FALLS CHURCH, Virginia—On a heat Sunday this month on the Eden Heart, a strip mall that serves as a hub for Virginia’s Vietnamese American neighborhood, storefronts have 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 present polling six points forward of Trump in Virginia.
Within the parking zone, the place American and South Vietnamese flags fly facet by facet, individuals stopped by a tent lined in Trump and Cao paraphernalia. At one level, audio system blasted “Eating the Cats,” a viral tune parodying Trump’s feedback through the Sept. 10 presidential debate, by which he repeated the false declare that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, have been consuming pets.
It was not the one piece of misinformation that echoed via the Eden Heart. Beside the tent, individuals who traced their origins to China, Thailand, and Vietnam described the US below Democratic management as a “one-party system” and alleged that “Kamala Harris simply opened the border and let individuals [in].”
All have been excited in regards to the candidacy of Cao, a former U.S. Navy captain who can 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 help our personal.”
View of indicators supporting former President Donald Trump, in addition to different down-ballot Republican candidates within the parking zone of the Eden Heart in Falls Church, Virginia, on Oct. 20. Allison Meakem for Overseas Coverage
Virginia has not elected a Republican statewide candidate to nationwide workplace in twenty years, and that appears unlikely to alter this 12 months—at the same time as Trump has insisted that the state is in play. Neither presidential marketing campaign has spent a lot cash within the state.
“It’s a protected Democratic election,” mentioned David Ramadan, a professor on the Schar Faculty 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 neighborhood numbers around 77,000, making it the fifth-largest in the US. 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 form of tie with the U.S. authorities,” mentioned Elizabeth Morton, a guide and lecturer at George Washington College who directed a historiography project on Virginia’s Little Saigon.
Virginia owes a lot of its latest blue transformation to its quickly urbanizing northern area, which is disproportionately prosperous, educated, and multicultural. The Eden Heart sits within the 8th Congressional District, which has despatched Democrats to Congress since 1990; Rep. Don Beyer won in 2022 with almost 74 % of the vote. Whereas lots of the space’s numerous communities have pushed its leftward shift, the fact amongst Vietnamese Individuals is extra advanced.
Vietnamese refugee Tran Thuong Huy (heart) stands with teenage Vietnamese Individuals in Arlington, Virginia, on Feb. 1, 1985.Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis through Getty Photos
Nationally, Vietnamese Individuals gravitate to the best in comparison with different Asian American voters. A 2023 study from the Pew Analysis Heart discovered that 51 % of registered Vietnamese American voters leaned towards the Republican Celebration, whereas 42 % leaned Democratic; Vietnamese Individuals have 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 line with the 2024 AAPI Voter Survey.
In an election that has seen Trump make features amongst nonwhite voters, these tendencies are a reminder that the Democratic Celebration can not take the help of numerous communities as a right. They may even be a harbinger of the nuanced, multiracial U.S. democracy of the longer term: Asian Individuals are the fastest-growing population group in the US, and the variety of Vietnamese Individuals grew by 32 percent between 2010 and 2020.
In Virginia, the Vietnamese American neighborhood is extra politically divided than the shows on the Eden Heart counsel. “Not seeing pro-Harris stations on the market doesn’t imply that there’s not robust help 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 neighborhood’s sympathy for the Republican Celebration 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 imagine that the Republican Celebration is extra anti-communist than the Democratic Celebration.”
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 Overseas 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 “complete Vietnamese American neighborhood” sympathizes together with his campaign. “I’m principally 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 completed with [Sen. Kaine] who comes out and immediately has mentioned that,” referring to Cao’s declare that Democrats are communists.
Hung Cao speaks throughout a rally for Trump in Chesapeake, Virginia, on June 28. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos
Cao and Kaine have clashed on almost each problem 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 help for increasing authorized pathways to immigration.
Kaine, who serves on the Senate Armed Providers and Overseas Relations Committees, is a robust proponent of U.S. world engagement, together with through assist for Ukraine and Taiwan. Regardless of his navy background, Cao has supplied few specifics on overseas coverage apart from voicing strong support for Israel and skepticism over unchecked U.S. funding for Ukraine.
Staunch anti-communist views have 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 At present, 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.
At present, 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 Heart 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 is likely to be generational. “Among the many youthful technology, it appears to me that there’s a whole lot of participation and actively in search of out data,” Elston mentioned. “The struggle is a really distant reminiscence for many individuals.” The vast majority of Vietnamese Individuals over 50 determine as Republican, whereas most of those that are youthful lean Democratic, in line with Pew information.
No matter affiliation, Vietnamese Individuals who spoke to Overseas Coverage mentioned that they take into account the financial system to be a prime problem this election cycle—notably inflation and prices for households and small companies. “Fuel go up, all the pieces go up, groceries, individuals can not afford,” Pham mentioned. “When you get out of the home, you spend some huge cash.”
Democrats have seen help among the many neighborhood for higher entry to larger training and job coaching applications, in addition to abortion rights, the supply near the Kaine marketing campaign mentioned. “A great variety of conservative Vietnamese Individuals say they really are voting for Tim Kaine,” they mentioned. “Quite a lot of it comes right down to … girls’s reproductive well being.” Cao, against this, 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 help native candidates, he referred to as the outlet “podunk.” In June, USA At present reported that Cao misrepresented elements of his navy service file—a central marketing campaign speaking level.
Ladies watch from a salon as Trump’s motorcade arrives on the Eden Heart in Falls Church on Aug. 26. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos
Kaine leads Cao by 13 share factors amongst possible Virginia voters, in line with an Oct. 19-23 survey carried out by the Schar Faculty 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 actually 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 will be malleable when introduced with statewide Republican candidates who appear moderate 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 tendencies of the social gathering, it’s not going to bode nicely,” Ramadan mentioned of Cao.
Trump visited the Eden Center on a marketing campaign cease in August with Cao by his facet, maybe underscoring this counterproductive technique. “One way or the other, I don’t know what it’s, you’ll have to clarify it, however the Vietnamese neighborhood loves me. I like them,” Trump said 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 so much,” 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 individuals at Eden Heart.”
