Don’t take Asian American voters for granted

The return of the Democratic National Convention to Chicago inevitably brings back to mind the events of 1968 and the violent clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War protesters.

I can trace a personal connection to that time: My father served in the South Vietnamese military alongside the U.S. Allied Forces. After the war ended, my family lived through a period of doubt, finally receiving political asylum from the United States after President Jimmy Carter signed the U.S. Refugee Act of 1980 to deal with the mounting humanitarian crisis of the Vietnamese “boat people.”

The Refugee Act resettled hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees to the U.S., and I and my family were among the beneficiaries. We had the chance to pursue our American Dream and become part of what is now the fastest-growing voting bloc in the country: Asian Americans.

The 2024 presidential campaign is the perfect occasion to talk about a transformative demographic and political shift since then: the rapid growth in the number of Asian American voters and the increasing visibility of Asian Americans in politics.