Abrams attempts to engage AAPI voters, criticizes Kemp’s record on gun control
As Georgia elections become more and more competitive, every vote counts. That’s why candidates are tapping into voting communities that are typically under-engaged.
This election cycle, Stacey Abrams honed in on gun violence in the Asian American Pacific Islander community with an online commercial featuring the former husband of Xiaojie Tan, who was killed in the Atlanta spa shootings last year.
In the ad, Michael Webb calls out Gov. Brian Kemp. He said Kemp’s ties to the NRA and his policies that allow open gun access empower people like the shooter who killed his ex-wife.
“Now, I’m not a Democrat. I’m a gun owner and a hunter,” Webb said in the ad. “But I cannot remain silent.”
Experts say this kind of ad could sway groups that don’t always vote – in this instance, the Asian American Pacific Islander community.
Ben Taylor is a political science professor at Kennesaw State University. He said campaigns have to perfect a difficult calculation of what will actually motivate groups and not isolate other voters.
“You’re trying to find an issue on which the incumbent, in this case, Brian Kemp, has somehow perhaps fallen out of step with public opinion,” Taylor said.
In September, Abrams hosted a town hall on gun violence with Asian American leaders and Georgia politicians. At the event, she emphasized how Kemp’s position on guns disregards the violence Georgia’s AAPI community has faced.
“The response from the governor of Georgia was not to take up legislation offered by our AAPI caucus–proffered by those men and women who speak not only with that community, but tried to give voice to that community,” said Abrams.
Tate Mitchell from the Kemp campaign said, “While Stacey Abrams weaponizes the grief of a community to fearmonger and lie about the governor’s record of keeping Georgians safe, Gov. Kemp will keep fighting to rid our streets of violent criminals.”
Taylor said democratic campaigns have to thread the needle in Georgia to hit the right tone.
“Particularly as a challenging candidate, you are trying to find every possible avenue to whittle away just 500 votes there, 1,000 votes here,” he said, “just trying to get just ever so close to that 50% margin.”
According to the nonprofit Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, in 2020, 185,000 AAPI voters cast a ballot. That was up 63% from 2016. This year, there are more than 250,000 eligible AAPI voters in the state.
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