeal to Asian American voters on the issues of public safety and affirmative action. They say President Biden is to blame for rising crime. And they are trying to argue that Democratic social justice policies are reducing Asian Americans’ access to top schools.

Democrats are saying that their party is more committed than the G.O.P. to advocating for Asian Americans on expanding access to health care and government support for small businesses, as well as on social issues like gun violence and anti-Asian hate.

Within the diverse communities grouped under the Asian American umbrella, a shift toward the political center is happening across the country. An analysis by The New York Times found that areas with large populations of immigrants, including residents of Asian descent, shifted somewhat to the right in 2020.

But Vietnamese Americans, a group that once leaned heavily Republican, have become more independent, the Asian American Voter Survey found in July. And the proportion of Chinese Americans who identify as Republican has declined, while the share who identify as independents has increased, the survey found.

Christine Chen, executive director of APIAVote, a nonpartisan nonprofit that helps conduct the survey, said that the shifts reflected the increasing diversity of the fast-growing voting bloc, as well as a tendency for Asian American voters to be less moored to one party than other voters are.

“The parties still have to do a lot more, in terms of engagement and long-term education with the community, so these voters feel comfortable identifying with a particular party,” Ms. Chen said.

Unlike the Asian American communities in California and New York, which took root more than a century ago, Nevada’s is relatively new to the state. Many Asian Americans have moved to Nevada in recent years from California, seeking a lower cost of living and plentiful jobs in health care and hospitality. Others are businesspeople or real estate investors drawn by Nevada’s lack of a state personal income tax.

Today, Filipino Americans comprise about 43 percent of Nevada’s nearly 400,000 Asian residents, followed by Chinese Americans at 13 percent, according to APIA Vote and AAPI Data, which publishes demographic data and policy research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Churches, temples and cultural groups for Asians have proliferated. Many Asian Americans are members of the powerful Culinary Workers Union and the Service Employees International Union.

“Five years ago, we were invisible. Now, elected officials and candidates are coming to court the AAPIs because they know that we have the vote,” said Grace Vergara-Mactal, the executive director of the state branch of the service employees’ union, which represents about 19,000 workers, a quarter of them Asian, who work mainly in health care or government jobs.

About 73 percent of Asian American adults in Nevada speak a language other than English at home, according to APIA Vote and AAPI Data. Both political parties are trying to reach voters in their own languages.

“This is really the first year I’ve seen mailings and targeted language pieces outside of the Spanish language,” said Rochelle Nguyen, a Democratic state assemblywoman from Las Vegas, and one of five people now serving in Nevada’s state legislature who identify as Asian American.

Tuan Pham, a community leader who is registered as an independent, said that Republicans were lagging behind Democrats in their consistency and commitment to Asian American outreach. He said he thought that Republicans could be holding more get-out-the-vote events and making more effort to develop young leaders.

“The message of the Republicans is not strong enough — that is a major weakness,” said Mr. Pham, who said he plans to vote for Republican candidates this year.

Cici Zhang, 30, a Democrat, said that back in 2020, Nevada’s Covid restrictions took a toll on her LED lighting business, and now, inflation has squeezed a noodle restaurant in Chinatown that she co-owns. But she said economic concerns were secondary.

In recent years, Ms. Zhang, a second-generation Chinese American, has become increasingly bothered by the rise in anti-Asian hate, which she saw partly as a result of President Donald J. Trump’s anti-China rhetoric and his references to Covid as the “Chinese virus.”

“To me, being a decent human being is much more important than making money,” Ms. Zhang said.

Many Asian American voters in Nevada are first-generation immigrants who are not very familiar with the American election system. Eric Jeng, director of outreach for the Asian Community Development Council, said that naturalized citizens often have preconceptions about politics that were shaped by early experiences in their countries of origin.

They include Lirah Delara, a 39-year-old casino worker who was went to a Filipino barbecue restaurant in Henderson recently to listen to Representative Dina Titus, a Democrat who represents much of Las Vegas and some suburban areas.

“You are becoming a real force in politics here in Nevada,” Ms. Titus told the crowd. “That’s why you’ve got to get out and vote, because it will make a difference.”

When she was growing up in the Philippines, Ms. Delara said, politics there was rife with corruption, leaving her with a strong distaste for anything political.

As she dug into a plate of pancit noodles and chicken skewers, Ms. Delara said she didn’t feel particularly inspired by Ms. Titus’s campaign event, the first she had attended since becoming an American citizen in 2015. Even so, Ms. Delara said she would probably vote for Ms. Titus and the rest of the Democratic ticket, in solidarity with people she knows.

“Sometimes when you support your family and friends, you get pushed to do it,” she said.