New message for Republican Asian voters: End positive action

The policies favored by Democrats, such as affirmative action, "benefit some minorities," he said. "But if you study the question from top to bottom, you will reap the benefits of one group at the expense of others."

Such views are not lost for Republican candidates, who see an opportunity to win US-Asian voters in the context of a high-profile lawsuit claiming that Harvard University discriminates against 'admission.

Harvard said in court that the elimination of affirmative action would give the biggest boost to white students, increasing their share in a newly admitted class from 40% to 48%. The share of Americans of Asian descent would increase from 24% to 27%, while that of African Americans would increase from 14% to 6% and that of Hispanics from 14% to 9%.

Yu's Congressional Representative, Mimi Walters (R. Calif.), Must Face a Tight Re-Election Run for His Seat in Orange County County This Year and Made Positive Action a Topic predilection.

She regularly attacks the consideration of race in admissions to college. In September, his campaign began to distribute letters containing a dark-faced, young Asian-American woman and a quote from the MP, "Discrimination in Higher Education is Wrong".

Walters' Democrat Democrat Katie Porter says Walters has adopted other goals that could hurt the Asian-American community, including tougher immigration laws and the repeal of the law. on affordable care. Both candidates are white.

American voters of Asian descent tend to prefer Democrats: 65% voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, while 27% voted in favor of President Trump, polls revealed at the end of the polls. And while they are among the smallest demographic groups in the country, they are also experiencing the fastest growth, which is a welcome support for both parties.

Policies are not simple: although many Americans of Asian descent tend to take liberal positions on issues such as immigration and gun control, polls show, some conservative activists have gained foothold for some causes, mainly against positive action.

In another Californian race, Young Kim, a former US-Asian legislator posing as a Republican to succeed his GOP representative Ed Royce, introduced a resolution supporting the Harvard plaintiffs. Ms. Kim declined to comment.

Kim's Democratic opponent, Gil Cisneros, Hispanic, on the contrary, expressed support for positive action. In his campaign biography, he highlights a program of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps to recruit minority candidates into the military.

"For me, this program was about creating opportunities, and that's what I've been trying to do since: creating opportunities for people who do not have them," he said.

In Virginia, Cory Stewart, a former Trump campaign leader defying Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, pledged to introduce a bill banning universities from assessing the race of candidates if the school received federal funding. His campaign distributes mailers announcing this position in English, Mandarin and Vietnamese.

"Some Republicans are afraid to talk about it because it contains a racial element," Stewart said. "But they should not be, because it sounds."

The Kaine campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Overall, Asian-American voters approve positive action in admissions to universities, polls suggest. In a poll conducted by the University of California, Riverside, 58 percent of US-Asian voters said the practice was "a good thing, while 18 percent thought it was bad.

But the survey also shows that the numbers are different among the subgroups. Americans of Chinese descent in particular showed less support for positive action, with 38% of respondents.

"Unlike other communities of color, some Asian voters are recognized for their independence," said Linda Trinh Vo, Professor of American-Asian Studies at the University of California at Irvine. "Often, they are newer in the political process and they can be influenced from one side to the other."

Karthick Ramakrishnan, professor of public policy at UC Riverside, said that many Chinese immigrants had grown up thinking that the assessment of the Chinese national college, the Gaokao, "was critical to your success." This has led some to oppose positive discrimination. feel is not meritocratic, he says.

In Mrs. Walters District, a group of Chinese-Americans formed a group called the Orange Club to oppose race-based preferences when California considered a constitutional amendment in 2014 that would have reinstated university admissions based on race. The use of positive discrimination has been banned in California public schools and colleges since 1996.

"Our group does not claim to be affiliated with a party," said George Li, group president and Republican. "But almost all Democrats support forms of racial discrimination."

The Trump administration strongly opposed the use of race in admissions to colleges, with the Department of Justice filing pleadings in favor of the Harvard case and overturning the directives of the era Obama, considered an encouraging positive action. In September, the Department of Education opened an investigation into Yale University for possible discrimination against US applicants of Asian origin.

Americans of Asian descent, mostly of Chinese descent, make up 25 percent of Ms. Walters' district, which Hillary Clinton gained by five points in 2016. The large minority population gave Democrats 39, hope to win the seat.

Katie Kalvoda, an American woman of Vietnamese descent who voted for Walters in 2016, but now organizes US-Asian voters for her Democratic opponent, said Ms. Walters' mail had convinced her to leave the country. Republican MP.

"She is really using a positive discrimination issue to create fear and dissent among Asian voters who would otherwise vote for Democrats," said Ms. Kalvoda. "It's quite out of Trump's game book: divide us."

Write to Michelle Hackman at [email protected]