Jason Tengco
The campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced March 24 that it was appointing Jason Tengco to serve as its new Asian American Pacific Islander outreach director.
In a news release March 25, KAYA: Filipino Americans for Progress called Tengco a powerful voice for the Filipino American community in his former role as the deputy director for the White House Initiative for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
He has also worked for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and was an Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies fellow for U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA).
News of Tengco’s appointment comes a little more than two months after Clinton’s campaign announced the formation of an AAPI leadership council, which includes Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), and Congressman Gregorio Sablan from the Northern Mariana Islands.
Ninio Fetalvo, the Republican National Committee AAPI press secretary, said, “Hillary Clinton’s campaign shakeup is a clear indication of her failing effort to win the hearts and minds of Asian American and Pacific Islander voters across the country. The only consistency with Clinton’s AAPI outreach campaign is that she has and always will take our communities for granted.”
Both Democrats and Republicans have made great efforts in this year’s presidential race to court AAPI voters, an electorate that by 2040 is expected to double, rising to 12.2 million, according to a 2015 report from the UCLA Center for the Study of Inequality and Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.