FALLS CHURCH, Virginia—On a heat Sunday this month on the Eden Middle, a strip mall that serves as a hub for Virginia’s Vietnamese American group, storefronts had been decked in posters backing former President Donald Trump and Republican Hung Cao, who’s operating a longshot marketing campaign to oust Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine.
There was not a single signal for Vice President Kamala Harris, who’s at the moment polling six factors forward of Trump in Virginia.
Within the car parking zone, the place American and South Vietnamese flags fly facet by facet, folks stopped by a tent lined in Trump and Cao paraphernalia. At one level, audio system blasted “Consuming the Cats,” a viral track parodying Trump’s feedback through the Sept. 10 presidential debate, during which he repeated the false declare that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, had been consuming pets.
It was not the one piece of misinformation that echoed by means of the Eden Middle. Beside the tent, individuals who traced their origins to China, Thailand, and Vietnam described the USA beneath Democratic management as a “one-party system” and alleged that “Kamala Harris simply opened the border and let folks [in].”
All had been excited in regards to the candidacy of Cao, a former U.S. Navy captain who could be the primary Vietnamese American senator if elected on Nov. 5. “The Vietnamese stick collectively,” mentioned Ken Pham, 52, a martial arts teacher from close by Annandale who mentioned that he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and plans to take action once more this 12 months. “We assist our personal.”
View of indicators supporting former President Donald Trump, in addition to different down-ballot Republican candidates within the car parking zone of the Eden Middle in Falls Church, Virginia, on Oct. 20. Allison Meakem for International Coverage
Virginia has not elected a Republican statewide candidate to nationwide workplace in twenty years, and that appears unlikely to vary this 12 months—whilst Trump has insisted that the state is in play. Neither presidential marketing campaign has spent a lot cash within the state.
“It’s a secure democratic election,” mentioned David Ramadan, a professor on the Schar College of Coverage and Authorities at George Mason College and a former Republican member of the Virginia Home of Delegates.
Nonetheless, Cao’s historic candidacy underscores the potential political energy of Virginia’s Vietnamese Individuals. The group numbers round 77,000, making it the fifth-largest in the USA. Most members hint their roots to the autumn of Saigon in 1975, when 1000’s of refugees resettled within the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Many “had some type of tie with the U.S. authorities,” mentioned Elizabeth Morton, a advisor and lecturer at George Washington College who directed a historiography venture on Virginia’s Little Saigon.
Virginia owes a lot of its current blue transformation to its quickly urbanizing northern area, which is disproportionately prosperous, educated, and multicultural. The Eden Middle sits within the eighth Congressional District, which has despatched Democrats to Congress since 1990; Rep. Don Beyer gained in 2022 with practically 74 % of the vote. Whereas lots of the space’s numerous communities have pushed its leftward shift, the truth amongst Vietnamese Individuals is extra complicated.
Vietnamese refugee Tran Thuong Huy (middle) stands with teenage Vietnamese Individuals in a neighborhood in Arlington on Feb. 1, 1985.Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis through Getty Pictures
Nationally, Vietnamese Individuals gravitate to the appropriate in comparison with different Asian American voters. A 2023 examine from the Pew Analysis Middle discovered that 51 % of registered Vietnamese American voters leaned towards the Republican Social gathering, whereas 42 % leaned Democratic; Vietnamese Individuals had been the one Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) constituency to lean Republican. They’re additionally politically energetic—91 % of Vietnamese American voters plan to vote this 12 months, in response to the 2024 AAPI Voter Survey.
In an election that has seen Trump make beneficial properties amongst nonwhite voters, these developments are a reminder that the Democratic Social gathering can not take the assist of numerous communities with no consideration. They may even be a harbinger of the nuanced, multiracial U.S. democracy of the long run: Asian Individuals are the fastest-growing inhabitants group in the USA, and the variety of Vietnamese Individuals grew by 32 % between 2010 and 2020.
In Virginia, the Vietnamese American group is extra politically divided than the shows on the Eden Middle counsel. “Not seeing pro-Harris stations on the market doesn’t imply that there’s not sturdy assist for her,” mentioned Erin Phuong Steinhauer, a Falls Church resident and the president of the Vietnam Society, a D.C.-based nonprofit that celebrates Vietnamese tradition. “The Trump facet is the louder of the 2.”
Steinhauer chalks up the group’s sympathy for the Republican Social gathering to historical past and misinformation. Many Vietnamese Individuals “got here right here actually having deep bitterness in opposition to the communist Vietnamese authorities,” she mentioned. “So for some motive … they consider that the Republican Social gathering is extra anti-communist than the Democratic Social gathering.”
Cao, who was born in Vietnam and in addition ran for Congress in 2022, has made anti-communism central to his Senate marketing campaign. “The stuff that Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are pushing is extraordinarily communist in nature,” he advised International Coverage, pointing to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, gun management, and gender-affirming insurance policies for LGBTQ+ youth.
“That’s why I’m operating for workplace, as a result of I’m seeing this nation flip into what I ran away from,” Cao mentioned, including that the “total Vietnamese American group” sympathizes together with his campaign. “I’m mainly the usual bearer for lots of them.”
Democrats beg to vary. “Vietnamese Individuals aren’t homogenous,” mentioned a supply near the Kaine marketing campaign, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate the race candidly, “however I personally haven’t encountered anyone in all of the political occasions I’ve executed with [Sen. Kaine] who comes out and straight has mentioned that,” referring to Cao’s declare that Democrats are communists.
Cao speaks throughout a rally for Trump in Chesapeake, Virginia, on June 28. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Pictures
Cao and Kaine have clashed on practically each concern of their race. Cao blames lots of the United States’ woes—together with inflation—on the Biden administration’s immigration coverage. In an Oct. 2 debate, Cao echoed Trump’s pledge to deport all undocumented immigrants within the nation, whereas Kaine voiced assist for increasing authorized pathways to immigration.
Kaine, who serves on the Senate Armed Companies and International Relations Committees, is a powerful proponent of U.S. international engagement, together with through assist for Ukraine and Taiwan. Regardless of his navy background, Cao has supplied few specifics on international coverage except for voicing sturdy assist for Israel and skepticism over unchecked U.S. funding for Ukraine.
Staunch anti-communist views had been as soon as the “mainstream” amongst Vietnamese Individuals, mentioned Thuan Le Elston, a journalist who was born in Saigon and has lived in northern Virginia since 1997. Elston, the copy chief for the opinion part at USA As we speak, mentioned that modified after 1993, when U.S. President Invoice Clinton normalized ties with Vietnam, permitting many Vietnamese Individuals to go to, do enterprise, and start the method of reconciliation.
As we speak, Elston mentioned, voices like Cao are on “the perimeter”—however they’re amplified partially by conspiracy theories that unfold on-line, particularly amongst older voters. These supporting Trump on the Eden Middle skewed older and cited Fox Information, Newsmax, and the social media web site X as a few of their prime information sources.
The broader political fault line amongst Vietnamese American voters may be generational. “Among the many youthful era, it appears to me that there’s loads of participation and actively in search of out info,” Elston mentioned. “The struggle is a really distant reminiscence for many individuals.” Nearly all of Vietnamese Individuals over 50 determine as Republican, whereas most of those that are youthful lean Democratic, in response to Pew knowledge.
No matter affiliation, Vietnamese Individuals who spoke to International Coverage mentioned that they contemplate the economic system to be a prime concern this election cycle—notably inflation and prices for households and small companies. “Gasoline go up, every part go up, groceries, folks can not afford,” Pham mentioned. “When you get out of the home, you spend some huge cash.”
Democrats have seen assist among the many group for higher entry to greater training and job coaching packages, in addition to abortion rights, the supply near the Kaine marketing campaign mentioned. “A very good variety of conservative Vietnamese Individuals say they really are voting for Tim Kaine,” they mentioned. “Numerous it comes right down to … girls’s reproductive well being.” Cao, in contrast, has likened abortion to the Holocaust.
Cao’s platform and incendiary rhetoric have in the end struggled to seek out broad enchantment amongst Virginians, and his marketing campaign has been beset by some controversy. When a newspaper in Staunton, Virginia, reported that funds from Cao’s tremendous PAC didn’t go to assist native candidates, he referred to as the outlet “podunk.” In June, USA As we speak reported that Cao misrepresented elements of his navy service file—a central marketing campaign speaking level.
Girls watch from a salon as Trump’s motorcade arrives to the Eden Middle in Falls Church on Aug. August 26. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Pictures
Kaine leads Cao by 13 proportion factors amongst probably Virginia voters, in response to an Oct. 19-23 survey carried out by the Schar College and the Washington Publish. Cao’s struggle chest additionally pales compared to Kaine’s: Within the second quarter of 2024, Kaine’s marketing campaign raised $16 million to Cao’s $3 million.
Whereas Democrats will nearly definitely carry each the presidential and Senate races in Virginia, Ramadan nonetheless characterised Virginia as a “purple” state, partially as a result of it’s led by a Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin. Virginia voters may be malleable when introduced with statewide Republican candidates who seem average and distance themselves from Trump, as Youngkin did throughout his 2021 marketing campaign.
However “[w]hen you when have an immigrant, no matter this success and all-American story, operating and enjoying on those self same silly, racist, nationalist developments of the social gathering, it’s not going to bode effectively,” Ramadan mentioned of Cao.
Trump visited the Eden Middle on a marketing campaign cease in August with Cao by his facet, maybe underscoring this counterproductive technique. “In some way, I don’t know what it’s, you’ll have to elucidate it, however the Vietnamese group loves me. I like them,” Trump mentioned to an invite-only crowd gathered at a restaurant.
Whilst many Vietnamese Individuals expressed enthusiasm about Trump’s go to, the occasion turned others off. “It truly upset me rather a lot,” Steinhauer mentioned. “He was so condescending to the Vietnamese within the room. He is aware of nothing about us. And he additionally doesn’t care in regards to the folks at Eden Middle.”
