By Christina Oriel
LAS VEGAS — As the race for the open Senate seat in Nevada intensifies, Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) received a major endorsement from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) business leaders this week.
For the first time, the Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce (LVACC) announced support for a candidate in a federal race, its Filipino-American president, Sonny Vinuya, said on Tuesday, August 30.
According to Vinuya, Heck — who has represented Nevada’s 3rd district since 2011 — “has the honor, integrity and work ethic to best serve” and be a “real partner” to the AAPI community.
“In Dr. Heck, we have someone who does not take our support for granted, but engages with his constituents, really listens and cares about the needs of the [AAPI] community,” the chamber’s president told attendees at Lee’s Korean BBQ.
Heck — a physician and brigadier general in the Army Reserve — told the Asian Journal that he was “humbled” to have received the chamber’s first-ever endorsement, as it is a testament to the time he has invested in meeting with AAPIs in the greater Las Vegas area.
The Republican congressman has made quarterly appearances at LVACC events, including one last October where he spoke about foreign policy and trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region. He has also attended other AAPI community events, including those organized by Fil-Ams. (About 14 percent of his district’s voting age population is of Asian descent.)
That level of participation and accessibility was a major factor in deciding which candidate the 600-member chamber should endorse, Vinuya told the Asian Journal.
He added that Heck’s experience as a former small business owner resonates with many of the members.
“If we don’t empower our small business owners, our state and our nation will never get back on track and fully recover from this recession,” Heck said.
Over 50 percent of Nevadans are employed by small businesses, he noted.
Heck promised that should he win in November, he would stay engaged with the LVACC to help “create an environment that would truly allow Nevada to flourish.”
In addition to jobs and the economy, Heck said other issues that the AAPI community cares about are: education and access to health care.
“I firmly believe that you’ve got to return more responsibility to the states in how they run their education systems [and] that you can’t hold every school district in the state and in the country accountable by the same standard because they’re all different,” he told the Asian Journal.
He added that the Affordable Care Act “has not lived up to its expectations as the costs continue to escalate and people still don’t have access to health care.”
Heck’s Democratic opponent, former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, has also been doing her part to court AAPI voters — considered the fastest-growing group that could swing upcoming elections, including this race.
A voter survey released in May by APIAVote, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and APIA Data found that 26 percent of AAPIs in Nevada identified with the Republican Party, while 41 percent with the Democratic Party.
Most recently, Cortez Masto gave the keynote speech at an Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) reception in this city earlier in August, condemning Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s comments regarding immigration from the Philippines, which he called a “terrorist nation.”
She went on to say that the AAPI community “here in Las Vegas and across the country would suffer” under Trump and Heck.
Following the chamber’s endorsement, Cortez Masto’s campaign brushed it off as a “photo op.”
“…[I]t will not change the fact [Heck] voted to tear immigrant families apart and supports Donald Trump for president,” Sarah Zukowski, a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
A recent Suffolk University poll showed Cortez Masto and Heck both tied at 37 percent for the seat that will be vacated by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. (With reports from Robert Macabagdal / AJPress)
