A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight, we are having an election reflection. This is your host, Miko Lee, and it’s been a bit over a week since the history-making and herstory-breaking US midterm elections. We get to hear from two powerful women leaders, Nancy Xiong from Hmong Innovating Politics Action Fund, and Farah Mizrahi from Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, POWER. We recorded this interview on Thursday, November fifth, and you’ll hear us talk about a few races that were eagerly being watched. More info about our guests: Hmong Innovating Politics Alliance of South Asians Taking Action Show Transcript [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It’s time to get on board the Apex Express. [00:00:34] Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express. Tonight, we are having an election reflection. This is your host, Miko Lee, and it’s been a bit over a week since the history-making and herstory-breaking US midterm elections. We get to hear from two powerful women leaders, Nancy Xiong from Hmong Innovating Politics Action Fund, and Farah Mizrahi from Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, POWER. We recorded this interview on Thursday, November fifth, and you’ll hear us talk about a few races that were eagerly being watched. Today, as I’m recording, it’s Tuesday, November tenth, and the congressional race of Mai Vang and Fremont City Council race Aziz Ekbari have not been officially called yet. In Fresno, Council One, Nandip Singh currently leads by 199 votes. So when folks say their votes don’t count, just listen to how close these numbers are. 199, that is amazing. Voting clearly does make a difference. We saw a huge Asian American Pacific Islander turnout during this midterm election, and we saw that 84% of young AAPI women voted for the Democratic House candidates, just behind young Black women. 79% of young AAPI men voted for Democratic House candidates, the highest of all racial groups. With the new incoming Congress members, we will have the largest number of AAPIs in Congress, and yet we’ll still only equal 4% of the Congress, nowhere near equal the 9% of our population. We’ll also have the largest number of women in Congress, but women only make up 28% of Congress when women represent 51% of the population. In twenty-twenty five, the average age of an American is 39. The average age of a Congress member is 60. That’s the average age. So despite our amazing gains in this midterm elections, Congress is still primarily held by older, straight, cisgendered white men. So y’all, we still have a lot of work to do. But for now, let’s celebrate the victories and talk about the path forward with my guests, Nancy Xiong from Hmong Innovating Politics Action Fund, and Farah Mizrahi from Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, POWER. Welcome to Apex Express, my colleagues, my powerful women. I would love it if you could introduce yourselves today. Our episode is called Election Reflection: Midterms 2026, and we’re just all riding… I at least w- am riding the blue wave and feeling incredibly happy right now. I’d love you to introduce yourselves say who you are, what organization you work with, and what’s rising up for you right now. Let’s start with Nancy. [00:04:04] Nancy Xiong: Hi, everyone. I’m Nancy Xiong. I’m the executive director for Hmong Innovating Politics, and I’ve been reflecting a lot with my team, or mostly my directors, in the last couple of days, and I think I just feel a lot of hope, and more so hope in, like, our young people and, like, our group of volunteers, like folks that have continuously shown out even though there was this big influx of, like, ICE in our regions, and I think there was a lot of fear. And I think just the courage and bravery that people have shown in the last month. I feel a lot of hope because of that. You know, taking it one day at a time as well, ’cause I have a lot of thoughts on this, but, um, I just, I, I know that we are in the right relationships, and I, I feel really good about that. [00:04:47] Miko Lee: Thank you so much, Nancy. And I just want to say officially, today when we’re recording this is November 5th, so it’s a couple of days after the midterm elections. Um, and this will actually air next week, and so we don’t even know what’s gonna happen by next week. There’s so many races that aren’t even called. But I wanna invite my other guest to introduce herself. Farah? [00:05:08] Farah Mahesri: My name is Farah Mehesri. I organize with the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action Power, so ASATA POWER. And I’m sitting kind of with two things. One is, Nancy, ...
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