Bee Nguyen Poised to Make History in Atlanta Elections

By Jennie L. Ilustre

 

State Representative Bee Nguyen is on the verge of making history as the first Asian American elected to a statewide political office in Georgia.

Nguyen handily won the Democratic primary runoff for Secretary of State in Georgia recently. She is a leading advocate for voting rights, public education, and criminal justice reform. She supports “voter expansion, not voter suppression.”

“When our voting rights are attacked, we all lose,” she said. Should she be elected As Secretary of State on November 8, she vowed to “keep fighting to protect our right to vote.”

In the 2020 elections, she successfully overturned the “exact match” voter registration law and restored the right to vote for the 53,000 Georgians impacted by the policy.

Nguyen, 40, previously made history in 2017, when she was elected as the first Vietnamese American to the Georgia General Assembly. Nguyen’s parents came to the US after Saigon fell in the mid-1970s. They lived for a while in Iowa, where Nguyen was born in 1981, before settling in Atlanta, according to a CNN in-depth story by Fredreka Schouten.

 

‘Good Chance’

Nguyen, a founder of a nonprofit focused on youth before entering politics, is considered a likely winner in the November 8 general elections.

Nguyen Dinh Thang, CEO & President of BPSOS said in an email interview: “She has a good chance of winning the election as her candidacy would entice Asian Americans, many of whom are independent voters, to go to the polls on election day. Some may even cross the party line to vote for her.”

Nguyen’s victory also comes amid the rapid growth of Georgia’s Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. NBC reported that between the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, AAPI voters in Georgia grew by 84 percent.

Another factor: In the 2020 elections, President Joe Biden flipped Georgia blue (Democratic) for the first time in decades.

Nguyen has also received several endorsements from Atlanta Democrats and national organizations. NBC reported she has the backing of Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dinkens, and also gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, whose seat she filled when Abrams first ran for Atlanta governor.

The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State and the influential EMILY’s List have also endorsed Nguyen, according to CNN.

Nguyen faces Republican incumbent Brad Raffensperger. Raffensperger, however, had a tough time winning last month’s primary due to former President Donald Trump’s opposition.

Trump had urged Raffensperger not to certify Biden’s victory in Georgia, and thus overturn the 2020 election results. Raffensperger had refused to go along with Trump’s plan.

 

APAICS: Key Step Forward

Madalene Xuan-Trang Mielke, President & CEO of Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), remarked on the significance of Nguyen’s victory.

She wrote in an email: “Representative Nguyen’s primary win as the Democratic nominee for the Georgia Secretary of State is a key step toward the statewide representation of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs).”

She added: “Georgia has the one of the fastest growing AA and NHPI populations in the nation, and as the Georgia legislature contemplates more restrictive voting laws, it is critical for our communities to have a voice in power who can defend, protect, and expand our right to vote.”

She emphasized this means “greater outreach, including ballots and voter guides in AA and NHPI languages to make sure we are heard.”

Nguyen warns in her speeches that the US is just “one to two cycles away from a constitutional crisis,” CNN reported, referring to that moment when some election official chooses to bypass the will of voters.

Nguyen and other critics point to Georgia’s sweeping 2021 election law, known as SB 202. Among other things, CNN reported, the law grants the state’s election board the power to order performance reviews of county’s elections operations and appoint a temporary administrator.

 

Immigrant Experience

Nguyen knows “firsthand the importance of a free and fair democracy.” She said her candidacy is informed by her family’s experience in Vietnam and her background as an immigrant.

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Nguyen’s parents fled to Iowa, where Nguyen was born in 1981. Nguyen’s father was imprisoned for three years in a reeducation camp, according to the CNN report by Fredreka Schouten, “’She is our future’: A Democratic rising star seeks to make history in Georgia’s secretary of state race.”

The quote “She is our future” was made by Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, and the whip of the Congressional Black Caucus. He also said, “We’re battling for the soul of the nation right here in Georgia.” Johnson has endorsed Nguyen’s bid for Secretary of State.

Nguyen’s father was a pharmacist and lieutenant who served in a medical role in the South Vietnamese army aligned with Americans, according to the CNN in-depth report. After his release, the family fled Saigon. The traumatic journey included a rescue at sea by a Thai fisherman.

 

Inspiration

BPSOS CEO & President Thang described Nguyen as a role model. He said, “We are excited about Bee Nguyen’s accomplishments. Her winning the primary election for a statewide position in Georgia would encourage many young Asian Americans, particularly Vietnamese Americans, to run for office, not just in Georgia but across the states.”

“Another volunteer who later joined BPSOS as our staff in New Orleans became the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress: Joseph Cao,” he added. “Joseph inspired many young members of our community to join politics.”