Asian Americans in politics
There are presently 16 Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders in the House and 2 in the Senate in the 118th United States Congress.Norman Mineta became the first Asian American Cabinet member when he was appointed secretary of commerce by President Bill Clinton in 2000.In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Eric Shinseki to the position of secretary of veterans affairs, which he held until 2014.In 2021, Kamala Harris became the highest ranking Asian-American to serve in a cabinet as 49th Vice President of the United States.President Joe Biden also appointed Katherine Tai to serve as U.S. Trade Representative, a cabinet-level position.[50][51] In 2020, Tulsi Gabbard, who is of Samoan descent [52][53] became the second woman of color and the first Asian-American and Pacific-Islander (AAPI) presidential candidate to earn major party primary delegates.[61] In the 1992 presidential election Republican George H. W. Bush received 55% of the Asian-American vote compared to 31% for Democrat Bill Clinton.[66] Despite their growing trend of voting for Democrats in national elections, Asian Americans have tended to identify as independents and have not developed strong ties to political parties as a group.
Asian Americanspolitics in the United StatesRepublicansGeorge H.W. BushDemocratic PartyKamala HarrisIndian AmericanDemocraticAsian-AmericanSenatorHiram FongChineseRepublicanHawaiiDaniel InouyeJapaneseS. I. HayakawaCaliforniaSpark MatsunagaDaniel AkakaHawaiianJohn EnsignFilipinoNevadaMazie HironoTammy DuckworthIllinoisIndianVice PresidentAndy KimKoreanNew JerseyJapanese AmericanNative HawaiianIndian-AmericanRepresentativeDalip Singh SaundU.S. SenatePatsy MinkDied in officeNorman MinetaSecretary of CommerceSecretary of TransportationappointedBob MatsuiMervyn DymallyPat Saikirun unsuccessfullyJay KimBobby ScottVirginiaelected to the U.S. SenateDavid WuTaiwaneseOregonMike HondaBobby JindalLouisianarun successfullyGovernorDoris MatsuiSteve AustriaJoseph CaoVietnameseJudy ChuCharles DjouHansen ClarkeBangladeshiMichiganColleen HanabusaAmi BeraGrace MengNew YorkMark TakanoTed LieuMark TakaiPramila JayapalWashingtonRo KhannaRaja KrishnamoorthiStephanie MurphyFloridaTJ CoxYoung KimMichelle SteelMarilyn StricklandShri ThanedarJill TokudaVince FongDouglaKorean AmericanTaiwanese AmericanVietnamese AmericanChinese-AmericanThai AmericanBangladeshi ancestryTaiwanese-AmericanVietnamese-AmericanKorean-AmericanGeorge AriyoshiBen CayetanoFilipino AmericanGary LockeChinese AmericanAsian Americancontinental United StatesU.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesReconstructionNikki HaleyGovernor of South CarolinaLexington CountySouth Carolina House of RepresentativesSikh AmericanDavid IgeOkinawanJames KealohaLieutenant Governor of HawaiiAndrew T. F. IngMarch Fong EuSecretary of State of CaliforniaNelson DoiJapanese-AmericanJean Sadako KingS. B. WooLieutenant Governor of DelawareCheryl Lau