The Asian American Political Action Committee Endorses Candidates For 2022 City, County And State

By Yvonne Lim Wilson

AUSTIN, TX – Multiple Asian American organizations, namely, Asian and Pacific Islander American Public Affairs (APAPA), Indian American Coalition of Texas (IACT), Network of Asian American Organizations (NAAO - an umbrella organization of 15 Asian American Organizations), Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce (GAACC), Korean American Association of Greater Austin (KAAGA), Austin Texans for Justice, Bangladesh Association of Greater Austin (BAGA), and Association of Austin Chinese American Network (ACAN) hosted a candidate forum at the main Austin Public Library in downtown Austin.

his forum was attended mostly by members of the Asian American community but was open to all residents of Central Texas.

The stated purpose of the meeting from the point of view of the sponsoring organizations was to introduce the candidates to the community and for the candidates to meet the community, and let community members decide who they wish to vote for.

Also in attendance at this meeting were members of the Asian American Political Action Committee (AA PAC).

Candidates running for elected offices in Austin, Travis County and also state representative level were interviewed at the events.

The sponsors of this event, as well as the attendees, deeply appreciate that so many citizens who have declared their candidacy with the goal of working for the betterment of the city, county and state attended this event and suggested various solutions during the Q&A period.

Following the forum, AA PAC members met both face-to-face and over Zoom to evaluate the written responses from the candidates that were returned prior to the candidate forum and also comments from the different candidates at the forum and decided on the following endorsements only, based on a minimum 2/3 super-majority voting by the PAC members in attendance at this latter meeting to endorse a candidate in a particular position.

The list of the candidates endorsed by the AA PAC are listed below:

City of Austin:

Mayor: Kirk Watson

Council District 1: Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison

Council District 3: Daniella Silva

Council District 5: Ken Craig

Council District 9: Linda Guerrero

Travis County:

County Judge: County Judge Andy Brown

Texas State House of Representatives:

District 20: Raul Camacho

District 46: Tom Kost

District 47: Rep. Vikki Goodwin

District 48: Rep. Donna Howard

District 50: Rep. James Talarico

District 51: Rep. Maria Luisa (Lulu) Flores

District 136: Rep. John Bucy III

ACC Board of Trustees:

Place 4: Sean Hassan

Place 6: Steve Jacobs

AISD Board of Trustees:

District 4: Kathryn Whitley Chu

District 6: Geronimo Rodriguez

At-Large Position 9: Arati Singh