Asian American voters are flexing their political muscle in the Georgia Senate runoff

Every vote is important in Georgia, where competitive statewide elections have become the norm.

The December 6 Senate runoff between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker is one more step in the community's transformation into a major electoral force.

The founder and chairman of the AAPI Victory Fund emphasized that the community needed to hear appeals directly from the candidates, pointing to the need for strong voter engagement efforts.

Narasimhan said that the community needs to hear directly from leaders and the candidate that they have a positive message. By continuously doing what we're doing, we're giving that message to them.

The number of votes cast by Asian Americans rose from 73,000 in 2016 to 134,000 in 2020.

The 61,000-vote increase is more than the 12,000-vote margin that allowed Joe Biden to win Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, making him the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state in 22 years.

The lead held over Walker in the general election was approximately 37,000 votes. The Senate race is headed to a second round as no candidate got a majority of the vote.

According to CNN exit polling, Walker was defeated by 20 points by Asian American voters.

Republicans are not giving up on their efforts to appeal to the fast growing voting bloc.

An Asian Pacific American community center was opened by the Republican National Committee in a suburb of Atlanta.

Asian American voters were a key part of Kemp's campaign. According to CNN exit polling, she only outran Kemp by 8 points, posting a better showing than Walker.

Islam said that the only demographic group that keeps going up is her. I'm confident that we're going to be a huge voting bloc that will help deliver a win.