All signs point to Asian Americans playing a big role in the upcoming Hawaii Democratic caucuses on Feb. 19.
What’s interesting though, according to this article in the Honolulu Advertiser by Derrick DePledge, is that Hawaii’s Asian Americans may buck the national voting trends.
Hillary Rodham Clinton received widespread support from Asian Americans in Super Tuesday’s California Democratic Primary. But that might not be the case in Hawaii, which has the greatest proportion of Asian Americans in the nation. That’s because Island residents may identify themselves more with Barrack Obama, who was born and raised in Hawaii and is of mixed ancestry, than with the voting patterns of Asian Americans on the mainland. According to the article, a “local” identity could be more important than an ethnic identity.
Sounds like Obama has the advantage, right? No quite. U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, the Hawaii Government Employees Association and several labor unions have all endorsed Clinton, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Move over American Idol, next Tuesday just got a lot more interesting.
