Source from usatoday.com

A record number of Asian Americans are running for Congress next year, reflecting population gains and a growing sense of the need to flex political muscle.

Republican Ranjit “Ricky” Gill has already outraised Democratic incumbent Rep. Jerry McNerney in California’s newly configured 9th District. In Illinois, two Democrats — Raja Krishnamoorthi and Tammy Duckworth — are vying in the new 8th District. And two current Asian-American officeholders — U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and state Rep. William Tong of Connecticut, both Democrats — are running for U.S. Senate seats.

In all, at least 19 Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) candidates have declared their bids for Congress so far in the 2012 election cycle, up from eight candidates in 2010.

“You can’t call us invisible anymore,” said Gloria Chan, president and CEO of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), which compiled the data. “This spike in AAPI congressional challengers marks a definite political tipping point for our community.”

There are 11 members of the U.S. House and two in the U.S. Senate who have Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander ancestry, according to the Congressional Research Service. Only one — Rep. Steve Austria of Ohio — is a Republican.

Larry Shinagawa, director of the Asian-American studies program at the University of Maryland, attributes the growth of Asian-American candidates in part to the “Americanization” of younger generations and their realization that elected officials can have impact.

“Asian Americans are increasingly going into politics because politicians can make people’s lives different,” Shinagawa says. “They realize that civic participation is very important.”

Duckworth, a former Veterans Affairs official in the Obama administration, said she has seen a tremendous change from her first congressional race in 2006. Now, she says, there is more support for Asian-American candidates outside of the community’s big population centers in Hawaii, California and New York — in states such as Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Today, an estimated 17.3 million people of Asian descent live in the United States, comprising 5.6% of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The largest subgroups (in order) are Chinese Americans, followed by Filipino Americans and Asian Indians.

“Unlike other ethnic groups, we’re not a homogenous group,” Duckworth says. “We come from many different groups. We work hard to unite.”

APAICS notes one-third of the congressional candidates are South Asians.

“This is a political community that is reaching adolescence in American politics and really starting to become a big factor in several states and districts,” said David Wasserman, who analyzes House races for the non-partisan Cook Political Report. “This could be a breakthrough year for South Asian candidates.”

Gill, for example, is a first-generation Indian American who is finishing his studies at the University of California-Berkeley’s law school. Technically, he won’t be eligible to serve in Congress until next year when he turns 25. The San Francisco Chronicle reports he has tapped into networks close to his parents, who are doctors in San Joaquin County, including fellow Indian Americans, to raise campaign funds.

Ami Bera, who is making his second bid for Congress, is also leading in fundraising in California’s 7th District against GOP Rep. Dan Lungren. Bera and three other candidates held Lungren to about 50% of the vote in 2010.

Shinagawa, the Maryland professor, predicts there will be an even greater increase in Asian-American candidates in another 10 years — when younger Asian Americans become eligible to vote and more Asian immigrants become naturalized U.S. citizens. But Asian Americans will need success at the ballot box to make a difference, he says.

“It’s wonderful that they’re running,” he says about Asian-American candidates. “At the end of day, it’s very important who wins.”

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