San Francisco's Republican Party reports swell of registrations from Asian community
The Chinese Lunar New Year will actually occur on Wednesday, but on Sunday in San Francisco's Chinatown, a huge crowd turned out to start the celebration early.
Along with a new year comes a new political direction for the country and a warning to the city's Democratic old guard that "the times, they are changin'."
"I come out. I walk around in San Francisco's Chinatown every day," said Winky Toy, as she weaved her way through the throngs of people walking on Grant Street.
Toy has lived in San Francisco's Chinatown for 45 years and she was happy to see so many people visiting her neighborhood. But she was also happy to see so many of her neighbors coming out to vote in the November presidential election.
"They were in their 80's, 90's–old ladies, old men–they all came out to vote," she said. "Because the way it is happening in America, it is going downhill. For example, with the crime rate going up."
Toy is a proud supporter of President Trump and it looks like she has a lot of company in the Asian community. The city's Republican Party is reporting a huge swell in GOP registrations of people from Asian countries since the pandemic.
That's quite a turnaround from 2020 when the community was blaming Trump for inciting Asian hate crimes against Chinese elders.
"America has become less hospitable to immigrants and refugees," said one Chinatown resident back then. "And right now we're being told to 'go back to China,' calling it the 'Wuhan virus,' the 'Chinese virus.'"
But that was then and this is now, at least for Toy.
"What I see is that regular citizens, such as I, we are all fed up with the corruption here in San Francisco and also in California. We are all fed up," she said.
"I'm not surprised that they're doing that," said Nancy Yu Law, about the voting shift. "All my friends have changed this year, so I'm not surprised."
Yu Law owns a couple of businesses, including the Zodiac Images gift shop. She stuck it out during the pandemic when the streets were deserted. Now, the people are starting to come back and she's happy to see a new mayor who she hopes will put an emphasis on safety and prosperity.
"Sometimes we're not raising our voice but we always have that value in our blood," said Yu Law. "I don't really care which party, Democrat or Republican. As long as they know what we need and serve what is needed, then I'm happy to vote for them."
On Wednesday, the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee got a letter from the Rose Pak Democratic Club, a prominent Chinese political organization, saying the party was failing to meet the needs of the Asian community.
"Given this growing divide, we've made the difficult decision not to recharter with the San Francisco Democratic Party," it said.
In fact, it will now be known as the Rose Pak Asian American Club, removing the word "Democratic" from its name. Members say they will remain Democrats but will go their own way in backing candidates. In the November election, they endorsed an entirely different set of candidates than those of the local Democratic party.
San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung issued the following statement regarding the shift:
"It's unfortunate that the Rose Pak Club chose not to re-charter, especially on the heels of our groundbreaking Code of Conduct on Sexual Assault and Harassment. The Party always welcomes Democrats from across the political spectrum to form a chartered club. The Rose Pak Club will always have that opportunity if they change their minds."
"We only want to have a safe city and safe state," said Toy. "So I can see there's a tremendous attitude change. People are willing to come out to change."
As progressives, Democrats like to see themselves as the party of change. This is one change they may not have seen coming.
