Garen Yegparian: In California’s 30th congressional district, an Armenian is running as a Republican against the Democratic party’s candidate.
In this district, voter registration is more than 3-to-1 Democratic-to-Republican, and it’s about the same if the minor parties are factored in based on their ideological proximity to the two major parties. Plus, over 23% of registered voters are unaffiliated, and they tend to break down in about the same proportions as those who are affiliated when considering which way they lean, Democratic or Republican. Armenians who are registered in the district constitute something under 20% of the total.
Why all these numbers? To show that no Republican can be elected from this district, barring some earth-shattering scandal involving the Democratic candidate. In this case, even if all the Armenians in the district voted for the Republican Armenian candidate, he still would not get elected. Do the math yourself, remembering that if Armenians are registered 50-50 in each of the parties, you should only add about half the Armenians to the Republican tally since half are already included there!
The ANCA has received a lot of criticism for endorsing the Democratic candidate over the Republican Armenian one. The implication here is that the ANCA should act irresponsibly and support an Armenian candidate at the cost of losing the ability to pursue Armenian concerns with the candidate who is assuredly going to win.
I hope I have made clear how important it is to think rationally, informedly, and practically about whom we should support as a community.