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Obama appeals to Chamorros, Guamanians
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Posted on Oct 19 2008
With only a few weeks until the election, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama is appealing to Chamorro and Guamanian voters for support in a statement, touching on key issues like the nation’s suffering economy, healthcare costs, the environment, and even the dangers posed by tsunamis.
In an Oct. 16 letter to voters, Obama pointed to his childhood years in Hawaii and Indonesia as a sign of his close ties to people in the islands of the Pacific, in addition to the Asian contingent of his family.
Yet as the nation’s economic crisis worsens during an ongoing war in Iraq, Obama said, many Asian and Pacific Islander voters are facing tough times
“[F]or increasing numbers of Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, the American dream is in danger of slipping away,” he said. “Having spent most of my childhood in Hawaii, I understand firsthand the unique concerns of the Pacific Islanders. As president, I will make sure these issues get the federal attention they deserve.”
Key among those issues, Obama said, are access to affordable healthcare, the environmental impact of climate change and needs to “strengthen the federal government’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center,” all of which he vowed to address.
Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) voters are a key demographic for Obama and GOP candidate Sen. John McCain to win in the coming election. According to statistics from APIA Vote, an organization encouraging these communities to get to the polls on Election Day, they account for roughly 5 percent of the nation’s population. Yet of the 7 million APIAs eligible to vote, only half are registered. In the 2004 presidential race, only about 3 million APIAs voted, the organization says.
