Statement: Voting for Kamala Harris is a strategic choice
October 21, 2024
AAPI FORCE believes that voting for Kamala Harris is a strategic choice to strengthen the conditions for building a just future, and this is a decision we cannot sit out. We recognize we do so even as we disagree with many of the current administration’s policies and Harris’s stated positions.
To paraphrase Angela Davis, we engage in this election as a collective and strategic act to enlarge the terrain of struggle and to guarantee a space to win victories for our peoples. We see no such opening under a Trump administration, and the fights our member organizations are leading and the conditions in our community require us to make this choice. We recognize the importance of endorsing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as a defensive endorsement, one where their victory blocks a right-wing victory, but we must organize them further to implement our movements’ demands and enact progressive policies.
Californians continue to experience the harms and the lasting impacts of MAGA–from the dehumanization of Asian, Black and Latinx immigrants, continued criminalization of poor people, attacks on reproductive and gender justice, and rollback of environmental and climate protections, and much more. We see the threat of another Trump presidency to our work and the safety and wellbeing of our constituencies.
At the same time, we share the widespread anger toward the Democratic Party for their failures. President Biden and presidential candidate Vice President Harris continue to provide funds and weapons to Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinian and Lebanese people. They have also stood behind punitive and carceral approaches to immigration and criminal justice. Despite our challenges with Harris, we are still called to make an endorsement, because our work for justice and liberation is more possible under a Harris Administration.
MAGA has made inroads in our communities through misogynistic “strong man” rhetoric, disinformation, and fear-mongering. We see how right-wing politics and money continue to erode progressive gains in California. The blueprint for a second Trump term, Project 2025, envisions a government that would expand presidential power while imposing extremely harmful, conservative policies in every realm of American life. Project 2025 includes plans for mass deportation, rollbacks of critical environmental protections, and dismantling education programs that will hurt working-class communities and communities of color. Additionally, the plan sets out to remove the abortion pill from the market, making abortion even more inaccessible for millions. It would reverse hard-won workers’ rights and protections by allowing states to ban labor unions in the private sector, ignore the minimum wage, and eliminate rules that protect children from working in dangerous environments.
“Our right to reproductive freedom and immigrant justice is under attack by the Trump and MAGA agenda. A Kamala Harris presidency will ensure a fighting chance for our communities to advocate for our basic human rights. A Trump presidency threatens mass deportation, a national ban on abortion, and an extreme, right wing government. The choice for our communities could not be more clear.” Lian Cheun, People Power Action Fund
Our organizations defend the rights of low-wage service and domestic workers, protect tenants from predatory and greedy corporate landlords, advance environmental justice in the most polluted neighborhoods across California, and invest in and build the leadership of youth of color. The lives of working families will be better under a Harris Administration–with stronger protections in the workplace, more access to affordable housing, less pollution in the air, water, and soil, and more power over the decisions that shape our bodies, neighborhoods, and society.
“Another Trump presidency poses a real threat to the safety and health of our communities who are still recovering from the damage of his four years of divisive politics and hateful rhetoric and rule.” Geraldine Alcid, Filipino Advocates for Justice Action Fund
Harris’s record as Attorney General of California demonstrates her commitment to punishing big corporations that harm our communities. Harris opposed Proposition 22, which created loopholes for Uber, Lyft, and Doordash to continue exploiting their drivers. Harris sued energy and oil corporations, such as ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Southern California Gas Company for their violations against air quality and the climate. Her leadership in this office set the direction for the Attorney General’s office that Attorney General Rob Bonta has followed.
Progressives have already influenced Harris and Walz toward economic policies that would improve the lives and ease the financial burdens of families and workers. Harris’s proposals build on the goals of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, which prioritized investments into the care economy. These reforms include:
Regulating corporations to reduce the costs of groceries, housing, and healthcare,
Strengthening workers’ rights to organize our workplaces,
Building three million new homes and providing down payment assistance to first-time and first-generation homebuyers,
Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, providing a $6000 tax credit for families with a newborn, and implementing a corporate tax hike.
“VP Kamala Harris stood with home care and child care workers and came one vote away from winning a trillion dollar investment into our country’s care economy that would have transformed care jobs across the country,” Aquilina Soriano-Versoza, Executive Director of Pilipino Action Center said. “PAC is standing with VP Harris so that we can continue and win that fight.”
We disagree with abstentionism. Even in California, where Harris is projected to win, our votes matter and our work sends an important message. Across California, MAGA candidates are using public safety fears, transphobia, and anticommunism to erode gains we’ve made in the state. Our AAPI voter outreach work requires us to be honest about the limitations of candidates at the top and bottom of the ticket. It also requires us to be clear about the stakes. Our opposition will advance based on the effectiveness of their attacks on Harris, and the local candidates and ballot measures they will link to Harris. We can’t cede or sidestep these tough conversations with our communities.
Nationally, the MAGA movement has made clear they plan to contest the election in any and every scenario. Harris losing the national popular vote or underperforming in California would embolden their efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of a Harris electoral college victory. California is home to one-third of all AAPIs in the US, and we see consolidating support for Harris in our communities as critically important. Volunteers we’ve dispatched in swing states have seen firsthand disinformation campaigns rooted in California swaying voters against Harris. Our endorsements and work in our “safe” blue state must flank and support the work done by our peers in contested states struggling to turn out their communities for Harris.
Winning on multiple fronts will require making the case for Asian Americans to vote for Harris everywhere. We invite you to join us this fall and beyond.
Block the rise of MAGA
Vote for Kamala Harris, and take a public stance. We must keep Donald Trump from seizing the Presidency by electing Kamala Harris. Even in California, every vote matters to send a message to right-wing insurgents. We all must be clear about the stakes of this election and the potential harms we face if we lose. We need to solidify support among our bases of AAPI members and voters.
Sign up and encourage others to turnout AAPI voters in swing states. Seed the Vote, which works with Asian American Power Network (AAPN) partners in swing states, is a critical movement vehicle to do this, especially because traditional political campaigns routinely fail to engage us.
Build our movements for justice and liberation
Join or host actions to demand that the USA #StopArmingIsrael. We must continue to apply pressure for a Free Palestine. From the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights–
Sign the petition from Not Another Bomb to demand that Kamala Harris pledge to enact an arms embargo
Donate to “The People Stand With Gaza” international fundraiser in an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Call your members of Congress now. Demand an immediate arms embargo to cut off all U.S. weapons and military funding fueling Israel’s massive violence.
Join a progressive organization that is building the political power of Asian American and Pacific Islanders in California. In order to achieve the governing power needed to advance our vision, we need to strengthen and grow our organizations for the long-term and large-scale engagement of our constituencies in our movements. We invite you to connect with our partners across the state to find a political home in your neighborhood.