“Pinoy Pride” slogans, meals with community members, in-language ads and recruiting Filipino Americans for the campaign. With just over a month before the election, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has been courting a group of Asian American voters, Filipino Americans, that may play a decisive role in the crucial swing state of Nevada.
Last week, the Democratic candidate’s campaign announced a blitz targeting the Filipino American community in Las Vegas, with ads highlighting Harris’ support for “Pinoy Pride.” It was the latest in the candidate’s continued efforts to connect with Filipino American voters in the state.
While Asian Americans make up almost 12% of Nevada’s electorate, well over the previous margin of victory, Filipino Americans constitute by far the largest ethnic group in that demographic. And given the high stakes election, those connected with the campaign say the voting bloc shouldn’t be taken for granted.
“In the Filipino community, you get one person, then they tell their whole family. People are filling out their voter cards, and they’re sharing it with all their cousins and their aunties on WhatsApp,” said Assemblywoman Erica Mosca, a Filipino American and senior adviser to the Harris campaign in Nevada. “When we’re motivated, we will vote.”
The new ads also include some emblazoned with the Filipino greeting “Mabuhay!” which translates to “Long live!” They were placed at a celebration of Filipino heritage, the Pinoy Pride Festival, appearing atop taxis, at bus shelters and on billboards, a few days before the beginning of October’s Filipino American History Month.
The ad blitz follows several other efforts made in the past few months to mobilize the Asian American community. In January, the then-Biden-Harris campaign in Nevada held its first event at Filipino-owned restaurant Truffles and Bacon, featuring acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su. With Nevada Democrats, the campaign also held a kamayan feast, a traditional communal Filipino meal, at the Southwest field office earlier this year.
“It shows people we’re not just trying to say, ‘hey, vote for us,’” Mosca said. “We’re actually understanding your culture … and we’re trying to connect like regular people with politics and policy.”
The Trump campaign has also been reaching out to Filipino voters, pointing out that the “Filipinos for Trump in Nevada” group meets monthly and that the campaign has booths at local Asian American, Pacific Islander and Filipino festivals and markets, an Republican National Committee spokesperson said in an email to NBC News.
“In Nevada, Team Trump has been on the ground engaging with Asian American voters, including the Filipino community,” said Halee Dobbins, RNC’s state communications director in Nevada.
The Filipino community has expanded in recent years, with many relocating from Hawaii and California in response to rising housing prices. Filipino immigrants have also arrived in the area, recruited by hospitals and schools to fill a shortage of nurses and teachers. There are currently about 178,655 Filipino Americans in the state, according to AAPI Data.
To launch national organizing and engagement efforts targeting Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, Harris traveled to Las Vegas in July to deliver remarks. And ahead of the event, the campaign launched ads in local ethnic media, including the Philippine Times of Southern Nevada and the Asian Journal. The first ads targeting the larger AANHPI community, released in August, featured Las Vegas-based Filipino American community leader Rozita Lee speaking about protecting the Affordable Care Act.
These efforts, Mosca said, have been years in the making and the result of the Filipino American community’s increasing political power and civic engagement. In 2016, there were no Asian American state legislators, she pointed out, and that number has since grown to seven. Similar growth has been seen across campaigns and local organizing, she said.
“I don’t think you can easily get the thousands of people who have been coming out, if it was the first touch point,” Mosca said. “Now we’re seeing people on the staff are Filipino; they’re hiring people like myself to be senior advisers on the campaign. It’s like we’re finally seeing that next step not just in the community, but in leadership.”
The Asian American and Pacific Islander population in Nevada has ballooned considerably since 2012, with an increase of over 45%. A recent national Asian American voter survey found that so far, 59% of Filipino Americans found Kamala Harris favorable, in comparison to 29% who found former President Donald Trump favorable.
With a month to go, Abby Herrera, a 19-year-old Filipino American organizer with grassroots nonprofit One APIA Nevada, said more can always be done to attract Filipino American voters. Issues such as language barriers and misinformation continue to be challenges within the community, she said. She emphasized the importance of candidates addressing the community in person.
Herrera said that with more Filipino Americans running in local elections and serving in local offices, presidential candidates should take this shored up political participation as a sign.
“If they’re already affecting our down ballot here now, just imagine how they can affect the federal elections,” Herrera said of the Filipino vote.
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