Varun Nikore of AAPI Victory Alliance Joins 'The Nomiki Show' to Discuss the Impact New Congressional Maps Will Have on AAPI Electorate

By Jessel Thomas First Posted: Apr 13, 2022 04:44 AM EDT

Earlier this month, AAPI Victory Alliance executive director Varun Nikore appeared on "The Nomiki Show" to discuss how new congressional maps may affect the AAPI community's ability to shape elections.

(Photo : Varun Nikore Twitter Account)

Highlights of Varun Nikore's Interview With Nomiki Konst

"I think what the folks on the right saw in the 2020 election was a massive turnout of all people of color, many for the first time ever. In past years, our community really wasn't targeted specifically or reached out to by campaigns. Thus, if there were any voting restrictions the Republicans could be very creative about coming up with, our community wasn't really targeted. That all changed in 2020. They saw this massive surge of voters in places like Georgia. In places like Arizona."
"The south and the sunbelt are the fastest-growing states in the country. And, particularly for AAPI's, we tend to be in all those southern and sunbelt states, the fastest-growing segments of the population. When 2020 hit, they saw that AAPI's were starting to vote in a way they hadn't before. So they doubled down on the voting restrictions they had already proposed in years past targeted at other people of color, but now also restricting the right to vote of AAPI's."
"The voting restrictions that they are trying to enact were in many cases enacted in 2020 because of the pandemic. A lot of legislatures made it easier to vote. They would have mail drop-off boxes or allow a little more flexibility in terms of registering to vote. Most of those restrictions people of color took advantage of, and certainly, AAPI's did. As a result, the right is now clawing back and making it harder to vote."
"Folks on the right continue to perpetuate these lies and the misinformation and disinformation, trying to restrict the rights of all voters. The politics of it all has now reached the highest court in our land."
"If you are living in a society where you really wanted all people to vote, you would put voting information in multiple languages. In certain cases, there have been restrictions on that."

Watch Varun's segment with Nomiki Konst here.

To speak with Varun Nikore or any of the leaders at the AAPI Victory Alliance on the growing AAPI electorate, and the need to increase outreach to the election-determining voter bloc, please contact Jared Munson (Jared.Munson@firesidecampaigns.com).