LOS ANGELES (May 30, 2016) — The Leadership Political Action Committee of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus at its convention Monday in Los Angeles endorsed former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the DNC candidate for President of the United States. The endorsement comes one week ahead of the California Democratic primary on June 7 with 475 delegates at stake.
The members listed on the announcement include CAPAC Chair and U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27), CAPAC Vice Chair and Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (Guam), and fellow U.S. Reps’ Mike Honda (CA-17), Mark Takano (CA-41), Ted Lieu (CA-33), Doris Matsui (CA-06) and U.S. Senators’ Grace Meng (NY-06) and Mazie Hirono (HI).
Rep. Chu said the endorsement is support for Clinton’s track record of working for the AAPI community. Chu said Clinton has worked on the most challenging issues such as immigration reform, education and voting rights.
“There is so much at stake in this election, and we cannot tolerate any presidential candidate who promotes fear tactics, hateful rhetoric against immigrants and bullying,” Chu said.
A poll of California voters shows Sen. Bernie Sanders leading Clinton 43 percent to 35 percent among APIA voters. The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll notes that AAPI voters comprise approximately 12 percent of the likely electorate in California.
U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-2), who resigned as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee to support Sanders for president, noted in a press release that 66 percent of Hawai‘i’s electorate are APIA. In March Sanders won the state’s primary election with 69.8 percent of the vote.
Gabbard said Sanders had little name recognition and Clinton had the endorsement of nearly all of Hawaii’s former Democrat governors, former members of Congress, and three members of the congressional delegation.
“We stood together and sent a message that we want to bring our government back into the hands of the people; and that we must end the costly interventionist wars we’ve been engaging in for the past 15 years, and focus on investing in our own communities and rebuilding our own nation,” Gabbard said.
