A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight, we are having an election reflection. This is your host, Miko Lee, and it’s been a bit over a week since the history-making and herstory-breaking US midterm elections. We get to hear from two powerful women leaders, Nancy Xiong from Hmong Innovating Politics Action Fund, and Farah Mizrahi from Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, POWER. We recorded this interview on Thursday, November fifth, and you’ll hear us talk about a few races that were eagerly being watched. More info about our guests: Hmong Innovating Politics Alliance of South Asians Taking Action Show Transcript [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It’s time to get on board the Apex Express. [00:00:34] Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express. Tonight, we are having an election reflection. This is your host, Miko Lee, and it’s been a bit over a week since the history-making and herstory-breaking US midterm elections. We get to hear from two powerful women leaders, Nancy Xiong from Hmong Innovating Politics Action Fund, and Farah Mizrahi from Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, POWER. We recorded this interview on Thursday, November fifth, and you’ll hear us talk about a few races that were eagerly being watched. Today, as I’m recording, it’s Tuesday, November tenth, and the congressional race of Mai Vang and Fremont City Council race Aziz Ekbari have not been officially called yet. In Fresno, Council One, Nandip Singh currently leads by 199 votes. So when folks say their votes don’t count, just listen to how close these numbers are. 199, that is amazing. Voting clearly does make a difference. We saw a huge Asian American Pacific Islander turnout during this midterm election, and we saw that 84% of young AAPI women voted for the Democratic House candidates, just behind young Black women. 79% of young AAPI men voted for Democratic House candidates, the highest of all racial groups. With the new incoming Congress members, we will have the largest number of AAPIs in Congress, and yet we’ll still only equal 4% of the Congress, nowhere near equal the 9% of our population. We’ll also have the largest number of women in Congress, but women only make up 28% of Congress when women represent 51% of the population. In twenty-twenty five, the average age of an American is 39. The average age of a Congress member is 60. That’s the average age. So despite our amazing gains in this midterm elections, Congress is still primarily held by older, straight, cisgendered white men. So y’all, we still have a lot of work to do. But for now, let’s celebrate the victories and talk about the path forward with my guests, Nancy Xiong from Hmong Innovating Politics Action Fund, and Farah Mizrahi from Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, POWER. Welcome to Apex Express, my colleagues, my powerful women. I would love it if you could introduce yourselves today. Our episode is called Election Reflection: Midterms 2026, and we’re just all riding… I at least w- am riding the blue wave and feeling incredibly happy right now. I’d love you to introduce yourselves say who you are, what organization you work with, and what’s rising up for you right now. Let’s start with Nancy. [00:04:04] Nancy Xiong: Hi, everyone. I’m Nancy Xiong. I’m the executive director for Hmong Innovating Politics, and I’ve been reflecting a lot with my team, or mostly my directors, in the last couple of days, and I think I just feel a lot of hope, and more so hope in, like, our young people and, like, our group of volunteers, like folks that have continuously shown out even though there was this big influx of, like, ICE in our regions, and I think there was a lot of fear. And I think just the courage and bravery that people have shown in the last month. I feel a lot of hope because of that. You know, taking it one day at a time as well, ’cause I have a lot of thoughts on this, but, um, I just, I, I know that we are in the right relationships, and I, I feel really good about that. [00:04:47] Miko Lee: Thank you so much, Nancy. And I just want to say officially, today when we’re recording this is November 5th, so it’s a couple of days after the midterm elections. Um, and this will actually air next week, and so we don’t even know what’s gonna happen by next week. There’s so many races that aren’t even called. But I wanna invite my other guest to introduce herself. Farah? [00:05:08] Farah Mahesri: My name is Farah Mehesri. I organize with the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action Power, so ASATA POWER. And I’m sitting kind of with two things. One is, Nancy, similar to what you were saying, just an incredible amount of joy, or especially for my comrades and fellow organizers who have really only organized in Trump era. You know, all of the people who’ve really been organizing since, like, say even 2014, to experience this moment where I think… I still have some moments from, like, way back where I was like, I remember when politics did make me feel good things, not just, like, horrible things. And I am so excited for myself to have some of my comrades and colleagues who have been organizing for so long under just Trump, that’s all they know, and all of the fights that they’ve had, all of the victories that they have achieved, that we’ve all achieved, but especially them under such horrible conditions, what they will do with this moment. Like, what, what is possible under this opportunity under the leadership of so many people who have been organizing on Palestine, who have been organizing against ICE, like, these really big battles. And then Miko, as you said, because it is, you know, the Thursday after the election, I am sitting with a lot of questions. I- there’s so much data that isn’t completely out yet that I’m like, I wanna know how… I wanted the breakdowns, um, and to get into a lot of the data that just isn’t available yet. [00:06:41] Miko Lee: Ooh, there’s so many things you both just said, but because you both talked about young people and the feeling of organizing during the time of Trump, I’m wondering if you could expand on that. What are some of the things that your young organizers are saying about this moment? [00:06:57] Nancy Xiong: I think I’ve been doing a lot of reflection about two years ago and, you know, when Trump took office, it was just really, it was a dark time for me. Like, even as someone who’s, like, an executive director and I feel like there is this pressure to always have hope and be like, “We can do it,” you know? At the same time, it’s like th- I, I was having some really real, like, fears of like, will, will we have be enough, you know, to fight against fascism, to fight against a larger system? Because we will– we just don’t have enough funding, you know? We don’t have enough, you know, the list goes on of, of how to really combat this. And so two years now, I can, like, look back and just say like, you know, all, all of our young people, um, and the folks that have been able, we’ve been able to engage with, uh, this past year, um, they are just so brave and courageous, you know? Um, e- even when we’re, like, really nervous about having these conversations because they have real life impacts, our young people are like, “Where do you need me to be?” You know, “Where do you need me to go?” Um, “What,” you know, “What, what support do you need from us?” And it was just so inspirational for us that, like, that hope and that inspiration is so, um- It’s, it’s like so contagious, you know? It’s like if this young person is telling me where do I need to be and, you know, it’s like your fear is also valid. Um, and you can still feel like hopeful because you are just seeing that this fight isn’t just, you know, us as staff fighting, but like now we have folks that, you know, are a part of our membership who also care and see the same things that you’re seeing. And sometimes I feel like am I the delusional? You know, like am I delusional? Because are you not seeing the same things that I am seeing or feeling? And, uh, it’s been really great, I think, to just be grounded in that this is not normal and that we have each other. And I think I have just been riding on that since, you know, two years ago, is just having that hope and knowing that there is more of us, and that at the end of everything that feels hard, like, I always lean back on my community, especially my team, to really give me the strength and the hope to keep fighting. And, um, I think that’s also about what resiliency is about, right? So it’s not just about like us as individuals, you know, getting over things and moving through things, but it’s like how do we also reassure each other in, in these moments. Um, and how we build resiliency together is like equally as im- important. And so I feel a lot better than I was two years ago, but I’m also like we deserve more and we gotta demand more because I do not want to go through this again, and that more is possible. I’m, I’m gonna work on it with my team next year, uh, at our staff retreat to really talk about like what is this new world that we are really imagining because I feel it in my heart, I feel it in my bones, and we really have to fight for the world that we want. And so yeah, I’m just like riding on that as like we really have to reimagine this ’cause this is not the world I, I’m, I, I want for our, for me, for our young people. Getting the spaciousness to really dream. [00:10:14] Miko Lee: Oh, I love that, Nan
