The Red Wave did not happen as we thought!
During the campaign time, VACA had been working with many Republican candidates. We supported Hung Cao for the primary election (VA District 10) and Tuan Le (FL District 10 also for the primary election). We did the canvassing and phone banking for Team DeSantis, Team Marco Rubio, and individual local candidates such as Ashley Mood, Anna Luna, Audrey Hanson, Ken Hagan, Jay Collins, James Judge, Donna Cameron Cepeda, Mike Isaak, Scott Levinson.
We shared our works by sending over 2000 text messages to Vietnamese American (VA) voters in Hillsborough County, several hundreds of VA voters in Pinellas County – District 60 for FL State House Candidate Audrey Hanson and canvassing over a few hundred houses in both counties.
Even though in Florida, a few of our Republican Candidates lost, overall, many members have won.
We set up a tent/table to hand out voter guides to voters at the voting sites. Last Sunday – early voting day and election day – Tuesday, VACA helped to establish one at Town and Country Seniors Center on Hillsborough Ave and Ambassador St in Tampa, FL. We also helped to give VA senior voters rides to their precinct voting site, translate the ballot for them, and teach them how to fill in their ballot correctly.
On the election date (Tuesday, November 8th, 2022), we went to the Town & Country Voting site, where more Hispanics and Asians live, putting the campaign signs of Governor DeSantis. We waved the flag and held a DeSantis sign to attract voters at the corner of big and crowded Hillsborough Avenue and Ambassador St.
More voters came during lunchtime around noon and after office hours from 4 PM – 6 PM. So, we stayed late to reach more voters but missed the Election Watch Party with Governor DeSantis at the Tampa Convention Center in downtown Tampa – one of the most important events of the month. However, we bring victory to our Governor, Senator Rubio, AG Mood, and many more Republican candidates for local government positions. In a heavily Democratic Hillsborough County, Governor DeSantis was re-elected and led almost 10% compared to his opponent.
After the election, we must admit that we need to learn many lessons from the Democrats:
- Distribute Republican Voter Guides to as many houses as we can. Don’t just send our guides to only Republican residents.
- Analyze the voting sites to prepare setting up tents/tables to attract voters.
- Training volunteers to be more active at the voting sites: wave DeSantis’ campaign flag, give free signs or stickers + the voter guide.
- Have more signs with quotes or words to expose the lies from Democrats
- Prepare campaign yard signs for the voting sites based on the precinct or districts: we must ask all candidates to give us the campaign materials for canvassing and yard signs for putting at the voting sites.
- Must reach out more to other diverse communities.
- Create more events for seniors and youths: work with AAPI and Schools to provide entertainment or free lunches/refreshments when visiting nursing homes or schools. Let’s advertise our Republican name to locals from these events.
- Have more training for volunteers in canvassing, phone banking, and serving at the voting sites.
- Have more training for seniors in mail-in ballots. We should not stick to the old way of the “vote on election day” concept. We must help our seniors in different communities to vote by mail.
We may have more ideas on how to improve and stop fraud in elections.
To save our country and protect our children, we must unify and join forces to work together.
Before blaming the Democrats’ cunningness, we must look back at our systems and ask questions like "have we done our best yet? How can we encourage voters to participate? Why are our voters indifferent and losing their interest in our party? How can we attract independent voters?”
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GOVERNOR, SENATOR, AG, CONGRESSWOMAN ANNA AND LAUREL, ALL COMMISSIONERS AND LOCAL CANDIDATES WHO WON THE ELECTION!
WE APPRECIATE ALL VOLUNTEERS; WITHOUT YOUR EFFORT AND CONTRIBUTION WE COULD NOT WIN!
Minh Anh Truong Nguyen
VACA
Liên Minh Bảo Thủ Mỹ Gốc Việt
(813) 570-0122
