On a sunny morning in Visitacion Valley, state Sen. Scott Wiener joined dozens of seniors at a Chinese New Year celebration. In a speech, the Democratic lawmaker warned that San Francisco could face great challenges under President Donald Trump.
“We are working very hard to protect people’s access to healthcare, senior services, and funding for public education,” Wiener said, noting that all are “at risk now given what’s happening in Washington, D.C.”
The message fell on deaf ears for some in the audience. Quite a few voted for Trump and are no fans of Democrats, who have long dominated San Francisco politics.
“Many of my neighbors support Trump,” said Lai Wah Hun, 79, a resident in attendance who voted for Trump. “Democrats are too left. I don’t like them.”
‘I want to educate law-abiding citizens to support Trump, and illegal immigrants are exploiting our welfare system.’
Ellen Lee Zhou
Of all San Francisco neighborhoods, Visitacion Valley and Portola took the biggest swing toward Trump in the November election. In both communities, he gained more than nine points from his 2020 total. Nearly a third of voters in Visitacion Valley chose Trump last year, versus about 23% in 2020.
Beyond their openness to the MAGA movement, the two neighborhoods have another similarity: large Asian populations.
San Francisco officials do not release ethnic or racial demographic breakdowns of election results. However, Department of Elections data reviewed by The Standard illustrate the relative popularity of Trump in Asian neighborhoods.
The seven neighborhoods that voted for Trump at the highest rates in 2024 have the city’s largest Asian populations. Six of the 10 neighborhoods that saw the largest increase in Trump voting between 2020 and 2024 were close to or majority Asian.
Underlying this turn to the right among Asian voters is a mounting distrust of the Democratic Party.
‘Forgotten Valley’
Rex Tabora, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Community Center in Visitacion Valley, describes the neighborhood as “the Forgotten Valley,” saying it “has been neglected by all levels of government.”
Tabora said public schools in the neighborhood have low ratings and high-profile crimes involving Asian victims have bred discontent with elected officials.
“When it comes to public safety, Asians are law-and-order kind of folks,” he said.
In the southeast of the neighborhood, organizing efforts by Ellen Lee Zhou likely played a role in the shift toward Trump. A repeat candidate for mayor and loyal supporter of the president, Zhou had two Trump-plastered campaign vehicles circulating the area. Zhou makes regular appearances on a Chinese-language radio show called “Companion on the Road”(同路人), where she discusses politics and criticizes Democratic leadership.
“I want to educate law-abiding citizens to support Trump, and illegal immigrants are exploiting our welfare system,” Zhou told The Standard in Chinese. She estimated her radio audience at 30,000 to 50,000 listeners.
The right-turn of Chinese Americans alarmed local Democratic officials, despite Trump receiving only 16% of citywide votes in November, a modest increase from 2020 and 2016. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris received 80% of San Francisco votes in 2024.
Nancy Tung, chair of San Francisco’s Democratic Party and a Chinese American living in Portola, said more work needs to be done to boost the party’s status among immigrant communities.
“It’s clear that voters are frustrated with national Democrats, including many in the Chinese community in San Francisco,” Tung said in a statement. “I’m committed to making sure we engage the Chinese community and other immigrant communities to hear their concerns and win them back in the next and future elections.”
Quitting the party
The Rose Pak Democratic Club, a progressive Asian political group named for the late Chinatown power broker, sparked controversy last month by removing “Democratic” from its name. Club leaders said they wanted the move to serve as a wake-up call to the party about the increasing detachment in the Asian community.
Club president Jeremy Lee said that while campaigning last year in Chinatown for a seat on the Democratic County Central Committee, he realized that the party wasn’t popular, especially among monolingual Chinese immigrants.
“Some of the seniors were saying, ‘I like you, but I don’t like the Democratic Party,'” he said. Lee, a progressive, lost the race.
Lee said Democratic rhetoric around public safety puts the party at a disadvantage, noting that “defund the police” and similar movements don’t resonate with the Chinese community.
However, the Chinese American Democratic Club, a moderate-leaning group, has touted successes.
CADC was active in the 2022 recalls of three school board members and the district attorney — causes that animated Asian voters, especially on the west side. The Rose Pak group opposed both recalls.
Josephine Zhao, the CADC president, said the club has been successful in organizing immigrant voters by defining itself against progressivism.
“We are proud to help our community in voicing their centrist views,” Zhao said in a statement.
Hun, the Trump supporter, holds more progressive views on immigration than many Republicans, saying undocumented immigrants without criminal records who have started families and built livelihoods in the U.S. should be able to stay. But she believes the Republican Party will make San Francisco thrive, contributing to public safety and a stronger economy.
“Politicians are all like this — some things you agree with; some you don’t,” Hun said. “But Democrats are making America like a sinking ship.”