Winston & Strawn wrapped up its celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage month with a conversation with Congressman Ted Lieu, who represents California's 33rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Representative Lieu spoke about the emerging political power of the AAPI community, which has doubled in size since 2000 and is projected to be the largest minority group in the country by 2055. During the last presidential election, the community experienced historic increases in voter turnout, especially in battleground states where the increase in AAPI votes was often greater than the margin of victory.
Even though the AAPI community possesses growing political clout and is the fastest growing minority group, it is still underrepresented in many avenues of power including legislatures, the court system and corporate America. Representative Lieu, however, is hopeful that this will soon change as more and more second-generation members of the community enter the workforce.
A prolific and extremely popular Twitter influencer, Representative Lieu attributes his success on the social media platform to the fact that he is "just telling the truth" and he often uses satire to reveal it.
When asked how to advance racial equity, he had this to say: "Everything seems impossible until it happens. You never know when public sentiment will shift or break, so you need to keep trying and be willing to compromise and work together to affect change."
This special presentation was sponsored by the firm's Diversity & Inclusion Committee and the Winston Asian Leadership Initiative. You can find more about Winston's diversity initiatives here.
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