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The Democrat Party is not doing enough outreach with Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters and could risk the party’s gubernatorial election in the deep blue state of New Jersey — home to one of the nation’s largest Asian American populations, a Democratic National Committee (DNC) official warned.
“We lost ground with many of our communities,” DNC Vice Chair Shasti Conrad told Fox Digital of the Democrat Party following its 2024 election losses. “The Asian American community was one of them. Where we found that … more votes that did go towards Donald Trump, not overall, but in terms of a change from, you know, 2020 to 2024 there was a dip in the support for Democrats.”
“I’ve certainly seen there’s been a greater play from the Republican Party to reach Asian American voters, particularly in these last several years,” Conrad added. “And, you know, while there’s also been a lot of anti-Asian rhetoric and anti-Asian hate that has come from the Republican Party, there’s also been a real sort of tapping into fears around the economy, around the impact of taxes on the Asian American community, and that there have been more Republicans that have actually, you know, gone to Asian community spaces.”
The year 2025 is an off-season election year, with only Virginia and New Jersey holding gubernatorial elections, and New York City holding a highly-anticipated mayoral race.
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New Jersey is a longtime Democrat stronghold, previously voting for a Republican presidential candidate during former President George H.W. Bush’s 1988 election. Trump, however, made inroads with New Jersey voters in the 2024 election, sparking renewed enthusiasm among Republicans to flip the state red.
New Jersey voted to elect former Vice President Kamala Harris as president in the 2024 race, but post-election data showed Trump and the GOP flipped five counties red. All in, Trump cut his 2020 loss from 16 points to six in 2024.
Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill was elected the party’s nominee for governor and will face off against Republican Jack Ciattarelli at the polls Nov. 4.
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New Jersey has a massive Asian American population at just more than one million people in a state of roughly 9.5 million total residents. The 2024 voting data shows there were 584,236 eligible Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters in the state.
Conrad, who is also the chair of the Washington State Democratic Party, told Fox Digital that the lack of outreach to the voting bloc could hurt the Democrat Party’s efforts to retain the governorship. She said she reminds party members that “there are a million Asian Americans in New Jersey” and that “we as Democrats, have not invested as much as we could have into the community at our own peril.”
AAPI voters “are the fastest growing demographic in this country, and we are growing in states that we need to win in,” she added. “We are growing in the South. We’re a growing population in North Carolina, in Georgia, in Texas.”
On the national stage, 57% of Asian voters backed Harris in 2024, but Trump also improved his margins with the voting bloc compared to 2020. Trump saw one-in-four Asian votes cast in his favor in 2024 compared to earning 30% of the Asian vote in 2020, according to Pew data.
The DNC leader said the party needs to meet AAPI voters in their community, whether it be at temples and churches or Asian-owned businesses, and hear their concerns directly.
The voting bloc brings a multitude of cultural backgrounds and, subsequently, is a very nuanced group. Conrad noted the diversity of the group when listing off common top voting concerns among AAPI voters, including the economy and immigration — most notably how it relates to H-1B visas.
Conrad said Republicans have met with Asian voters at their churches and businesses and at other cultural events in recent history, with the party increasingly throwing its support behind Asian candidates, as well.
“They’ve just have done more,” Conrad said about the GOP. “And they’ve also been running more Asian candidates, which is …. sometimes it’s confusing to voters, in particular the Asian American community, where there’s a lot of pride in having leadership that, you know, that is from the community.”
She called on Democrats to include Asian voters in their common campaign platforms focused on Black, Latino, rural and young voters.
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“When we’re talking the importance of really building that coalition, we have to continue to say and include Asian Americans in that as well,” she said. “And I think sometimes we get left off, as you know, not even considered or thought about or remembered as a really important community to engage with.”
Sherrill campaign spokesperson Sam Chan told Fox News Digital when asked about their AAPI outreach that “throughout the campaign, Mikie has partnered directly with Asian communities, and shared her vision to lower costs, bolster support for small businesses, and ensure people have the opportunity to achieve the American dream here in New Jersey.”
“As governor, Mikie will work to ensure Trenton serves everyone,” Chan continued. “Mikie will work to make it easier to start and grow a small business and lower costs, ensure our schools are fully funded, and stand up for our constitutional rights and uphold the law. Mikie’s Save You Time and Money Agenda will help business owners launch and expand their ventures, while her State of Emergency on Utility Costs will end the rate hikes and reduce electric bills.”
Chan also took a shot at Trump in the remarks, saying Ciattarelli “cheers along Trump as he attacks our communities, rips away billions from our schools and transit system, and jacks up prices with his unaffordable tariffs, Mikie is running to fight for all New Jerseyans.”
Fox News Digital also spoke with Parul Khemka, a New Jersey Democrat running for re-election on the Livingston Board of Education, who said the Sherrill campaign has increasingly attended cultural events, including a Diwali celebration.
“Even within Bergen County, there’s a big east Asian population, so she’s tapped into that as well. It’s just, New Jersey is a little bit funky. You’d think that it’s one party, one thing … But different counties have their own different attributes, so you have to figure it out as you go along.”
Sherrill, she added, was involved in cultural events in her congressional district, which includes portions of Essex, Morris, and Passaic Counties in North Jersey, and that her office has historically been approachable.
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Khemka said that top priorities for the AAPI community commonly include education, immigration and visas, and the economy and affordability, while also noting the massive voting bloc is nuanced and diverse. She said AAPI voters have always leaned more to the left, from her view, but that voters moved more to the right as Trump campaigned on getting the economy back on track following spiraling inflation.
Democrats, Kehmka said, are positioned to better appeal to AAPI voters as they understand the nuances of the voters’ political concerns as opposed to broad issues.
“The Democratic Party obviously does a little bit better than the Republican Party to understand these nuanced issues, and they do not paint everybody in the same brush,” she said, adding that the AAPI community in New Jersey could make or break Democrats retaining the governor’s mansion.
The Sherrill campaign, for example, has deployed multilingual phone banking and canvassing programs in towns with high levels of Asian voters, with Sherrill, herself, also meeting with voters in their communities.
Conrad said that the Sherrill campaign has built more inroads with AAPI voters in recent months, pointing to outreach events over the weekend that included DNC chair Ken Martin also traveling to the Garden State to rally support for the ticket.
“We did an AAPI oriented canvas. And then … DNC Chair Ken Martin hosted an AAPI roundtable to meet with AAPI leaders and to show that engagement. I have heard, even just in a month’s time, I had heard a big change from the community about feeling like they were, you know, being engaged more directly by the Sherrill campaign, and we’re feeling better about it,” Conrad said.
“I do think that that work is happening,” she added, praising efforts by the DNC’s AAPI caucus, specifically South Asians for America, rallying Democrat support ahead of New Jersey’s and Virginia’s high-stakes elections.
The New Jersey gubernatorial election is slated for Nov. 4.
Fox News Digital reached out to Ciattarelli’s campaign Thursday for comment on AAPI outreach and has yet to receive a reply.
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