At a Chinatown bar, the holiday party in mid-December felt more like an Asian family reunion than a night out, with people of different generations coming together. Grandpas in sharp suits took the karaoke mic, while aunties flitted through the crowd, directing younger folks in Christmas sweaters to tasks like serving food and hanging up jackets.<\/p>\n
Amid the festivities, something uncommon was happening. The city\u2019s three most influential Asian American political clubs, which often clash over endorsements, had come under one roof for a single evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a historic moment,\u201d said city Supervisor Connie Chan as the event opened, noting that the Asian community is often treated as monolithic. \u201cWe are not, and yet we do come together at this moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chan, who is running for Nancy Pelosi\u2019s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the only congressional candidate at the event, said the stakes for political unity are rising as the Trump administration tightens immigration policies and targets immigrant communities. That backdrop, she said, made the joint celebration especially meaningful.<\/p>\n
The cohosting organizations \u2014 the Chinese American Democratic Club, the Ed Lee Democratic Club, and the Rose Pak Asian American Club \u2014 were founded at different times over several decades. Each has a unique history and approach but all focus on to representing San Francisco\u2019s Asian community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asians make up roughly a third of the city\u2019s population and their political presence has grown in recent years, especially through high-profile campaigns like three successful recall elections, including those that ousted three school board members, former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and most recently the Sunset District supervisor, Joel Engardio. Despite these ballot-box victories, there are fewer Asian legislators in City Hall now than a decade ago, when half of the city\u2019s supervisors were Asian.<\/p>\n
Josephine Zhao, president of Chinese American Democratic Club, highlighted the sharp differences in how these groups approach politics. Despite representing overlapping constituencies, the clubs rarely align on endorsements. The Ed Lee Democratic Club, Zhao said, \u201cwould never support recalling Joel.\u201d The Rose Pak Asian American club \u201cwould never back recalling Boudin.\u201d In contrast, she noted that her group has taken a more aggressive stance <\/a>toward those politicians: \u201cCADC recalls everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Zhao described the gathering as a \u201cmilestone event,\u201d explaining that the idea grew out of a conversation she had with Alvin Lee, vice president of the Rose Pak Asian American Club,\u00a0 whose political ideology often differs sharply from her own. The Rose Pak Asian American Club leans toward the \u201cprogressive\u201d side of San Francisco\u2019s distinct political spectrum, favoring social services over policing, and focusing on social and racial equity. Zhao sees the Chinese American Democratic Club closer to the \u201cmoderate\u201d camp, which generally supports policies to reduce crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite those differences, Zhao said she recognized shared concerns, particularly around public safety.<\/p>\n One night of camaraderie<\/p>\n That realization led to the idea of a joint holiday party, giving members across factions a chance to socialize and identify common ground outside of election season.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is a call for unity,\u201d said Selina Sun, president of the Ed Lee Democratic Club. Sun viewed the event as a way to bring together a community often politically fragmented.<\/p>\n Alvin Lee agreed, saying the gathering could mark a new tradition in which one night each year, political clubs set aside their differences and simply enjoy time with one another.<\/p>\n \u201cWe definitely see ourselves next year being at odds with each other and having wildly different endorsements,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just wanted a night where we\u2019re not being aggressive and can humanize each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Support our local in-depth reporting and investigations.<\/p>\n Yet the June 2026 local election was clearly on attendees\u2019 minds. Three of the candidates who have announced to run for supervisor in District\u00a0 \u2014 Albert Chow, Natalie Gee and David Lee \u2014 spoke on stage. The district, which includes the Sunset area and has a large Asian population, recently got a new, mayor-appointed supervisor, Alan Wong, after voters recalled<\/a> Engardio in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wong recently failed to advance<\/a> a ballot measure that would ask voters to reverse a citywide decision, approved two years ago, converting the Great Highway into a park<\/a> called Sunset Dunes. The change severed the main north-south vehicular connection across Golden Gate Park on the city\u2019s western edge, frustrating neighbors. The issue, which has drawn strong attention from westside Asian communities,<\/a> might return to voters as organizers launch another signature-gathering effort<\/a> to place it in the ballot.<\/p>\n Thomas Li, vice president of the Ed Lee Democratic Club, emphasized the importance of\u00a0 strengthening Asian American representation without forcing the community into a single political mold.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t check the same boxes,\u201d he said, while noting that political differences should not obscure what he described as a vacuum in representation. At the end of the day, Li said, all the groups are all trying to elevate Asian influence in the city, \u201cwhether their politics fall left, right or somewhere in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n \nKeep up to date \u2014 get the latest news in your inbox weekly!\n<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a Chinatown bar, the holiday party in mid-December felt more like an Asian family reunion than a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[26974,72541,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-145228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-asian-americans","tag-democratic-clubs","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}