All posts tagged: Elections

2018 Midterms: A breakdown of SEA state legislative candidates

Published by littlelaosontheprairie

The 2018 U.S. midterms saw the election of five Hmong candidates and one Laotian candidate to the Minnesota and the Ohioan state legislatures, respectively. More than 6,000 seats were up for reelection as 87 of the nation’s 99 state legislative chambers held regularly-scheduled elections, according to Ballotpedia. Overall, five Hmong and two Laotian candidates made it onto the general election ballot across the country. All five Hmong candidates and one Laotian candidate are Democrats. About 23 percent of the state legislative candidates nationwide are Southeast Asian. Twenty-three percent of that group are Laotian or Hmong, which means that only 5.3 percent of state legislative candidates on general election ballots are Laotian or Hmong. In Minnesota, Democratic Farmer-Labor House District 59A incumbent Fue Lee won reelection, and DFL challengers Samantha Vang, Tou Xiong, Khaly Her, and Jay Xiong all emerged victorious on Nov. 6. The lone Laotian Republican candidate for a state legislative seat, Yele-Mis Yang, lost his bid for Minnesota House District 42B. After weeks of ballot processing, Democrat Tina Maharath was finally declared the …

In the midst of a tight race, OH Senate candidate Tina Maharath shares her thoughts on the journey so far

Published by Timothy Singratsomboune

This past Tuesday was a time full of emotions for many – it was the night of the 2018 midterm elections in the U.S. And we know many Little Laos’ers eagerly cast their ballots. Toward the end of the night, there were a few high-profile races facing possible vote recount, something that often only occurs when the results of an election are extremely close. We saw this with Georgia’s gubernatorial race and Florida’s senatorial and gubernatorial races. In my home state of Ohio, Lao American candidate for Ohio Senate District 3 Tina Maharath is also finding that her legislative race could be headed toward recount. Maharath is the Democratic candidate for the race, and she had a somewhat untraditional route to her candidacy that she discusses below. The numbers for Maharath’s Ohio Senate race currently stand at 64,176 votes for her, and 64,505 for her Republican opponent Anne Gonzales as of November 8th. Maharath is down just 329 votes, and there are still provisional ballots to be counted. We know many Little Laos’ers have been …