Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is aggressively courting Filipino voters in the key swing state of Nevada.
The Asian American population has risen in the state in recent years, coming to make up 12% of the total state population, NBC News reported . Of these, an overwhelming majority are Filipinos, many of whom fled Hawaii and California in recent years due to rising costs. The Harris campaign sees this burgeoning demographic as a decisive factor in capturing the state’s six Electoral College votes, and it has invested a significant amount of resources to win them over.
In 2024, over 2.1 million Filipinos will be eligible to vote, with likely the most decisive population residing in Nevada. The state has one of the five largest Filipino populations, most of whom lean Democratic or independent. The Filipino population in the United States is also growing rapidly, increasing by 30% from 2010 to 2020, AAPI Data reported .
A recent initiative targeted the Filipino American community in Las Vegas, with ads showing Harris’s support for “Pinoy Pride.” The campaign has been doing events specifically targeting Filipinos since January when acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su represented then-candidate Joe Biden at an event in a Filipino restaurant.