Nomination written by: Curtis Chin, APAP Board President

In 2010, there were several breakthrough candidates from the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, most notably, progressives San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris with her nail-biter of an election to become California's first AAPI Attorney General and Michigan State Senator Hansen Clarke who defeated a long-time Democratic incumbent in the primary to become the first Bangladeshi-American in Congress.

We also wanted to recognize the record-breaking number of AAPI candidates that ran for Congress this year. Excluding incumbents, there were a total of seven AAPI candidates who made it to the general election ballot in November. They included progressive candidates like Raj Goyle (KS- 04), Manan Trivedi (PA-06), Ravi Sangisetty (LA-03), Surya Yalamanchil (OH-03) and Reshma Saujani (NY-14). And while most of them came up short, they ran effective, credible campaigns that will hopefully encourage them to give it another shot.

According to physician Ami Bera, who ran for Congress in the Sacramento-area, "To see the number of young people involved in politics at the grass roots level was inspiring -- We sent a message to the rest of the country that our work is not done yet," Bera said. "What an incredible privilege to be in this position - this call to serve is not diminished. If anything, there's a deep desire to serve and impact the conversation. It could be a return to health, it could be running again. I've learned an incredible amount."

Ami Bera says he was inspired by run for Congress by Dalip Singh Saund, who in 1959 became the first Asian American elected to Congress in California. Let's hope that all these candidates will inspire others to run, as well.