In Las Vegas, a growing number of Filipino Americans are teaching students, caring for the sick and keeping the casinos running. After work, many trickle into the off-strip California Hotel & Casino to enjoy oxtail soup and head to Filipino-owned businesses to shop.
They were long overlooked by political campaigns that focused on reaching other ethnic groups. But candidates are now heavily courting Filipino voters, who are seen this year as a deciding factor in the swing state.
Candidates from both parties are showing up to Filipino banquets in custom-made dress shirts and traditional Filipiniana gowns. And the presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris has rolled out “Pinoy Pride” billboards around Las Vegas and released several ads that feature Filipino leaders in Nevada talking about the economy and health care.
“We’re not just warm bodies at their campaign events anymore,” said Joel Enriquez, a Filipino American who owns a small business and was featured in an ad released last week for Ms. Harris. “They actually want to engage with us now.”
Of all the presidential battleground states, Nevada has the largest proportion of Asian American voters, comprising nearly 12 percent of the electorate. And Filipino Americans constitute the largest group within this population, with nearly 59,000 registered voters in a state that President Biden won by just over 33,000 votes in 2020, according to APIAVote, a nonpartisan, voter education group for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
In the past, Filipino Americans have leaned Democratic, though less so than some other Asian American groups. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democratic nominee for vice president, and Maya Harris, Ms. Harris’s sister, have appealed to Filipino American voters in the state. And when Ms. Harris started an Asian American voter outreach initiative in Las Vegas this summer, a large group of Filipino community leaders attended.
On the Republican side, Sam Brown, the party’s Senate candidate, attended a Filipino community event this summer wearing a barong, a traditional Filipino dress shirt. And prominent Filipino American figures like Josie Harrison — whose son Jo Koy, a comedian, is among the best-known Filipino American celebrities in the country — have served as high-profile surrogates for Republican candidates.
While Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has made gains with some nonwhite voters, Republicans have generally pulled back this year from direct appeals to voters based on their ethnic background. Their Asian American outreach community center in Las Vegas, which they touted as part of their strategy in 2022, has been replaced by a vape shop.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign, said that the former president’s record was powerful enough to appeal to all voters. “He created an environment where diversity, equal opportunity and prosperity were afforded to everybody,” Mr. Cheung said.
Whether the outreach efforts by both parties will sway Filipino American voters remains to be seen. Turnout among Filipino American voters has fluctuated over the years, and Filipino Americans had the lowest turnout rate nationally among Asian American voters in 2020, according to AAPI Data, a research organization that focuses on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Researchers say that campaigns have struggled to identify Filipinos based on voter registration files. Filipino Americans often have Spanish surnames, owing to the Philippines’ history as a Spanish colony for over 300 years. As a result, campaigns often target Filipino Americans in Spanish rather than in Tagalog, an official language of the Philippines.
Filipino Americans can also be more difficult to reach because they are more geographically dispersed in cities than other ethnic groups, said Anthony Ocampo, a professor of sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Some community leaders also suggest that Filipino Americans have been less politically engaged because they have had less free time.
Gloria Caoile, a Filipino American leader in Nevada and a prominent Democratic organizer, said targeted mobilization efforts like voter registration drives at Filipino supermarkets and candidate town halls were convincing more people to vote this year.
“For a long time, civic engagement was nonexistent because most of our folks were working two or three jobs or running their own businesses,” Ms. Caoile said. “But now the tide has changed.”
While some Filipinos first came to the United States starting in the 16th century as sailors and indentured servants, a larger wave of migration began around 1900, soon after the United States annexed the Philippines.
Filipinos were not subject to the exclusion laws that prevented other Asians from coming to the United States in the early 20th century. Some migrated as students or joined the American military. Many more were recruited to work on sugar plantations in Hawaii and, later, on farms and canneries along the West Coast and in Alaska. Filipino Americans showcased their political power in 1965 when Larry Itliong, a Filipino labor leader, organized a major strike of Filipino grape workers in Delano, Calif.
A landmark 1965 immigration law, which eliminated quotas based on country of origin, ushered in another large wave of Filipino immigrants, including many nurses, doctors, schoolteachers and other professionals. Filipino Americans are now the third-largest Asian American group, after Chinese and Indians.
In Nevada, home to one of the fastest-growing Filipino populations in the country, political divisions among families, friend groups and church congregations are not uncommon.
As friends ate Jollibee fried chicken, spaghetti and fish soup at a weekly prayer group meeting in Las Vegas, the conversation touched on worries about inflation and also Mr. Trump’s character.
The conversation was dominated by Democrats and those leaning toward Ms. Harris, while supporters of Mr. Trump mostly stayed quiet. One voter said she preferred Mr. Trump’s economic policies but felt that he acted too dictatorial.
Afterward, Jean Feller, 49, a loan officer in the Las Vegas area who immigrated to the United States in 2000, said that while she was personally against abortion because of her Catholic faith, she was backing Ms. Harris because she believed the vice president would take action on climate change and ensure more decency in politics.
“Kamala is a fighter, she’s an Asian and she’s an immigrant,” she said. “As an immigrant myself, I feel very aligned with that.”
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