By Kimberly Railey, Dallas News
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Cornyn believes he has the newest ticket to grow the Republican Party: Vietnamese-American voters.
Dr. David Alameel at an April 9, 2012, candidate forum in Dallas. (Eve Edelheit/staff) and Sen. John Cornyn at a Nov. 6 hearing on the Affordable Care Act. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
His reelection campaign is rolling out a Vietnamese-language website to supplement English and Spanish versions. It’s also running Google and Facebook ads targeted at Vietnamese-Americans.
Cornyn sends campaign aides to events and naturalization ceremonies that attract Vietnamese-Americans, and sometimes goes himself.
“We have to become the party that is not just skewed heavily toward old, white men,” said campaign manager Brendan Steinhauser. “Just showing up is 80 percent of the battle.”
The two-term senator’s opponent in November, Dallas dentist David Alameel, a Democrat, called Cornyn’s efforts futile.
“The Vietnamese-American community will find Senator Cornyn’s anti-immigrant, anti-middle class, anti-main street and pro-Wall Street voting record shameful, no matter what he does to reach out to them,” Alameel spokesman Sergio Cantu said.
Texas is home to more than 210,000 Vietnamese-Americans, more than any state but California, according to the 2010 Census. Nearly 72,000 live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Vietnamese is the state’s third most commonly spoken language, the Census Bureau says.
Nationwide, more than two-thirds of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders voted for President Barack Obama in 2012.
Read the full story by Kimberly Railey from Dallas News.
