FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 2020
Contact: Donna De La Cruz, ddelacruz@napawf.org

(WASHINGTON)—Yesterday, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) launched its “Awake. Aware. Activated. Agitator.” t-shirt campaign with support from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) celebrities including Michele Selene Ang, Aparna Brielle and Ellen Pao. AAPI women turned out to vote in historic numbers in 2018 and the campaign aims to drive AAPI women voters to make history again this year while dispelling the myth that our community is a “sleeping political giant.” 

Actors, activists, and other AAPI influencers are posting photos of themselves wearing the t-shirt to their social media platforms with the hashtag #AAPIWomenVote and urging followers to commit to voting in November. Participants also include Miki Ishikawa, Shuang Hu, Ai-Jen Poo, Poorna Jagannathan, Amanda Nguyen, Jennifer Chung, Kiirstin Leigh, Nadya Okamoto, Celia Au, Sujata Day and Isabel Sandoval.

“AAPI women voters are deeply concerned about the political status quo and highly motivated to exercise our right to vote,” said Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director of NAPAWF. “AAPI communities hold a powerful and untapped potential to be a force for progressive change. Despite the misconception that our communities are a ‘sleeping political giant,’ our experience on the ground, engaging with, and listening to, these voters shows that AAPI women are very much awake, engaged, and motivated to vote.”

NAPAWF released its Mighty Voices report earlier this year that showed that AAPI women are motivated to vote in spite of barriers. The report showed that:

  • 86% of AAPI women voters believed the stakes were too high not to vote.

  • 28% of AAPI women voters faced barriers when they voted in 2018. 

NAPAWF is currently engaging historically ignored AAPI women voters in five states, Illinois, Arizona, Indiana, Florida, and Georgia, and providing them with information and resources in 15 different AAPI languages in order to ensure access to the ballot box in 2020. 

All proceeds from the t-shirt campaign support NAPAWF.

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The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) is the only multi-issue, progressive, community organizing and policy advocacy organization for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women and girls in the U.S. NAPAWF’s mission is to build a movement to advance social justice and human rights for AAPI women and girls.