matters every two years or four years, guessss what? that's not a formula la for sustaining our democracy. i'm at the institute of politics here in chicago working with young people to encourage them to participate in this system. we just did a poll, and when you look at -- i ask them, do you believe that democracy is delivering for you, the majority of young people say no. and they're saying no because of what this woman is saying. hay don't think that people really listen. they think that it's a self-serving system for politicians themselvesns and tht die -- dying log needs to be more honest. we need to be more honest about what government can do and can't do. people that know me know i'm a deficit hawk. i think that we have got to get our country back on track with debt and deficit. we aren't realistic about that, and to me, that's a conservative value, that's a rural value. you pay your bills and you don't

overspend what you raise. and we've kind of lost that as well. and so i'm completely sympathetic to your caller that voters feel used and that drives, it drives frustration. it drives concern for their democracy. butn, it drives them away from participating. t >> host: one countrypa project.m is the web site for the one country project. heidi heitkamp serves as the director, former member of congress. thanks for your time. >> guest: thanks so much for having me. good luck to all of you. >> host: we're live in chicago from the sitet of our studio during the coverage of the democratic national convention, and we thank them greatly for the ability to have access to the building and to allow you to the talk to guests are from the democratic national convention. joining us right now of the aapi victory fund, the chair and founder. good morning to you,r stir -- sir, thanks for joining us. >> guest: thank you, pedro. glad to be here. enter for those who would not be aware ofou your work, what is te

fund and what do you do? >> guest: great question. [laughter] well, very simply, many in 2015 -- in 2015 we went into the general election with hillary clinton knowing that the asian-american, native hawaiian and pacific islander vote was the fastest growing vote in america. we are the largest nick group if growth, and it has been the case for ten years. however, when we looked at data if you lookhe at 20216, 49 ark i registered voters actually voted. 65 of americans -- 65 of americans as a whole were voting. so we were voting 16% less, more than any other single ethnic community in the united states. made no sense. because there's -- we have very high levels of education, good levels of income, most fest generation immigrants -- first

generation immigrants directly. it just didn't make any sense that our community was not participating in the electoral process. so we were created with the sole purpose of driving the asian-american, pacific islander vote is, educating folks, teaching hem and talk about issues, making sure that we participated fully in american electoral politics. and in 2020you should know that percentage went up 13% to 62 while americans as a whole voted at 68%. so we increased our vote in states like georgia, many in states like arizona, in states likeke michigan, in states like pennsylvania by the largest percentage that any earth mix group has ever increased in four years. so drive the vote, educate folks, get them involved in the process. and,ks yes, create a bench of leaders that look like the communities that they represent. and i'm proud to say also that

we've had a fivetold -- fivefold increase in the number of people in state and local office as, mayoral offices, for example, who look like our community in all its wonderful manifestation. >> host: do you have a sense how things have changed with support the vote year because of the addition of vice president harris to the ticket? she being the head of the ticket? >> guest: yes. and, pedro, my skin actually crawls every time somebody says something like president kamala harris. and the reason it does is that we view her as one of us. she has many identities, and the most important identity she has is that she's an american. but within that, like all of us, we have these multiplicity of ethnicities and relationships. so she is, her mother was from if india. she, therefore, identifies as someone who understands culture from south asia, from asian

america. and so we have adopted her. she is one of us. and of course she's a black -- she was brought up black, and her father was jamaican. and, of course, she lived in a community that had all these ethnicities and diversities in oakland, california. so people don't lose their heritage and their identity just because they become american. they a can carry all that with them. so our communities have been so energized by the fact that she's now the top of the ticket. but it's even more than that. s it is fundamentally because we see a chance to make history here in america. we see aa chance to create an america that looks like us, accepts us, that we are part of andex we're a part of the storyf the country, of its and its prosperity. so to us she represents it's not just the ethnicity, not just the fact that she may understand us and the fact that that a first generation immigrant. it is that her value systems,

her belief systems and what she has done in her prior life prove to us that she's somebody worth fighting for and worth really getting out there and beating the doors down and getting people to vote for her. >> host: when you talk to those that you're trying to to attract in support of the vice president and, you know, get to the polls, what issues are at the top of the list for that a voting bloc of yours? >> guest: very interesting but, frapgly, the top five issues are all american issues. it's just sometimes the order of the issues. i think, for example, in our communities when we have done polling, the number one issue is the economy which is truly the number one issue for almost every american family. now, if you're in the top 101%, it's -- 1, it's a lesser issue. you're not worrying about putting food on the table, building a small business, hiring worker. the opportunity set that comes with having access to to the capital.

so our community is no different. i think that economy is number one, but number two is family and education. i think we care deeply about education. and, by the way, the pp -- aap if i community is very questioners. it's about as diverse as the the rest of america is. the fact that we are lumped together in the census as one group, if you will, makes it actually energizes us. if today we have -- today we have 25 the million people who identify as asian-american, native hawaiian pacific islanders. 15 million voters. pedro, that's 1.5 million more than that in 2020. we already have 700,000 new workers in the seven battleground states. these are the people that we are asking about issues, and let me just go down the list, immigration. why is immigration important to asian american, native hawaiian pacific islanders?

because of several reasons. one is one of the largest -- and it may sound surprising -- groups that is can coming over the border that doesn't messily have documentation -- messily have documentation are, in fact, indians and chinese. so this is not just a problem in certain parts of the world, it's across the world. people are looking for legal paths to immigration to this country, and our system is broken. we have a system which right now would require if somebody entered this country and they worked and they had a work visa, it could take 18-20 years. even if they followed the process to a t in order to get immigration status and a green card. and then another five years plus to get citizenship. the bottom line is if you have a system thatt doesn't work and it doesn't promote people following the pathway, then whether they are an asylum seeker or they're looking for economic opportunity, people will choose

alternatives that are not desirable. we have to fix that system. if our community believes in family reunification, in high-skilled visas, in the opportunity set that america provides. but, yes, create a system that works. people will follow thehe rules, and they will actually abide by them. .. >> if you want to text does question you can do that at 202-748-8003. to the funds works how much of that is fundraising? >> guest: we spend about 30% of her time unfortunately fundraising, raising money vote for candidates, for our own

campaigns that we are running in education. we do things inig multiple languages in social media as well as using influencers. a lot of the time is spent doing that but it's by no means the majority of our time. the majority of our time is doing town halls with our community, bringing elected leaders to listen to our community, first listening, and theng responding to their concerns, whether it is copper access for small business or it is having access to a high-quality education at an affordable cost or its healthcare. our jobob is education and enabling our community to participate and then encouraging those in our community who want to rent office to get the financial and campaign support to be successful. >> host: i ask because you are in a "usa today" story this is before present by decide to step out but the crooks of the story is people raise money like youad

are concerned about his ability to win and donors influence of donors a large factor in the presidential leaving the race. how would you respond to that? >> guest: i would respond that the first thing we said was that we appreciate and care deeply about the president, and the fact that it was his decision. however, after the debate to 27 it became clearer that the was an opportunity here just as much as there was a challenge. we did not want to spend the next three and half months just talking about the fact that he was either able or not able. we wanted to talk about our policies, our hopes for the future and about donald trump. odyssey at that moment i felt that the amnesia that many of the electorate have about donald trump, that they've forgotten what the fourgo years was like, waking up every morning in this cold sweat wondering what was going to happen next. and we felt that the focus had to ship back to a campaign that

was positive and also brought up the contrast. and i thought after the beta was a reason for concern.fo we would've stuck with him. we did in chile made the decision that it was time for him to pass the torch, and he did come in as grateful and is wonderful and as courageous and patriotic manner as any american president everr has. so the bottom line is we now have the race that we all wished for. it's a race about hope and opportunity and growth, and it's also race about the fact that -- and we don't want to go back and have to relive that for another four years. in fact, itli could be darker ad even more ominous if he comes back into doctrine once you say that the harris-walz campaign released ads taking, targeting asian american pacific islander community called the seal. began airing monday criticized nominee donald trump using language like kung flug height f

the pandemic and the contrast that with kamala harris is featured a speech saying trump slate which promote xenophobia but that's the crooks of the epic what you think about the approach? >> guest: the approach is right on. after the attacks by the president, which he may not have necessarily seen, president trump, as attacking the asian-american community and people who look different, but those attacks in the labeling of that virus exacerbate the problem that already existed in america. there is hate and america. there is racism in america. i don't think anyone of us could deny that. the question was, is it normalize? isn't allowedno to become legitimately for you stand up on the street you look like someone that it will take you and you spit at them because you feel your title andnd dare not. so the spike in hate crimes against asians, there was a 400% increase in hate crimes in theha

two years that followed trump kept on talking about the chinese virus and the kung flu virus. the truth of the matter is we all know who is chinese. they could be a type person, a korean person, a nepali. we can all the chinese to you. i think you may know, pedro, the first person who was killed in america, literally murdered, after 9/11 was a seek with a turban filling gas at a petrol pump in arizona. why would somebody kill somebody with a turban from america who is quite american? because they had been fueled by hate and ignorance, and they go together. we have been very concerned about the language that politicians use. we think words have meaning. they have to bring about justice and have to bring about hope. they can't simply bring about

here in anger and passion. that's inadequate and we don't think donald trump behaves well and his words and is language independent actions can to demonstrate that. we're not going to online that allow them to come back to the white house. >> host: this is 202-748-8003 is. fletcher from christina virginia, democrat's line for sculpture on with our guest. go ahead. >> caller: thank you. my question is about or what to make a comment regarding what's going on with project 25. i think the democrats need to delve more detail in on it. from what i understand they want to privatize education department. the post office, medicare they want to privatize the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, a basically the

weather is not free. it want to fire all government employees of putting sycophants. we want to institute a national abortion ban. in uganda more detail and make american people aware of how serious this is, what this would look like in a trump administration. i think that this is not getting enough attention and this is very, very concerning. i think we also need to discuss the snake thinks trump is doing such as right now, this is a ledge, this is a latch but right now he's talking to benjamin netanyahu about averting a between israel and the war in gaza. things like this need to be more talked about. >> host: got you. we let our guest respond. go ahead, sir. >> guest: sure, pedro. and thank you christine for the question. number one i agree with you that we need to make sure people know what's in that 900 page manifesto called project 125. it has a lot of stuff in it.

sometimes i've been told, my father used to always say whatever the person says and puts out there is something you should believe that they will actually do. if you read that manifesto it changes america. it takes us back to an era that we don't want to go back to. it not only would dismantle the department of education, allow the firing of several co are not quote obedient, it would also yes, it would take away all of women's reproductive choice rights. it would, in fact, destroy even the market system of the united states. it asks for the privatization of an agency by the way that people don't know about that would eliminate the 30 year fixed-rate mortgage, the bedrock of american homeownership and wealth building. these are the things we have to highlight. i promise you part of the agenda we have to educate folks on what's written, what's there and

affect donald trump and his cohorts, 180 of the people from ms. prior administration helped to write that. it is run by a person who is being rumored to become his chief of staff. he can disassociate. the fact that he tells untruths come sometimes you can just call them outright lies, or the fact that he does exaggerate, there is a manifesto today. there is a track record of four years of incompetence of greed and of corruption to compare ourselves to. so let's look at the facts, let's talk about this with our neighbors. let's make very sure that everybody knows that project 2025 is, in fact, a manifesto for the first one of days of the top administration and impact it will have on people's lives. it's not a future that we want as americans. it's not a future thatt we shoud work for. >> host: here on her independent line from florida judy, hello.

>> caller: first of all want to thank you so much because watching c-span to the whole night plastic, no interruptions. second of all, to watch the whole thing last night was with such warmth and class. and when i watched trump's, it's cold and it's trash. trump just wants to call people names and wants big crowds. but you see how jill biden talked in her speech and the people loved it and how she introduced and so proud of her husband, president biden. and if he had doug spoke about kamala and the world there and how, just, justt the warmth all over