Three Asian Americans named to Obama-Biden Transition Team

Three Asian Americans have been named by President-elect Obama to advise and staff his Transition Team. They are: 1) Sonal Shah (Indian American), named to Transition Advisory Board; (Former APIAVote Board Member, Google Foundation director, Global Economic Development), 2) Peter Rouse (of Japanese American descent), named to Co-Chair Transition Team; (President-elect Obama's Chief of Staff (Senate)) and 3) Chris Lu (Chinese American), named as Transition Executive Director; (President-elect Obama's Legislative Director (Senate)). “Sonal's appointment should only be just the beginning. We have high hopes for the incoming Obama-Biden Administration and Congress, and intend to work closely with both so that they continue to be more inclusive of Asian AAPIs throughout the transition process and into appointments and hiring of staff,” said APIAVote board member Doua Thor. “We want to especially thank Obama AAPI Vote Director Charmaine Manansala and AAPI Vote Deputy Director Betsy Kim, as well as McCain AAPI Outreach Directors, Peter Su and Kishan Putta, for their instrumental roles in each of these campaigns,” said Benavides. “We encourage national parties and campaigns to continue to strengthen and expand their AAPI outreach. The National Asian American Survey showed that only 27% of undecided AAPI voters were contacted by the campaigns, meaning that campaigns have more work to do to engage AAPI communities.”