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The Brooklyn Chinese Society faded in the midterm elections, in which He Lining and Xie Xiaoqiong defeated Republican incumbents, respectively. Analysts believe that the Republican Party was insufficiently organized and unable to cut off Trump. High prices and community divisions also contributed to the election defeat.
November 3 midterm elections, Southbrooklyn In the (Brooklyn) Chinese community, the 17th District of the State Senate and the 49th District of the State House of Representatives were both carried by Chinese. As a result, Democratic candidates Larry Hay and Joyce Zee defeated the incumbents, respectively.republican party State Senator Chen Xuelia and State Representative Zheng Yongjia achieved “Turning Blue”. In this regard, there is separate analysis of political party data and community data. Some believe that the Republican Party failed because of its inability to cooperatetrump Some think this is the inevitable result of New York’s “one-party dominance”.
As of the 4th, He Lining had received 22,786 votes out of 39,696 votes, accounting for 57.4% of the total; Chen Xuelia received a total of 16,827 votes and the vote rate was 42.39%. Xie Xiaoqiong received 7,791 votes, 52.81%; Zheng Yongjia received a total of 6,930 votes, or 47.19%.
Hay Lining came to the United States in 2003 to pursue a doctorate in economics and worked as an intern in Colton’s office in 2006, laying the foundation for his future career. After returning to the United States in 2016, Hay joined Lining Colton’s office and devoted herself to community activities as his chief of staff. His political views include creating safe and clean communities, stopping the construction of the 86th Street Homeless Shelter, ensuring high-quality public education, building senior housing, lowering the cost of living, and protecting the rights of immigrants and working-class families.
Xie Xiaoqiong once served as the leader of the 49th District of the State House of Representatives, and later served as community liaison in the office of City Councilor Zhuang Wenyi. His political views call for “clean and safe communities” and advocate the protection of immigrants’ rights, quality education, medical and social services for the elderly, and the use of past service experience to help support small businesses. His victory also set a record as the first time a Chinese from Fujian has served as a state representative.
Regarding the defeat, Di Zongqi, the administrative director of the Conservative Party, who has worked closely with the Republican Party, said that one reason was the low turnout of registered Republican and Conservative voters, and the scale of mobilization was not as good as two years ago; The second reason was that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman was unable to mobilize voters. He also pointed out that this time in the United States the Democratic Party almost always won. “The election situation is like a pendulum, and it is normal for it to swing every two years.” However, he also said that Chen Xueliang and Zheng Yongjia are not the only ones losing seats in Brooklyn this time. The Republican Party will internally review how to increase voter turnout for the Republican and Conservative parties and encourage voters to vote. After losing the election, the Conservative Party will take on a supervisory role and step in to examine whether there are bills that have a negative impact on the community.
Community member Ling Fei believes that the key to the Republican Party’s defeat this time is its inability to effectively separate from Trump. Take immigration enforcement actions, for example. The Democratic Party can speak out and condemn it with confidence, but no one in the Republican Party dares to speak out, and few even express their agreement. In relatively influential immigrant communities, this attitude may give voters pause.
Ling Fei pointed out that the political platforms of Xie Xiaoqiong and Zheng Yongjia, He Lining and Chen Xueliang are actually very similar. Democratic voters were also among those who voted for Chen Xueliang in the past. Judging from the data, Democratic voters still account for the majority in the constituency. When Chen Xueliang and Zheng Yongjia won the election, it was because voters wanted to move away from the party’s burden and were worried that Democratic candidates would only follow the party’s wishes after being elected. But while Democratic voters still have an advantage, both identify only with their political parties and voters cannot separate themselves from what they believe is wrong. By the final stages of the election campaign, all Republican candidates were united, further deepening the party’s consensus.
Zhang Donghui, a Queens parent and co-founder of the New York City Residents Alliance, also believes that the Trump administration’s repeated policies, failure to effectively solve the problem of high prices, and lack of grassroots management by Republican candidates are important reasons for the poor performance in this election.
Zhang Donghui said he was once a staunch supporter of Trump and reaffirmed his stance on issues such as opposing racial preferential policies in college admissions. However, Trump has been disappointed by Trump’s policy changes in recent years in trade wars, personnel appointments, etc. He said that people are still most worried about jobs, income and daily consumption. If the problem of high prices cannot be improved, it will inevitably drag down the Republican election.
Mei Zengxin, president of the American Duanfen Association, said that he was a supporter of Chen Xuelia and originally thought it would be a close race, but looking at the election results, the gap was not small. He believes that over the past two years, Trump’s policies on tariffs and immigration have been unpopular, inflation has remained high and the cost of living has remained high, which has a direct impact on the Republican Party’s election. He believes that many Republicans did not turn out to vote in this election. In an area where the ratio of registered Democrats to Republicans is 5:1, such election results do not seem surprising. Mei Zengxin said that because of the election, the Chinese community, including the Guangdong community, was seriously divided. He believed that this division would be difficult to heal in the short term, but regardless of who came to power, he expected the Chinese community to be well taken care of.
Kevin Zhao, of the New York Chinese Parents Group, said that because of this year’s election, two people in his group were fighting every day and the feud lasted for several months. Eventually, all the neutrals joined in, and the group was in a state of chaos. He feels that even after the election, it will be difficult to heal such community tears, and he is very disappointed with this election. Kevin Zhao said that he has also heard some people say that voting cannot change anything and there is nothing to choose. Speaking about Chinese participation in politics, Kevin Zhao said that since four years ago, he has heard different voices in the Chinese community in Brooklyn, which is very beneficial to the Chinese community, and he hopes this situation can continue.
