A national group of Asian American Republicans endorsed Biden days before Election Day, and it could dent Trump's chances of winning swing states

• The National Committee of Asian American Republicans endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Friday, four days before Election Day.
• The group endorsed Trump in 2016, but said his actions in office have reminded them of the authoritarian regimes many Asian Americans had escaped.
• Asian Americans are emerging as a key demographic of voters, since they have no strong connection to either party and have significant numbers in swing states.

A national group of Asian American Republicans has endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president, an act that could dent President Donald Trump's chances of winning key swing states on Election Day.

On Friday, the National Committee of Asian American Republicans, or "Asian GOP," told its members to vote for Biden, saying the country needs "a president with empathy, integrity, and broadness capable of bringing all sides to the table to find common ground, and work together overcoming serious challenges ahead."

The Biden endorsement came four years after the group supported Jeb Bush in the 2016 primary, and Donald Trump in the 2016 general election.

The group said it was fine if its members voted for Trump then, and want to support Biden now. They said Trump's leadership in office has seemed "too familiar to many Asian American immigrants who came from places where authoritarians make themselves Godly above people."

"When the President openly calls Proud Boys, categorized by the FBI as an extremist group, to stand by, it reminds us of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, when the Dictator called on his supporters to oppress all different political voices as unpatriotic," the statement read.

"It is OK that you voted for Trump in 2016, most conservatives did; we wanted an outsider to rattle the system. But he is destroying the whole building."

The Cultural Revolution was a ten-year movement in China when people loyal to Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong purged people that they believed ran against his ideology. Millions of people died during that period.

Asian American votes could decide the election

The Asian GOP's endorsement of Biden could be a bad sign for the Trump campaign.

Asian Americans have been emerging as a key demographic in national elections, since they don't have a strong allegiance to either party and have significant numbers in key swing states like Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, according to Nikkei Asia.

A report last week from the New American Economy found that 305,000 Asian Americans in seven swing states have still not registered to vote.

However, same-day voter registration is available in most swing states, and the report found that if Asian Americans and other people of color took advantage of these opportunities, they could be the deciding factor in many of these contests.

'It's OK that you made a mistake in 2016'

Cliff Li, who heads the Asian GOP, told Nikkei Asia that the consortium's WeChat group has between 50,000 and 70,000 members, and that a third of them have pledged to vote for Trump this year. He said the rest said they are unsure who to vote for.

"They do that not because they're not sure, it's because they're shy of saying it, it's almost saying 'I made a mistake back in 2016,' which we did," Li said.

"The purpose of [publishing the statement] is telling people [who are] too shy: 'It's OK to vote for Joe Biden, it's OK to come out to express, it's OK that you made a mistake in 2016.'"

Li said Trump has lost the support of many Asian Republicans for blaming China for COVID-19, and calling it the "China virus."

"Even calling it the 'kung flu' virus, he has shown a total disregard of the impact it could have on the Chinese American community," Li said.

The Asian GOP and the RNC cut ties in 2019

The group, which is headquartered in Florida, once had a close relationship with the Republican National Committee when it was first founded in 2015. But in 2019, the group fell out with the RNC over what's known as the Cindy Yang scandal.

Yang, a massage-parlor owner and fundraiser director for one of the Asian GOP's Florida chapters, was in March 2019 accused of selling Chinese businessmen and politicians access to Trump family members. Democrats said at the time the reports about Yang's actions "raise serious counterintelligence concerns." Yang has denied wrongdoing.

Li told Nikkei Asia the local chapter did nothing wrong, but the RNC "just abandoned us" over the scandal.

However, he told the outlet that the Asian GOP's "beef" with Trump goes beyond that.

"Especially this year during the pandemic, we have deep doubts about his leadership, his priority and his heart ... It seems we have a majority that starts to go against Trump," Li said.

"It's a very important election, we want our voice heard, we were hesitating, but fortunately it's not too late."