Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders had the largest percent increase in eligible voters over the past four years in the United States. In battleground Nevada, they make up one in 10 voters.

Las Vegas resident Nate Gonzalvo is a member of this booming bloc. The Filipino immigrant started a foundation in 2023 that provides disadvantaged youth in the Philippines with food and educational tools.

Gonzalvo says he’s voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, but wouldn’t describe himself as a “supporter,” reflecting a growing nonpartisan stance among Asian Americans.

“It’s not because I do not like Trump, or like Kamala Harris, it’s more of what she is aligned with,” Gonzalvo said. “She’s aligned with my priorities.”

A third of Asian voters identify as Independent, according to an APIA Vote survey. Lack of voter contact and issue recognition has historically left the community dissatisfied with the Democrat and Republican parties.

In July, AAPI support for President Joe Biden had dropped 10 percentage points since 2020. The Harris-Walz campaign has appealed to wavering voters on health care, identity and former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Filipinos comprise nearly half of Nevada’s AAPI population. At the Pinoy Pride Festival in Chinatown Las Vegas on Sept. 28, Filipinos gathered to celebrate their culture through live music, parades of dancers in vibrant costumes and foods like lumpia spring rolls and Filipino-inspired gelato.

The festival also hosted organizations advocating for community outreach, including Gonzalvo’s eponymous foundation, Infinate.

Gonzalvo’s foundation raises money for residents of Bulacan, his home province in the Philippines just north of Manila. Sea level rise and heavy rainfall have led to devastating floods in Bulacan, submerging roads for days at a time and leading to a humanitarian aid crisis.

Gonzalvo says many Filipino immigrants living in Nevada are from Manila, Luzon and Visayas — areas prone to flooding — and Trump’s continued skepticism of climate change alienates large parts of the community.

A Harris ad placed on taxis, bus shelters and billboards around Pinoy Pride Festival.

“[Nuclear] warming is the global warming you have to worry about, not that the ocean is going to rise in 400 years an eighth of an inch,” Trump said to a crowd of supporters in Flint, Michigan in September.

Gonzalvo also cited Trump’s disparaging comments about the Philippines in 2016. At a Portland, Maine campaign rally, Trump said America was letting in people from “terrorist nations” and named the Philippines among those countries.

“Filipinos are famous for being family-oriented, so when you offend somebody, you offend the whole nation,” Gonzalvo said.

The Harris-Walz campaign released an ad in August featuring other depreciating comments Trump made regarding the Asian community, claiming Trump’s references to the COVID-19 virus as “Kung flu” and “China virus” contributed to the rise in Asian hate and stigmatization beginning in March 2020.

Team Harris also introduced digital ads on taxis, bus shelters and billboards in the vicinity of Pinoy Pride Festival with the messages “Kamala Harris supports Pinoy Pride” and “Mabuhay!” a Tagalog greeting that translates to “Long live!”

Two-thirds of Asian Americans said they will vote for Harris for president, according to a national survey conducted by NORC at University of Chicago in September. Eric Jeng, executive director of AAPI advocacy organization One APIA Nevada, says the split between Harris and Trump voters is much closer in Nevada.

“I don’t think the 2-to-1 ratio is reflective of a key state like Nevada,” Jeng said. “[Polls] were closer to 55-45, or 60-40 at the highest.”

According to Jeng, top concerns for Asian Americans include the cost of living and healthcare, but voters disagree on the nominee who can solve those problems.

Kim Custodio sells Filipino garments, handbags and pomelo-flavored Tang — among other things — at a booth in Chinatown and online. He says inflation has made it too difficult to buy basic necessities, and he’s voting for Trump.

Ofelia Felarca, a Filipino Las Vegas resident, argues that Trump’s economic policy is the reason for the high cost of living.

“I know [Trump] put that tax, and I can’t wait for that one to end,” Felarca said. “Because, you know, us middle class are struggling.”

Some economists suggest that Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 — which slashed corporate income taxes and provided tax cuts to the uber wealthy — did not trickle down as intended, but allowed corporations to drive up prices. If elected, Trump says he plans to extend the TCJA, while Harris says she will keep parts of it, but increase the tax rate of anyone making over $400,000.

The TCJA also ended the individual mandate from the Affordable Care Act that required Americans to purchase basic healthcare or incur a tax penalty. The intention of the mandate was to expand health coverage, lower premiums and prevent sicker and older individuals from being denied healthcare.

California has a state individual mandate, and 4% of Asian Americans and 6% of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders lack health insurance, respectively. In Nevada, which does not have a mandate, those percentages are doubled, according to APIA Vote data.

Harris appealed to AAPI voters covered by the ACA in an ad, claiming it reduced uninsured members of the community by 63%.

The ACA — which Trump has repeatedly tried to repeal, most notably in 2017 when Arizona Sen. John McCain cast the deciding vote to keep the law — has also led to a boom in healthcare jobs, and a 2018 Census survey reveals Asian Americans make up a fifth of healthcare workers in Nevada despite being about 10% of the population.

Las Vegas has been colloquially dubbed the “ninth island” because of its large Hawaiian population. Adrian Kamali’i, wearing a "Hawai'i for Harris" shirt, flew from Honolulu to Las Vegas to see Harris at a campaign rally on Sept. 29. He says he favors her policies, but also feels a shared sense of AAPI identity.

“I think that having a president who also shares that affinity in the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander community only benefits more of us being seen,” Kamali’i said.

In September, Kamali’i advocated for Native Hawaiian tribes to be federally recognized at a White House convening of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Kamali’i says former President Bill Clinton issued an apology to the community in 1993 for the U.S.’s role in overthrowing the Hawaiian Kingdom 100 years prior, and that simple recognition means a lot.

Gonzalvo says seeing an Asian person in a position of power inspires the kind of hope he imagines the Black community experienced during former President Barack Obama’s presidency.

“It gives people the motivation that America — having an [Asian] president — that equality is real,” Gonzalvo said. “It can be achieved. It can be attained.”

Felarca sees herself in Kamala Harris for another reason.

“I’m a female, so I’m really for a woman president,” Felarca said. “The abortion thing, you know, is something only women understand. It’s our freedom, it’s our right.”

While some voters relate to Kamala Harris on identity, many still voice displeasure with voter engagement. In 2022, over half of AAPI voters reported no contact from the Democratic party and two-thirds of voters reported no contact from the Republican party.

“For events like Pinoy Pride, [Harris’s ads] are showing the communities that partnership with a political campaign,” Jeng said. “I think that’s important because that means the community has been reached out to, the organizers have been reached out to.”

Trump has done little to court AAPI Nevada voters in 2024. The GOP opened an Asian Pacific American outreach center in Chinatown in May 2022 before the midterm election cycle. Former chair of the Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel described the center as a “long-term commitment” to the community at the opening ceremony. The office closed about a year later and is now a smoke shop called Vape Ape.

Trump and former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard will speak at an AAPI engagement event hosted by Turning Point PAC and Turning Point Action in Las Vegas on Oct. 24. The United for Change event “aims to amplify AAPI voices” and will feature a performance by Pacific Islander rock band Common Kings, according to the event website.