Harris launches Asian American voter outreach initiative for Biden campaign

Vice President Harris on Tuesday launched an initiative to engage Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) voters for President Biden’s reelection campaign ahead of November.

Harris posted a video on the social platform X announcing the initiative. She is the first person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

“Like so many, we were raised, all of us, to understand the value of hard work, the importance of community, and the duty we all have to have some level of concern and care about the well-being of other people and our duty to then do something about it,” she said.

Harris said that the initiative is aimed at making sure that Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander voices are heard at the ballot box.

“Asian Americans must be in the rooms where the decisions are made,” she said.

Harris is set to headline a kickoff event for the initiative in Las Vegas later on Tuesday and will be joined by television host Padma Lakshmi. She will then travel to Philadelphia on Saturday to give a keynote speech at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote Presidential Town Hall.

“The Biden-Harris administration has made it clear that AANHPIs are not ‘others’: We belong. And that’s why we’ll rally around the only candidate who belongs in the White House again come November: Joe Biden,” Biden campaign co-Chair Tammy Duckworth said in a statement.

The Biden campaign has launched initiatives aimed at engaging other key voting blocs, including LGBTQ voters, and the campaign launched a $14 million ad campaign for May focused on reaching Black, Latino and Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander voters.