AAPI Contribution: Sara Sadhwani
Written by Truc Moore
With March being Women's History Month and with the upcoming June and November elections around the corner, it's the perfect time to highlight an Asian American woman in Los Angeles County making great strides in this area. We'd like you to meet Professor Sara Sadhwani of La Canada --- a LA County resident, Assistant Professor of Politics at Pomona College specializing in American politics and race and ethnic politics, and most recently, a commissioner on the 2020 Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) for the State.
Professor Sadhwani was part of the 14-member independent Commission to redraw district lines within the state for Congress, the State Legislature and the Board of Equalization as part of the redistricting effort. Redistricting happens once every 10 years, after every census, to ensure that each district has the same amount of people. It’s only the second time in California's history that redistricting was done by this independent Commission.
Following an exhaustive review of more than 20,000 applicants, Professor Sadhwani was selected as a member of the Commission, which was formed from five Democrats, five Republicans, and four unaffiliated Californians with a variety of backgrounds, and all from different parts of the state. With such a large number of qualified applicants, it was wonderful to see an Asian American woman of Indian descent be selected to participate on this important Commission.
The Commission spent 2021 drawing district maps in an open and transparent process that sought to maximize public input and participation through 196 public meetings, so that they could deliver on the voter goals of Propositions 11 and 20 in achieving effective and fair representation for all Californians. The Commission voted unanimously on December 20, 2022 to approve its final maps, with the new district maps being operative for the next decade starting with the upcoming June elections.
Professor Sadhwani notes, "I was surprised by the incredible individuals that I had the opportunity to serve with. Despite our differences in partisanship, race, gender, areas of the state, and perspectives of the world, we all had a deep commitment to ensuring a fair process and to develop maps that reflect the voices of communities on the ground, to the greatest extent possible. It was an honor to serve with such incredible Californians.”
Review of the new redistricting maps adopted by the Commission, does show gains for the growing AAPI population of voters. There are now two majority AAPI districts, and 16 districts throughout the state where AAPIs make up 30% or more of eligible voters. Similar larger gains were also seen for Latinos in the Assembly, Senate and House districts.
Aside from her work on the Commission, Professor Sadhwani has done much research in the area of AAPI voting behavior and demographics. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Politics at Pomona College, a faculty fellow at the USC Schwarzenegger Institute (she earned her doctorate in political science from USC), and a Senior Researcher at AAPI Data, a nationally recognized publisher of demographic data and policy research on AAPI communities. Her research has been published in peer reviewed journals, including her piece on "Asian American Mobilization: The Effect of Candidates and Districts on Asian American Voting Behavior" published in Political Behavior in 2020. Her analysis of AAPI and Latino voting behavior in California elections has also been featured in the Washington Post and in PS: Political Science and Politics, where she argued that institutional innovations such as the California CRC led to increases in Latino and AAPI representation in the State Legislature and U.S. Congress. In addition, prior to teaching, Professor Sadhwani worked for nearly a decade advocating for the rights of immigrants at social justice organizations such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA, and the California Immigrant Policy Center.
Given her work and research in the AAPI area, we asked Professor Sadhwani to set aside her prior Commissioner hat and speak as an Asian American and political science professor on what she views as the greatest challenges in electing more AAPI candidates. Professor Sadhwani states that “Despite significant growth and many advances, Asian American voters continue to be largely ignored by both political parties in many parts of the state. We see this reported year after year in survey data. Parties and candidates continue to view AAPIs as 'low propensity' voters and don’t expend precious campaign resources to invest in AAPI participation. To elect more Asian Americans or to elect more individuals of any background who take seriously the needs of our communities, more people need to naturalize, register, and actively participate at the ballot box in each and every election.” We couldn’t agree more with Professor Sadhwani!
For a copy of the final maps, please click HERE.
Truc is a Principal Deputy County Counsel. She is an 18 year practicing attorney, and has been employed with the County for the last 14 years. She advises the County on information technology, intellectual property, contracting, procurement and government law matters. Truc is an avid traveler, foodie, cook and USC fan. In her free time, she is fond of traveling, trying out new restaurants, and spending time with her husband and kids. Check out her Instagram page.
