China Overseas Chinese Network, November 8th. 2018 US midterm elections Chinese enthusiasm for running for elections has been unprecedentedly high. When voting in New York was rainy, it failed to extinguish the enthusiasm of Chinese voting. According to reports from the Chinese-language media in the United States, Chinese candidates were very enthusiastic in this midterm election, including new immigrants, veterans wearing armor and fighting again, and Chinese newcomers were trying their best in the first attempt. Now that the election results have been announced one after another, the results of Chinese participation in politics are gratifying. Many federal lawmakers were successfully re-elected, and Liu Chunyi and others were elected as state-level lawmakers, writing the history of Chinese people participating in politics in their states.
Good news frequently spread, Chinese people participated in politics and created history
At the congressional level, according to the vote statistics on the evening of the 6th, Representatives of the New York State 6th Constituency, who represented the Democratic Party to be re-election, passed the 90% votes and successfully re-election; California The 27th Constituency Federal Representatives Zhao Meixin crushed his opponent with nearly 4 times the number of votes and sounded the clarion call for victory in advance; Representative Liu Yunping, a 33-constituency, who competed for 3 re-election, won 66.3%, and once again staged a big victory in the primary election.
California District 49 Rep. Zhou Benli, California District 55 Rep. Phillip Chen; Illinois Rep. Theresa Mah; Maryland Chinese Senator Susan Lee and State Rep. Clarence Lam also received re-election.
Illinois's Chinese candidate Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz successfully became the second Chinese-American state member in Illinois history after Ma Jingyi.
The World Journal said that former New York City Comptroller Liu Chunyi once again wrote about Asian political participation and was elected as a senator in the 11th constituency and was the first Asian person in the New York State Senate.
Hundreds of Liu Chunyi (speaker) supporters celebrated Liu Chunyi's election in a restaurant in Flushing on the evening of the 6th. (Photo by World Journal/Mulan)
Michigan Chinese state senator candidate for the first constituency of the Senate, Stephanie Chang, was elected to the state senator with a high vote on the 6th, becoming the first Chinese state senator in Michigan history.
The performance of new Chinese immigrants is not inferior. Lily Qi from Shanghai served as deputy administrator of Montgomery County, Maryland. In this election, she became the 15th constituency state representative of Maryland with the second place vote, and was the first first generation Chinese immigrant to be elected as a state representative in Maryland.
American Chinese lawyer Li Changyong won the universal election on the 6th without a competitor and was elected as a civil litigation judge in the Municipal Court District 2 of the United States, becoming the first democratically elected Chinese judge to be a new immigrant from mainland China.
Chinese Deeply foster the grassroots level, run for election with laughter and tears
City-level election results have been partially announced. Previously, 24 Chinese candidates from Irvine, California, joined the Irvine City Councilman and mayoral election, which attracted much attention. The 36-year-old Chinese second generation Guo Zhengming became the final winner and became the first Chinese parliamentarian since the founding of Irvine. Guo Zhengming grew up in Irvine and started volunteering in the government since high school. He emphasized that based on the grassroots level and serving the community residents step by step is his greatest satisfaction.
Chinese candidate Katherine Lee has served as a director of the Alhambra Teachers Association for more than 12 years and has an in-depth understanding of the community's livelihood and education. Now he has taken over Shen Shikang (Stephen Sham) and has become a council member of the First District of Alhambra City. Wu Tonghuai, West Kewenna City and You Yulin, East Gu City, were successfully running for elections. Zhang Yingchao, New Jersey, defeated Wang Yanmei and was elected as a West Windsor city council member. Aimee Eng, who is running for re-election for Auckland Second District School Committee, has been elected because he has no other competitors.
In addition, the Chinese candidates who have gotten rid of the waiting and have successfully won the election include: Zhen Mingxin, the Education Committee of Alhambra School District, Tong Yi, the Education Committee of Walnut Valley School District, Li Minni, the Director of Walnut Valley Water District, and Liu Xin, the Director of Xiruidu Community College; Wu Chao, a Chinese immigrant who participated in the election for the first time, was appointed as a member of the Education Committee of Howard County, Maryland.
There are good news and regrets in Chinese elections.In Rhode Island state, Allan Fung, a Chinese mayor in Cranston, has challenged the position of governor many times, but he still lost to his opponent this time and unfortunately lost. In 2008, he became the first mayor of Chinese descent in Rhode Island and was expected to become the first Chinese governor in the East.
California Senate Senate 22nd District candidate Wu Guoqing was also unfortunately defeated. He served as a three-term California Representative, a director of the community university, mayor and council member of Monterey Park.
In addition, Lin Xizhi and Weng Han, Walnut City Wu Lilun, Feng Yanhao, Irvine City Chen Gang, Sun Liqing, Huang Qiuhong, and Wang Baoling, Beicheng County Community College, were unfortunately unable to be elected.
Since the voting results have not been fully announced, will anyone write down a new record of Chinese American participation in politics? Let's wait and see.
From election assistance to voting, Chinese people are enthusiastic about participating in the event
Some Chinese people commented that in this midterm election, Chinese people's enthusiasm for participating in the event is comparable to that of the US presidential election year. In the early preparation stage, the two Chinese will support the banner of the Korean Republican candidate, Young Kim, in District 39, and use a plane to pull it over the constituency; Chinese high school students sign up to volunteer and sweep the streets and vote for the candidates they support. The candidates were surprised to say that they did not expect so many children to participate; and Chinese supporters also drove across cities to volunteer at the Chinese candidate's campaign office to express their support. The midterm elections followed the New York Marathon. Chinese people held up signs and advertised next to the marathon road, and then gathered opportunities to advertise for candidates they supported.
polling station welcomes many Chinese voters to vote. (Photo by World Journal/Huang Yiyi)
Although there were some accidents in this election, some polling stations in New York had to send ballots wrongly and the machine was broken; there was a problem with the Chinese translation of the ballots in Alameda County, California, USA. However, many Chinese people actively participated in the voting, queuing for half an hour, or even more than an hour, and were still waiting patiently, "Chinese people must come out to vote, I think it is worth waiting!" Chinese Ms. Chen told the American "Jiangsu Daily" reporter.
On the 6th, New York ushered in heavy rain, but due to the continued fermentation of issues such as Chinatown Central Street Prison, the reform of special high school examinations, and the legalization of recreational marijuana, Chinese voters in New York City were unprecedentedly enthusiastic about voting. The polling station of Sun Yixian Middle School, where Chinatown voters are concentrated, has arranged 6 translators who can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Taishan, Fujian and other Chinese languages. Zheng Yongjia, the head of the polling station of Confucius Building, said that as of 8 p.m., 70% of the votes that came to the station were Chinese voters, which was the highest turnout in the midterm elections in recent years.
In this universal suffrage, young Chinese voters have come to the voting site, and many of them are second-generation immigrants. Grace, who just graduated from university this year, brought her grandma to vote during the lunch break. Grace is a second-generation immigrant and is from Guangdong. "Grandma doesn't understand English and doesn't care about politics, but I think her vote is very important." She said that although she has not paid much attention to this election, she has carefully read the election recommendations of mainstream media and added her own ideas.
In Los Angeles Monterey Park City, Mr. Zhang was born and raised in the United States. He came to the voting center with his five-year-old child. "Although he still doesn't know anything, I hope to let him be influenced by it from a young age, so that he can understand that in the United States, being able to vote is a right, and cultivate children's awareness of being brave enough to participate in voting."
