“You can’t ignore that a huge portion of San Francisco’s population is from the AAPI community,” said Lauren Chung, the campaign manager for Supervisor Ahasha Safai, adding there are different strategies for different communities within the AAPI umbrella.

In 2011, precincts with higher concentrations of Asian Americans were significantly more likely to favor Mayor Ed Lee, helping to make him the first Asian-American mayor in The City’s history, the analysis shows. A similar correlation between Asian American-heavy precincts and support for Lee continued in 2015 when he cruised to reelection.

However, in other elections, Asian Americans have been less likely to turn out to vote or were fairly mixed in their assessments of the candidates. When Gavin Newsom won the 2003 mayoral election, for example, turnout was lower in areas with higher concentrations of Asian American residents.

More recently, Asian American voters consolidated around key issues, such as the recall of three school board members in 2022 and public safety-related ballot measures in the March primary election.

“It’s no secret, in a big citywide race, you need Asian Americans,” said Kit Lam, who is mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie’s AAPI Political Director.

Asian Americans make up about 37% of San Francisco’s population, and about 25% of San Franciscans speak an Asian or Pacific Island language at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

This year, candidates are scrambling to secure endorsements from prominent Asian Americans, or are hiring them to serve as important cultural links between candidate and community.

At times, campaigns announce hires and endorsements from AAPI leaders like the San Francisco Giants would announce a star free agent’s signing. Candidates’ wooing of Asian voters may be especially important this year in part because there are no prominent Asian-American mayoral candidates.

A February poll conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle found that 49% of Asian voters were undecided about who they would rank first in the mayoral race, compared to 37% of all voters.

This month, Lurie touted his hiring of Han Zou as his new campaign manager. Zou was critical in helping Matt Haney make inroads in the Chinese American community in Haney’s successful bid for State Assembly in 2022.

It comes after Lurie hired Chinese American Kit Lam in March as its AAPI political director. Lam played a key role in organizing the recall campaign that unseated three members of the SFUSD school board in 2022 before becoming an aide to Supervisor Joel Engardio, who himself was elected amid a wave of change brewing on The City’s west side.

Early polling has shown that Breed has particularly low approval ratings from Asian voters, but that doesn’t mean she’s given up on connecting with them. 

To help make up ground, Breed’s campaign announced that it hired “Mo” Ho Yin Mo, a former KTSF Channel 26 news reporter and anchor, to make inroads with Asian voters.

Breed has also made several appearances in Chinatown, including a merchant walk in April in which she highlighted her recent diplomatic trip to China and stressed her administration’s efforts to spur additional tourism to San Francisco in conversations with business owners.

“Polling conducted nine months before the election will not dictate Mayor Breed’s campaign strategy,” Joe Arellano, a spokesperson for Breed’s campaign, told The Examiner in an email.

“The Asian American vote isn’t going to line up for any one candidate — it will break many different ways. Currently, there is no Asian candidate in the race, which will also spread the vote amongst all the candidates.”

Mark Farrell has centered his campaign on public safety and chose a campaign manager with the same focus.

Jade Tu, who is now managing Farrell’s campaign, rose to prominence in San Francisco politics as part of the wave of opposition to rising anti-Asian hate, which evolved into her advocacy for the recall of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

For Tu, the discontent that manifested in Boudin’s recall is still raw. Farrell, she said, is reaching out to every neighborhood and listening.

“For the longest time, the Chinese Community has felt like we haven’t been listened to,” Tu said.

Farrell has put public safety at the forefront of his campaign unlike any other candidate. He promises to push for more California National Guard help in cracking down on fentanyl, among other controversial proposals, such as immediately firing Police Chief Bill Scott upon taking office.

Farrell’s message tends to be the same across communities, but in a language other than English when necessary. For San Franciscans generally, including The City’s AAPI residents, public safety is the number one issue in the election, according to Tu.

“How can we focus on number two if we don’t even feel safe?” Tu asked.

Breed’s campaign also believes her priorities are aligned with AAPI voters, including her commitment to fully staffing the police department and curtailing public drug dealing and use. On the campaign trail, she’s highlighted The City’s work — in coordination with state and federal law enforcement — to crack down on drug dealing in recent months.

Safai, the lone immigrant in the race, has used his personal story of coming to the United States from Iran — which was in the midst of a revolution — as a young child with a single mother to appeal to San Francisco’s diverse electorate.

In a city where about one-third of residents are foreign-born, Safai’s campaign believes his experience has an impact.

“When we have time for a meet and greet, the message always resonates,” Chung said.

Safai served as the supervisor for two terms for District 11, which covers portions of neighborhoods like The Excelsior and Outer Mission — and has the highest concentration of Asian voters in The City.

That sort of history and connection is built over time, Chung argued, and can’t be bought with campaign funds.

By contrast, Breed isn’t an immigrant — she was born and raised in San Francisco.

But her history of “attending public schools, and struggling to make ends meet are common themes that resonate whenever she speaks with Asian voters,” Arellano argued.

“Her background resembles the lived experience of many Asian families in San Francisco,” Arellano said. “Mayor Breed is also the only candidate in the mayor’s race that is still a renter.”

Aaron Peskin has represented District 3 — which includes Chinatown — on the Board of Supervisors for four nonconsecutive terms. During that span, Peskin ventures he’s attended countless Chinese Hospital board meetings, family association banquets, and other community events.

“I’m not the guy who appears every four years at election time. I’m the guy who appears 50 times a year,” Peskin said.

Though the concerns of an Asian-American homeowner in the Sunset district may differ from those of a Chinatown SRO tenant, Peskin said, “There is a profound recognition in the Chinese-American community of elected officials who care about the community.”

For example, he said, his advocacy to prohibit cannabis shops from Chinatown resonated outside his district.

“There is a deep understanding — and I’ve experienced this personally as I’ve walked the Taraval corridor and the Irving corridor — that I have stood up for the Chinese community since I was first elected 25 years ago.”

On Lurie’s behalf, Zou and Lam try to highlight their candidates’ position in the race as a relative outsider. Lurie is the only prominent candidate in the race who has never worked in City government.

“From my conversations with different voters, they notice our government is not working, City Hall is not working, lots of money is being wasted, and even when I talk to caucasian and Chinese voters about the nightmare on Taraval, they all resonate, they’re questioning why the street has to be dug up and put back and dug up.”

It was Lurie’s anti-corruption bent that lured Lam — who formerly investigated corruption for Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption — to work for him.

“I want change, I am pretty much an independent person like Daniel, so I want change. I don’t owe anyone anything, so it’s a good time for me to jump in,” Lam said.