14 Asian American members of 2023 California State Legislature sworn into office

(SAN FRANCISCO) New members of the California Senate and Assembly formed the 2023 State Legislature and were sworn into office on Dec. 5. Under the new legislature, Asian American state legislators accounted for 14 seats with three newly-elected Asian women members. Chinese American state legislators were down from 8 to 6 in two years.

Fewer Chinese American legislators were elected in recent years on local and state levels that have raised concerns within the community. San Francisco District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar who lost in his re-election race in the November election also broke a record that the voters of the Sunset District, the city's largest Chinese and Asian supervisorial district, elected their first non-Chinese Supervisor, Joel Engardio, in 22 years since the district election was implemented.

Fremont Mayor Lily Mei who ran for State Senator lost to Aisha Wahab, former Hayward City Council Member and first Afghan-American woman elected to public office in the United States.

All members of the Assembly serve for a two-year term. By looking back at the made up of Asian state legislators two years ago in the 2021-2022 session, there were 14 Asian members including only one woman who was Vietnamese American Assemblymember Janet Nguyen, R-Orange County. Among the 14 Asian legislators, 8 of them were Chinese Americans. Janet Nguyen was elected to the State Senate in the November election 2022.

Two years later now in the 2023-2024 session, also 14 Asian elected members serve in the State legislature, but Asian women have increased from one to four. Janet Nguyen and Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, were elected to the State Senate. Vietnamese American Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove, and Indian American physician Jasmeet Bains, D-Bakersfield, were elected to the Assembly.

Since former State Senator Richard Pan finished his full term by the end of the last session, there is no Chinese American member in the State Senate. The Chinese community also lost one seat in the Assembly when David Chiu left the Assembly in 2021 to become San Francisco City Attorney.

Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, now begins to serve his final term in the Assembly until 2024. In response to the situation where fewer Chinese Americans were elected to the State Legislature, Ting said different Asian communities were necessary to support each other.

"Our API Legislative Caucus is very proud of the three new female members joining the Legislature. Since there are two majority API seats in California, our members can only be elected by building coalitions with other communities in our neighborhood," said Ting.

"I am very concerned about San Francisco. Just a few years ago, we had five API members, four of which were Chinese Americans, on our Board of Supervisors. After this election, we are down to only one Chinese American on our Board of Supervisors," Ting shared his thoughts on the San Francisco situation. "This is a direct result of the new district maps which diluted the API and Chinese American votes in San Francisco's Supervisorial Districts. Our community needs to do a better job during redistricting and we have to focus on building a pipeline of candidates in the coming years."

Assemblymember Evan Low, D-Cupertino, takes over as the new Chair of the API Legislative Caucus in the new session of the State Legislature. Low did not respond to a request for comment by Wind Newspaper.

State Treasurer Fiona Ma was re-elected for her second term in the November election. Ma remembered when she was first elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors serving from 2000 to 2006, she was the only Chinese and Asian Supervisor. In later years, more Chinese and Asian Americans were elected to sit on the Board of Supervisors.

"Candidates still need to do active outreach to certain segments of the Chinese American voters through in-language radio, TV, phone banking and door to door, as I did in my 2002 race, to let them know why they should vote for a candidate or initiative," said Ma. "I believe the Chinese American community led the way to recall Chesa, recall three School Board Members and elect Brooke Jenkins. Gordon Mar did not do that type of active outreach to the Chinese American community to my knowledge."

"The more English speaking consistent Chinese American voters are not voting by surname anymore, but on the candidate and what they stand for, what they have done," Ma stated.

Henry Der, former Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco, urged more Chinese and Asian Americans to join public service. "Richard Pan's terming out will be the same problem that we will face in San Francisco when Assemblymember Phil Ting terms out."

"Ting has been a terrific state legislator heading the Assembly Budget Committee, successfully working with the Governor's office to direct a lot of resources to fight anti-Asian hate and to preserve Chinese/Asian culture with the cultural center on the corner of Grant and Clay Streets (in San Francisco Chinatown) , and the preservation of Angel Island Immigration Station, to name a few," said Der. " A new generation of Chinese/Asian leaders will have to emerge to fight for these legislative and political seats."

In regard to the latest election outcome on D4 Supervisor race, Der said Supervisor Mar had to contend with more conservative voters under the new redistricting map. "Chinese American voters in the Sunset also have only themselves to blame for the defeat of Supervisor Mar. A goodly number of Chinese Americans who voted for the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin did not like Gordon Mar's not supporting the recall," said Der. "Have we Chinese Americans witnessed District Attorney Brooke Jenkins bringing hate crime charges against recent Chinese/Asian victims? No."

Maeley Tom, national Chinese American Democratic Party leader and trailblazer in the California State Legislature as the first woman and first Chinese American Chief Administrative Officer to both the State Senate and Assembly respectively, believed in the bright future of Chinese American in politics.

"The Chinese Americans still represent the majority of the joint APIA Legislative Caucus if we include State Treasurer Fiona Ma. The remaining representatives include one Korean, two South Asians, one Japanese American, one Afghan and two Vietnamese," said Tom.

“The future for Chinese Americans in politics continues to be bright with the recent election of California Representatives Ted Lieu holding the 4th most powerful democratic position in Congress, Judy Chu's success in leading the pro-choice movement in Congress while also serving as the Chair of the Congressional APA Caucus, and the success of New York Congresswoman Grace

Meng in leading the legislation denouncing anti-Asian hate crime and the creation of a commission to study the feasibility of a National Smithsonian Institution on Asian American contributions," said Tom. "These achievements by our Chinese Americans in Congress all point to Chinese American's leadership and continuing influence in American politics."

"Chinese Americans have a lengthier history in electoral politics, once being the dominant political voice, but the recent upsurge of other APIA groups getting elected is a very healthy movement for our community to showcase the diversity of our community, culture, and talent," Tom stated. “The California API Legislative Caucus demonstrated this leadership by its strong support in helping a multitude of API candidates from different API sub ethnic backgrounds get elected and thus joining forces to speak as one voice representing the APIA community in California.”