AAPI political action committee backs Nevada to host first-in-nation Democratic presidential primary

A political action committee that backs Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) candidates on Wednesday expressed its support of Nevada’s bid to host the first-in-the-nation Democratic presidential primary in 2024. 

“If Nevada were to host the first primary, it would encourage presidential campaigns to engage the AAPI community earlier in the cycle and more meaningfully,” the ASPIRE PAC announced in its endorsement Wednesday.

The committee, founded by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and now chaired by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), joins the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), the Bold PAC, which said in its endorsement last week that the move would mean better representation for Latino voters.

Growing Latino and Asian American populations in the state would make for an early primary more reflective of the nation’s diverse demographics, both groups said. 

AAPI voter turnout rose 46 percent between the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, and Hispanic voter turnout climbed 30 percent in that same period. 

The AAPI community is the nation’s fastest-growing demographic, ASPIRE PAC said in the release, and its voters “played a key role in Georgia and nationwide in delivering Democrats control of both the Senate and the White House.” Hispanic voters make up the second-largest voter bloc by ethnicity.

Recent polling shows that Democrats are losing support from AAPI voters in some Senate battleground states and that Biden is losing steam among Hispanic voters. 

A first-in-the-nation primary in Nevada, with its significant AAPI and Latino populations, will “demand future presidential candidates spend more time and invest more resources” in talking to critical voter groups early in the cycle, Bold PAC leaders said in a statement accompanying the group’s endorsement last week.