Happy Holidays & Best Wishes for the New Year
By Joel Wong, December 20, 2018
Another year has come to an end and as many of us are taking time to enjoy and celebrate the holidays with our family and friends, the 80-20 PAC Board of Directors wishes everyone a Healthy, Peaceful, and Happy Holiday!
The November election brought out the highest numbers of voters in a mid-term election since 1914. The elections saw several firsts for women, racial minorities, and LGBT candidates, including the election of the first openly gay governor, the first female Muslim and the first female Native American member of the US Congress.
The net results are that the Democrats won big in the US Congress but the Republicans retained control of the Senate resulting a divided Legislative Branch. As reported in our November 10, 2018 Newsletter, 80-20 PAC participated and supported issues and candidates in California, Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Ohio with mixed results.
2018 was also significant for Asian Americans as there were at least two major efforts, where Asian American organizations tried to work together on common issues.
In response to FBI Director’s sweeping statement that many Chinese students are essentially spies for the Chinese government, 14 major Asian American organizations including AALDEF, AAJC, APALA, APAPA, ASIA, C.A.C.A., C-100, CKA, CAIR, JACL, OAC, SEARAC, UCA, drafted a letter in March, 2018 to the Director offering an opportunity to work with the FBI to formulate a coherent policy on this issue.
The other unity effort took place in August at a conference in Alaska under the leadership of Asian American Unity Coalition (AAUC). This effort was promoted by 80-20 EF under the leadership of S K Lo. Dr. Lo has subsequently joined the 80-20 PAC’s Board of Director and the AAUC effort will continue under a new 501 C3 organization supported by CLUSA and others.
We have also made a major effort to rejuvenated our Facebook page. Please visit our page and like our effort there
https://www.facebook.com/8020pac/?ref=bookmarks.
We have learned that the Interfaith Calendar organization has listed at least 14 religious holidays for the month of December. So, we will just wish everyone Happy Holidays and a Healthy and Successful New Year!
In the new year, your Board will be working hard to prepare for the upcoming Presidential Election as primary activities will start as early as February 2020. There are up to 20 Democratic and an unknown number of Republican candidates vying for the Presidency. 80-20 PAC will work hard to win equal opportunity and justice for all Asian Americans through a SWING bloc vote as this is our mission.
Joel Wong, President
80-20 National Asian American PAC