OUR WORK

Endorsements

A political endorsement is an official statement of support from APANO AF for a particular candidate. It means the candidate’s record, performance in office or promise of future relations align greatly with APANO AF’s mission and values to better serve the Asian Pacific Islander community. 

Learn more

Running for office or re-election?

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Step One

Stay Up to Date

  • Subscribe to our newsletter to get important news, event information and endorsement application announcements.
Subscribe to our Newsletter

Step Two

Endorsement Application

Complete APANO AF's candidate endorsement application and submit via email to our Political, Policy, Advocacy & Civic Engagement (PPACE) team at contact@apanoactionfund.org.

Endorsement Application

Step Three

Candidate Interview

  • We invite candidates to interview with our endorsement committee. Our endorsement committee members are APANO AF staff, board members, volunteers, partners and community members.
  • Candidate’s policy vision and platform, questionnaire responses, interview and interaction with APANO AF members & staff, understanding of APANO AF’s mission, and voting record (or professional record if they have not held elected office) are considerations in our endorsement. Endorsement Committees will recommend a candidate(s) to the APANO AF C4 Board, who will ultimately decide APANO AF candidate endorsements by majority-vote.
  • The evaluation is a holistic process. However, APANO AF’s evaluation strongly emphasizes the following 5 key points of focus, in no particular order: Equity Analysis, Gender/LGBTQ Analysis, Candidate Voting/Professional Track Record, Knowledge of and Commitment to Oregon’s Asian and Pacific Islander communities, Equity in Political Representation

Step Four

Endorsement Decision!

An APANO AF endorsement for a candidate means the candidate can tell voters they have the visible support and backing of the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. An APANO AF endorsement may also include additional financial, communication and field resources, including but not limited to financial contributions, social media outreach, mailing, phone banks, and campaign management and volunteers.

APANO AF is a member-driven organization, and members are consistently engaged in determining the organization’s electoral fights through surveys, conversations, events, and partner interest. APANO AF considers which electoral races to work in (“Priority Races”) by using certain selection criteria.

They include:

  • Elected position purview and potential ability to impact or influence API lives
  • APANO AF members in district, concentration of Asian and Pacific Islanders, and opportunity to grow base
  • APANO AF issue campaign or concerns (including national) at stake in district
  • APANO AF can make a difference in the race, it is a close, competitive race, opportunity for AAPIs to work on campaigns
  • Strengthens APANO AF’s long-term capacity and growth
  • We reserve the right to endorse OR not endorse in any specific race.
  • We reserve the right to not endorse if a clear champion cannot be identified by our outlined criteria, or under certain circumstances, we may consider a dual endorsement.
  • Completion of a candidate questionnaire does not guarantee an interview or endorsement.