Views: 2176
|
Replies:0
|
Asian-Americans at Republican Convention Unite for Trump Following Nomination
By INDIAWEST
|
OP
08/26/2016
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Many Asian-American and Pacific Islander delegates and guests at the Republican National Convention appeared to be uniting in support of presidential candidate Donald Trump as the real-estate mogul received the GOP's official nomination July 19 evening. Cutting taxes, strengthening the national defense, and creating jobs were among the reasons AAPI Republicans said they were rallying behind Trump, though some had supported other GOP candidates in the past. "It's as simple as ABC — anybody but Clinton," Maryland delegate Dwight Patel, an Indian American from Bethesda, Maryland, told NBC News. "Never, ever Hillary." Before Trump, Patel, an architect, said he had supported Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. But the choice to get behind the billionaire candidate was a clear one, he said. "Hillary is going to be a continuation of the failed policies of the Obama-Biden policies of the last eight years," Patel said. Trump's platform calls for repealing the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, and changing the law preventing the sale of health insurance across state lines, a move that proponents say would eliminate the bureaucracy of state insurance regulations and decrease administrative costs. Support for Trump also seemed to be crystallizing among other non-delegate AAPI Republicans who were at the Quicken Loans Arena on the second day of the convention, which included an opening Sikh prayer from incoming California national committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon and a closing benediction from American Muslims for Trump founder Sajid Tarar. National Committee of Asian American Republicans executive director Cliff Li originally backed Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, but like Patel, the Maryland delegate, his choice comes down to "anybody but Clinton." Jingjing Clemence, a Chinese-American Asian.GOP member, told NBC News that "in Texas, to me, frankly, he [Trump] was not our first or second nominee," though now she's behind him for the same reasons other AAPI Republicans have noted, reported NBC News. Asked about Trump's mock accents of Asians in the past, Clemence did acknowledge that those jabs sometimes hurt. The Asian American electorate is expected to double by 2040.
0
0
|
|