NATASHA DEL TORO: Asian Americans are the country's fastest-growing ethnic group.

Now they're finding their voices at the polls.

LANCE CHEN (in Mandarin): DEL TORO: In America's battleground states, how will these voters choose?

FAN ZHANG (in Mandarin): DEL TORO: "First Vote" on America ReFramed.

♪ ♪ What's up, everybody?

So I'm here at the Trump event, Trump rally, in Kissimmee, Florida, and I bumped into Chinese Americans for Trump.

MAN: Hey, look at that.

Chinese Americans for Trump.

All right, tell me about it.

- We come from Chicago.

- Okay.

- We traveled two-and-a-half hours come here.

I want everybody know Chinese love Trump.

- Isabelle, what do you think of, uh, of David's shirt?

- Um, is it serious?

- (chuckling): Yeah, it's, it's serious.

(chanting): Build that wall!

Build that wall!

Build that wall!

REPORTER: Chinese Americans for Trump has been organizing through the Chinese social media app WeChat.

U.S.A.!

U.S.A.!

U.S.A.!

REPORTER: Started with three members and has grown to 8,000 people nationwide.

The majority of its members are originally from mainland China.

CHEN: We are law-abiding.

We are legal immigrants.

We are paying tax.

And we will get together to make America great again.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (train horn blaring) (drone whirring, birds twittering) (drone whirring) AUTOMATED VOICE: Landing.

(whirring stops) (controller beeps) (grunts) (soft chuckle) (in Mandarin): INTERVIEWER (in Mandarin): CHEN: INTERVIEWER: CHEN: INTERVIEWER: CHEN: ♪ - Hey, bro.

- Hey.

GUENEVERE: Yo!

- How's your day?

- Hello!

Hello!

Hi, camera.

(giggles) KUO: I was actually, uh, living in, in Beijing for the last 20 years.

In 2016, I moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with my family-- my wife, my two children.

So election season was, you know, in full swing.

My wife, she started to tell me that there were a surprising number of very vocal supporters of Trump.

I was absolutely shocked.

So I wrote this essay running down the various, the list of reasons why I thought that Trump was actually seeing support.

♪ Sit.

Shake.

High-five.

(Zhang speaking Mandarin) (Kuo repeating Mandarin) (Kuo growling playfully) INTERVIEWER (in Mandarin): ZHANG (in Mandarin): KUO: Basically, I'm angry at anyone, irrespective of where they come from, who votes for Trump.

So I'm angry at all of them.

Why am I especially angry at Chinese?

Because I guess part of me wants to think better of Chinese people.

♪ There used to be Sue Googe campaign signs all over the medians from here on 15-501, driving around, all over the place in the triangle.

So when I looked it up, sure enough, I mean, I saw, you know, pictures of her wearing a qipao with an AR-15 in her right hand and a semi-automatic pistol in her left hand.

And when I think about how I want more Asian Americans to participate-- more Chinese Americans to participate-- in American political life, this is not what I had in mind.

I mean, uh... INTERVIEWER: How come?

- Because she's a (bleep) Tea Partier, I mean, because she's, she's... She represents everything that I loathe in American politics.

♪ ♪ (in Mandarin): (laughing) Ooh!

INTERVIEWER (in Mandarin): GOOGE: INTERVIEWER: GOOGE: MC: And I would like to introduce another true American.

Sue Googe was a congressional candidate.

She fled Communist China.

She has come to America legally.

And she's an entrepreneur and has her own business at this point.

She is a firebrand for conservatives and I am so proud to introduce Miss Sue Googe.

(cheers and applause) GOOGE: Thank you.

Hello!

(cheers and applause) I love to watch American flag fly.

(cheers and applause) You know what does that means?

Land of the free because what?

MAN: Of the brave!

- Because of the brave!

I live in the life.

I know what no freedom of speech is, what are all about.

I know what big government is all about.

Our American flag will fly strong and fly on forever.

(cheers and applause) Make America great again!

(cheers and applause) Thank you very much.

God bless America.

Thank you!

(bell tolling) JENNIFER HO: Why is the book called Partly Colored?

Is that an apt description for how Asian American subjects are seen as racially anomalous in the U.S. South?

Something is colored, it means to be tinged by some kind of other meaning.

HO: Good.

- Or like an off-white, or some kind of departure from what is normal or what is the default.

STUDENT: I think when I thought of the title, I immediately kind of historicalized it in the way that in the South, they use the word "color" to refer to people of African American descent.

And so when we're talking about "partly colored," I saw that as, like, we're going from the white-black continuum, and we're in between those two.

HO: Yeah, I mean, and definitely to refer to people, especially in the U.S. South, as "colored," that was a label used to describe people of African descent in the U.S. South during the time of Jim Crow and segregation.

But this question of who counted as colored in the U.S. South, where did the Asian Americans sit on the segregated bus, where did Lumbees fit within the kind of racial color line of the U.S. South?

Think about the U.S. South and think about the people in the U.S. South.

So if you had three photos, right-- a black person, a white person, and my photo-- who are the two people that you would most associate?

My photo is probably not gonna come up.

And that means that we have this normative idea of what it means to be in the U.S. South.

And we also have this normative idea about what it means to be American.

I think I want people to know who Asian Americans are because there's so much misinformation.

Um, people don't know who Asian Americans are.

It sounds so simple, but it's just true.

Like, I think there's so much misunderstanding about who Asian Americans are.

(clears throat) That we're foreign, we're not from here, or, in the U.S. South, it's that we're not people of color.

We are honorary white people.

Is this more exciting than Yi?

Is this more exciting than Yi?

Come here.

(clicks tongue) Okay.

Got it?

I think we got that.

Okay, is that good?

That's it.

No more hot dog for you.

He really doesn't like it when we put the eye drops in his eyes, so we have to actually give him a treat.

(chuckling): And it takes two people to do it.

So it took two people at the vet's office.

So... twice a day we have to do this.

Aw, man, what'd you do with my slipper?

Chaucer.

So this is Bock Bock.

He is a transgender male chicken.

He prefers he/him/his pronouns.

As a Democrat, and as someone who doesn't agree with both the Republican-led state legislature, as well as the national government under Donald Trump, I've decided that I should do something.

That I should try and participate by getting involved.

I mean, this is what drives me crazy about the state legislature.

They think that, um, I'm just there to indoctrinate my students, right?

I'm there to somehow, um, provide propaganda to them instead of what I'm doing, which is providing critical thinking skills.

I don't tell my students how to vote.

That would be the surefire way to get them to vote the opposite of what I want them to vote, right?

And I don't want them to vote the way that I want them to vote.

I want them to be free-thinking adults who are making decisions based on their value system and their sense of ethics and morality.

That's what I want.

And that may not line up with my own value system.

But as long as they're using their critical thinking skills to come to that decision, then that's, that's what being in a democracy means, right?

We all don't have to agree with each other.

But we have to agree that we have... That there are values that we share in common that we can respect each other.

And that seems to be in short amount these days, of common ground.

We just can't find any common ground.

And it would be easy for me to demonize people on the right and just say that they're racist, they're sexist, they're homophobes, you know.

They're clinging to guns and religion.

They're all white supremacists.

I mean, that's easy.

And it's simplistic and it's, it's not correct.

WOMAN: Shame on the G.O.P.!

CROWD: Shame on the G.O.P.!

WOMAN: Shame on the G.O.P.!

CROWD: Shame on the G.O.P.!

WOMAN: Shame on the G.O.P.!

CROWD: Shame on the G.O.P.!

What do we want?

CROWD: Healthcare!

- When do we want it?

CROWD: Now!

- What do we want?

CROWD: Healthcare!

- When do we want it?

CROWD: Now!

That's good, thank you.

(playing "Hang On, Sloopy") CHEN: Do you know (inaudible) what we call President Trump?

We call him Uncle Trump.

(indistinct chatter) We called him Uncle Trump all the time.

- Really?

- Yeah.

And this time, my wife and I, and all my friends join, just the, just, just give up our Chinese national...

Uh, the national, nationality, and join the U.S.

So we claim our citizenship.

And just because we want to vote for Trump.

MIKE PENCE: Hello, Ohio!

(cheers and applause) Thank you all for being here tonight.

People of Ohio, here in the heart of the Heartland, delivered 80 of 88 counties, nearly three million votes, a more than eight percent victory for President Donald Trump to the White House.

(cheers and applause) We're gonna repeal and replace Obamacare.

(cheers and applause) We will make America safe again.

We will make America prosperous again.

And, to borrow a phrase, we will make America great again.

Thank you.

(cheers and applause) Thanks-- wasn't that a great county fair?

CHEN: Yes.

WOMAN: Thank you, so much.

(indistinct chatter) CHEN: We're Chinese and we work in Montgomery County.

If you need anything like ground game, I would like to help.

(in Mandarin): INTERVIEWER (in Mandarin): CHEN: (bell tolling) CHEN: (chuckling) (seagull squawking) (indistinct chatter) MAN 1: Hello, hello.

MAN 2: Your mic's not on.

MAN 1: All right, so Kellyanne's visit, so you know, is in a personal capacity.

She is not on official White House business.

So questions about specific White House policy she can't answer while she's here, because this is a political trip.

MAN 3: So is that whole freedom of the press thing, is out the door?

EMILY: This is, right now, this is what she's... She's not on a political trip.

WOMAN: So does the campaign pay for the trip, or how is she down here?

MAN 3: Yeah, who paid for the Secret Service detail?

EMILY: Y'all are gonna have to ask her.

MAN 3: We'll ask the questions we ask, Emily, respectfully.

(indistinct chatter) You know, this is a party that controls the White House, Congress, and the state legislature, and conventions like this are all about trying to maintain that control.

KELLYANNE CONWAY: North Carolina, thank you for electing Donald J. Trump president of the United States.

(cheers and applause) Thank you.

Thank you.

Fairness really is the theme I believe that Donald Trump as a candidate, and now as president, has as the centering force.

Many people used to say, "What's fair to the illegal immigrant?"

And Donald Trump brought in the conversation to, "Well, what's fair "to the American worker who is competing with "the illegal immigrant for a job?

"What's fair to the hard-working men and women in this state "and elsewhere?

"What's fair to the United States taxpayer "and the men and women who work in paper and cement and coal, and natural gas..." You're a dynamite candidate, and whenever you get ready, North Carolina will be the better for it.

- Aw, thank you, thank you.

Thank you for your support.

So I just wanted to say that I was proud of you.

- Aw, thank you, thank you.

- And next time, let's run for something that's a little less uphill.

- (laughing) Well, we'll see, thank you.

- Sue Googe for U.S. Senate.

We could use a conservative senator, 'cause we don't have any.

It makes me extremely proud that she ran as, in the Republican Party, because the Republican Party truly is the party of diversity.

And I think it's awesome for someone to come from China or anywhere over there, that's mainly socialist, uh, immersed countries, to come and take part in the freedom of democracy here in America.

She is a go-getter.

She was just passionate from the get-go.

And I really thought Sue was going to take it, not only because she's a woman, but because of her passion.

She's, she's a contagious little Chinese cookie, let me tell ya.

INTERVIEWER (in Mandarin): GOOGE (in Mandarin): (drumming beat) CROWD: This is what democracy looks like!

(drumming beat) This is what democracy looks like!

(drumming beat) This is what democracy looks like!

(drumming beat) This is what democracy looks like!

(drumming beat) This is what democracy looks like!

Save our Earth!

Save our babies!

Save our babies!

Save your soul.

Save your soul.

I mean, my parents support Trump.

And I, and I don't understand that, um... And it's because all they do is that they watch Fox News all day.

(cheering, drumming) WOMAN: Go inside and hear some love!

I... (voice breaking): I mean, when we first came here, I remember being stoned and spit on by the kids in school because we were different.

So, so I don't, I don't, I don't understand why people would support...

I mean, people of color support... Support the, um, the Republicans.

Not the Republicans of today.

(birds twittering) (in Mandarin): INTERVIEWER (in Mandarin): GOOGE: Okay?

'Cause you have nothing to lose.

If I have nothing to lose... (continues in Mandarin) (playing "Amazing Grace") (continues playing) (song ends) INTERVIEWER: ZHANG: KUO: My parents were actually born in mainland China, moved to Taiwan, and then emigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1950s.

Not long after they arrived in the States, they were pretty caught up in John Kennedy and the romance around Camelot.

We were born in the era of Vietnam.

My earliest memories are of major political televised events.

I remember very much my parents' opposition to Richard Nixon.

I remember having formed a really poor opinion of Richard Nixon even before the Watergate scandal.

♪ HO: After World War II, when the Civil War resumes between the Nationalists and the Communists, my grandfather, seeing the handwriting on the wall... Because of the 1882 Exclusion Act, prohibitions against Chinese coming into the United States were stringent through most of the 20th century.

Because of Communism and the Cold War going on in the United States, Congress passed this Refugee Relief Act in 1955, and that's what allowed my family to come from Taiwan to the United States, because they could prove that they were refugees from Communist China.

It's not until the 1965 Immigration Act that various restrictive quotas based on country of origin and race are finally eliminated.

♪ (birds twittering) (rings doorbell) CHEN (in Mandarin): (Xia speaking Mandarin) INTERVIEWER: (starts in Mandarin) Go through very long process and spend a lot of money to get those status.

(in Mandarin): ...entitled for everything.

(in Mandarin): CHEN (in Mandarin): (in Mandarin): (din of the street, car horns honking) Okay, so we have a quorum now, so we'd like to start our CAPAC meeting.

Last year, we had a big effort to stop, um, everybody from using Trump's derogatory term "chain migration."

And, of course, 70% of A.P.Is.

in this country are immigrants, and most of them came through the family immigration system.

But we face problems in that system, that is Asian/Pacific Islanders are 40% of the visa backlogs and 80% of the employment visa backlogs.

So, at the same time, we want to make sure that we preserve our family immigration system, and also, ultimately, that we improve it so that there is a reduction of these visa backlogs.

We are the fastest-growing racial population in the nation.

Way need to make sure that every A.A.P.I.

person gets out there and exercises their voice at the ballot box.

We know that if we mobilize them, and we unite them, that we can fight against injustice and fight for the America that we love.

And we can make a difference in shaping a better future for our community and for our country.

(bell tolling) HO: A South Korean artist, he designed this memorial, and then, of course, when he made it, it was very controversial.

So one of the controversial things, at least I find about it, is that you have these kind of figures, these abstract figures, who are meant to represent African Americans.

Who, you know, many of whom were enslaved at the time when the university was founded and who helped "build" the university.

But, of course, "they helped build" makes it sound like they were volunteers or they were paid laborers when they were enslaved labor.

And now we're memorializing them by having them (chuckling): hold up a table.

So it just seems absurd that we're trying to recognize this very complicated racial history with African Americans at U.N.C.

in North Carolina.

And the way that we're honoring them is to have them, in perpetuity, holding up a table.

Um, and of course, there, it's so much lower, right?

So the monument itself is literally dwarfed by the monument of Silent Sam, which is the Confederate statue memorial.

♪ (in Mandarin): INTERVIEWER: ZHANG: ♪ INTERVIEWER: ZHANG: (engine idling) (dog barking) (engine idling) ZHANG: (brake releases, bus drives off) (birds twittering) INTERVIEWER: GUENEVERE: "No, I mean, where are you really from?"

(laughs) "What country are you from?"

(in Mandarin): "No, no, no, no, no, I mean... You're Asian, right?

What, what country of Asia are you from?"

"Okay, Chinese."

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

"Not...

I, I know, maybe you have, like, a green card, "or you have, like, a passport because you've stayed, like, five years or so, but..." Da da da da da... (clicks tongue) (in Mandarin): "Oh, are you American?"

(mix of Mandarin and English): "You're Korean.

You're Japanese, right?"

INTERVIEWER: What's your favorite thing about living in America?

- Uh... the food.

Yeah.

I love burgers and fast food.

(laughing): So, yeah.

I mean, I know that's pretty unhealthy and stuff, but, yeah.

KUO (on phone): Make sure to stay in close touch with Uncle Dave and Aunt Catherine, and make sure the furniture outside gets moved inside.

Okay?

JOHNNY: Okay.

When are you coming home?

(Kuo laughs) I'll be back on the 22nd.

On the evening of the 22nd.

22nd, evening, all right.

And then I have to leave on the... (phone connection cutting in and out) ...for one day.

Oh, oh, wow.

Well, I feel bad for you.

That's, like, a lot of work.

Yep.

Yeah, I already miss you.

I miss you, too, Johnny.

Be a good kid, okay?

Uh-huh.

All right.

I love you.

- Yeah, me, too.

REPORTER: U.N.C.

Chapel Hill, last night, hundreds of protesters started the school year by gathering around the controversial Silent Sam statue demanding change.

(crowd chanting) CROWD: Hey, hey!

Ho, ho!

Silent Sam has got to go!

Hey, hey, ho, ho!

♪ MAN: Pull!

WOMAN: Pull!

MAN: Pull!

♪ (cheers and applause) ♪ WOMAN: There are prosecutors who embody the white moderate M.L.K.

warned us about.

Who advocate for us to be jailed and to be fined.

Who daily imprison and extort Black and Brown people in this county, but claim to respect us.

They claim to have their hands tied.

They say they are committed to justice.

Justice being reserved for statues and racist property like Silent Sam.

I have no problem with Silent Sam coming down!

The only problem I have is, in my home state, that I was born and raised, violent mobs are going around pretending to be the victim!

You can't make a violent mob in my home state without somebody saying, "No, that's crazy!"

Black lives, they matter here.

CROWD (chanting): Black lives, they matter here!

Black lives, they matter here!

Black lives, they matter here!

Black lives, they matter here!

Black lives, they matter here!

Black lives, they matter here!

Black lives, they matter here!

♪ HO: We are going to start with silent meditation.

(bowl trilling) (Ho exhales) It's challenging to get people to feel comfortable to talk about race.

What I believe is that one of the things we need to do is, we need to be informed.

And then the second thing is, get comfortable talking about it.

Realize that it's okay to talk about race.

(bowl trilling) And now we do have four minutes for free writing.

My class is getting them to understand white supremacy as a structure and to understand racism as institutional.

There are these larger systems in place of racism.

So how do we recognize these systems?

And then how do we work to dismantle these systems?

We're gonna be talking about whiteness.

I mean, we pretty much have been talking about whiteness, I feel like, all semester, but we're gonna really talk about whiteness.

Let's begin with Haney López.

How do you think he is defining whiteness?

STUDENT: I think it's primarily suggesting that its origin is on binary opposition with Blackness, always defined as the positive or the superior to the negative other.

I've always felt that whiteness is, has a rigidity.

So I've been surprised by his characterization of whiteness as fluid and heterogeneous.

Being on this kind of campus, and being in, like, the South in general, I think there's people who have, really...

I mean, I think... To do the, like, #allwhitepeople, I think all white people have (inaudible).

And in some way, they are maintaining whiteness for themselves.

So I really enjoyed that chapter when he was, like, the value of, like, the whiteness, because I don't think any white person would choose not to be white.

I don't know, I think that whiteness is not, like, a static type of thing that, like, if you are white, you're inherently racist, and you can't change that.

If you reject whiteness and you, you know, you do your best to reject all the privileges that you hold, which is, I guess, impossible to do, actually.

Um, then, yeah, but I guess you can actively work towards that.

And the same way that I think that people of color can embody forms of whiteness perhaps more so than, like, white individuals or individuals who are racialized as white.

HO: These systems have been so ingrained, and they're so complicated, and racial definitions change over time, and they change depending on where in the world you are.

I can't get my students, you know, do these ten easy things, and then there no longer gonna be racism.

Okay, let's go.

♪ KUO: Three, two, one.

Welcome to the Sinica podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China, produced in partnership with SupChina.

I'm Kaiser Kuo, and I am at the Asia Society today to speak with Danny Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs during the second Obama administration.

Welcome to Sinica.

We are delighted to have you on at last.

We live in a time, clearly, of mounting American anxiety over China.

What do you see as the big drivers of anxiety here in the U.S.?

RUSSEL: I'm, I'll tell you, Kaiser, I'm increasingly worried that it's a phenomenon of racism, of yellow peril.

KUO: Yes.

RUSSEL: We're branding each other as an enemy.

And it's no secret that when you treat somebody like an enemy, sooner or later, you're gonna wind up with an enemy.

Now, onto recommendations.

Danny, please, after you.

It's your world, it's your country, do something about it.

Get in there, get your hands dirty.

Own it.

I am going to get out there and register voters in some rural counties of North Carolina this weekend.

That's going to be my pre-midterm public service here.

Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.

Take care.

Tonight we continue our reports from states in which Republicans are trying to flip U.S. Senate seats in the fall midterms coming up.

REPORTER: In Ohio, that contest pits incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown against Republican congressman Jim Renacci.

President Trump is set to make yet another trip to Ohio.

The president is set to host a fundraiser there for Republican candidate Renacci.

REPORTER: The president will be leaving with the first lady at 2:00 p.m. today to Ohio for a trio of events.

He'll be hosting a roundtable with supporters and then he'll be speaking at the Ohio Republican Party dinner tonight.

Maria?

(in Mandarin): ♪ (speaking Mandarin) CHEN: (laughing) INTERVIEWER: CHEN: WOMAN: (Chen speaking Mandarin) WOMAN: MAN: (woman laughing) MAN: (overlapping chatter in Mandarin) CHEN: MAN: WOMAN: Good idea.

(laughing) MAN: CHEN: WOMAN (on speaker): Welcome to the Ohio Republican Party State Dinner.

WOMAN: CHEN: MALE MC: Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

(cheering loudly) ("God Bless the U.S.A." playing in background) TRUMP: I'm honored to be joined tonight by another very special guest, the next U.S. senator from Ohio, Jim Renacci.

(cheers and applause) Jim is running to replace a very liberal Democrat.

I don't see Ohio as liberal.

Are you liberal?

Anybody, like, liberal?

(crowd shouting in the negative) I don't get it.

Huh?

I don't get it.

He's running against Sherrod Brown.

(crowd booing) Sherrod voted no on our tax cuts.

He voted no on repealing Obamacare.

WOMAN (chuckling): (phone camera clicks) ZHANG: INTERVIEWER: ZHANG: (laughs) (playing guitar and drums) KUO: I really worry that there will be something of a repeat of 2016, when we were a little too confident in the blue wave.

The best that we can hope for is that all our efforts to get the vote out will have done something.

Most of these people are registered Democrats who have not voted in recent elections.

These are the people we really need to get to the polls, right?

So these are people who didn't vote in 2016, haven't voted in off-year elections, maybe didn't even vote in 2014 or 2012.

So let's get them to the polls.

The more you can get them to say in detail about what their voting plan is, the higher likelihood that they'll actually execute on it and go to the polls and vote, so...

Thank you.

You, too.

You, too.

Have a good night.

Bye.

(exhales enthusiastically) KUO: A Republican voting... - Democrat.

KUO: Straight Democrat, okay.

- Yeah, and he's gonna vote no on all the amendments.

Yes!

♪ (indistinct chatter) This election really is for the next dozen years.

If this whole state ticket wins tomorrow, it will make a huge difference for the labor movement and a huge difference across the country.

It will say to the country at large, "Ohio is back.

"We're leading the charge.

We're changing the way."

And, if we all vote in as high a number as I think we are, we are ready in 2020 to take out this... (cheers and applause) (birds twittering) Okay.

(birds twittering) Undecided.

Undecided, okay.

I'm doing canvassing for Renacci for Senate.

He is a very successful entrepreneur.

He's a great supporter for President Trump.

(woman speaking indistinctly) CHEN: Next time.

(lawnmower running in background) Next time.

I do not vote, okay, in the past.

Um, you know, I don't even think about voting, okay?

But since President Trump get elected in 2016, I mean, since 2015, I realized that we need to do something as a citizen for this great country.

We need to do something to help the Republican get elected.

REPORTER: Should voters have to present a photo I.D.

to cast a ballot?

Republicans have tried this before.

So what better way to try again than to make voter I.D.

part of North Carolina's constitution?

(in Mandarin): Hey, how are you?

MAN: Good.

Would you like a Republican voter guide?

Do you want one?

- All set, thanks.

GOOGE: Hey, how are you?

Would you like a voter guide?

WOMAN: Great.

Thank you.

GOOGE: Thank you.

Would you like a Republican voter guide?

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

Hey, how are you?

Do you want a conservative voting guide?

WOMAN: Thank you.

GOOGE: Yeah, thank you.

- Thank you.

They don't want people to show I.D.

to vote.

So people, you can come out, just say your name and say your address and you can vote, so nobody even know you are a citizen or not.

You know?

And then they don't want any camera on here.

So... sometimes I see people, who knows, they come multiple times.

They know, who knows they vote multiple times, you know?

HO: See, but they've been giving... Having these kinds of, um, placards.

So you don't have to, you don't have to know which specific amendment, you just have to vote no on all of them.

Suppressing a vote seems like winning by cheating, and it just seems like if you really, truly believe in the ideals of democracy, then you make voting as easy as possible for the greatest number of people.

Instead, what it seems like, and I think what it is, is, the Republican Party has consistently been suppressing the votes of poor people and Black people and people of color, and making it harder for people to vote.

♪ All right.

♪ (indistinct chatter) WOMAN: Thank you.

CHEN: I just need to cast my vote and support Jim.

Now, you can see I have some yard signs about Jim, okay?

But what I can say is, this is a democratic process.

Now, regardless, as long as it's fair, regardless what's the outcome, I think it's okay, because everybody deserve their voice being heard, and then I have my voice being heard.

And then let's see what happens.

Ah, great, a parking space.

♪ MAN: Voting today, folks?

We have ballots here if you need them-- Republican and Democrat.

♪ KUO: Democracy only works with participation.

MAN: Okay, just slide it in there.

An "I voted" sticker?

KUO: Yeah, sure do.

MAN: Got to have that.

KUO: Got to have that.

MAN: I appreciate you coming in.

KUO: Thank you very much.

Have a good day.

In the way that our electoral system works, we have choices.

Our choices have absolute consequences.

♪ Thank you.

(indistinct chatter) ♪ Being able to vote is a privilege, globally.

Not everybody gets to vote in the world.

♪ (chuckles) (turn signal clicking) I still maybe have five or six yards, these signs.

The campaign folks tell us that we have to show the sign with maximum visibility from both sides of the traffic.

So along the road, that will be a good idea.

That's my candidate.

♪ Polls have been closed for an hour now, and volunteers are already starting to bring the bags full of paper ballots to start counting.

Now, the Montgomery County Board of Elections director, Jan Kelly, tells me that voter turnout has been up ten percent since it was in the 2014 midterm elections.

♪ KUO: CNN has just projected control of the House.

Cheers.

- Cheers.

KUO: Cheers.

- Cheers.

♪ (cheers and applause) That is the message coming out of Ohio in 2018 and that is the blueprint for America for 2020.

Our diversity is our strength, but our unity is our power.

Newcomers to America make America more American.

♪ MAN: We voted.

We organized.

(cheers and applause) What happened, guys?

What did we do that day?

KUO: We took Congress!

♪ CHEN: ♪ GOOGE: HO: They're people of color who don't want to be reminded of their racialized status.

But I don't believe that people look at me as an Asian person and they see someone who's white.

The central question that I think all Asian Americans in the United States feel, which is: do we belong?

KUO: Only when we see more diverse representation, that will change values in this country.

That will change mindsets in this country.

CROWD: ♪ O say can you see ♪ By the dawn's early light ♪ What so proudly we hail'd ♪ At the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪ ♪ Through the perilous night ♪ From the ramparts we watch'd ♪ Were so gallantly streaming ♪ And the rocket's red glare ♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪ Gave proof through the night ♪ That our flag was still there ♪ ♪ O say does that star-spangled ♪ ♪ Banner yet wave ♪ O'er the land of the free ♪ And the home of the brave (holds note) ♪