Francesca Hong was proud to be the first Asian American elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2020.
As of January, she’s no longer alone, and this month she and two freshman legislators — Renuka Mayadev and Angelito Tenorio — officially formed the Wisconsin Legislative Asian Caucus.
“It means nothing to be the first if you’re the last,” Hong said in an interview for the 365 Amplified podcast.
They announced the new caucus during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
“It’s very meaningful and very special, and a declaration that the Asian American community belongs at the table,” said Tenorio, who represents the 14th District in Milwaukee and West Allis. “We deserve to be seen and heard and represented at all levels of government.”
Listen to the entire interview here:
“I heard it when I was out campaigning from Asian Americans saying, ‘We’d really love to have representation in the Capitol. It’s just Fran (Hong) right now. We’d love to have more,” said Mayadev, who represents the University of Wisconsin area and near west side of Madison.
Over the course of May, the three offices also put together programming to begin to educate their colleagues.
Asians and Asian Americans make up about 3.3 percent of Wisconsin’s population, representing more than 190,000 people, according to the 2020 census. Most of those people are not represented by Asian Americans in the legislature, which means there are many white Representatives who need to learn more about Asian Americans and the issues important to them, Hong said. In many ways, those issues aren’t all that different from the issues facing anyone else.
“We know that education, mental health, higher education, health care, housing, these are all issues that are very pertinent to the Asian American communities. But we also have a responsibility to educate our colleagues so that they can better represent and connect with Asian communities in their districts,” Hong said. “It’s been really amazing to have Representative Tenorio and Representative Mayadev and our staff come together to build programming for this month … so our colleagues can be better representatives themselves.”
“We believe that we all do better when we all do better,” Tenorio said. “So when we uplift the AAPI community, we support other communities—immigrant communities, communities of color, working-class folks.”
All three are the children of immigrants, and feel the anti-immigrant sentiments coming from the Trump Administration — not to mention broadening hostility toward any efforts related to equity — make their representation more important than ever.
“It’s incumbent upon us that we stand up for those who are new to our country … that they have somebody in government who can be their champion and be their voice,” Mayadev said.
“It’s a really hard time to be in politics right now, but also a very important time to be in politics, because our communities are under attack,” Tenorio added. “This legislative Asian caucus is about building solidarity … because there’s power in numbers, and when we show up, we can make a difference.”
“There’s a lot of power and lived experience,” said Hong, who represents downtown Madison. “When I have family members who are being told to double check their naturalization status, when you know what it’s like to live in fear and you speak to a colleague who’s attacking you or supporting a policy that you know attacks your community, the more of us in our Democratic caucus who bring in those lived experiences, we build more resiliency in making sure that we’re pushing back on the very harmful fascist federal policies coming down.”
The Caucus’s AAPI Heritage Month activities culminated Wednesday in a celebration in the Capitol Rotunda featuring Korean music and performances of Hmong and Indian dance — the first such event in the state Capitol.
“We need to celebrate and highlight all of the artistry, the music, dance, all of the diversity that we have in our communities,” Mayadev said.
