What It's Like For Asian American Candidates During A Pandemic Marked By Racism

In April, Yuh-Line Niou, a member of the New York State Assembly, was passing out KN95 masks in front of a Kosher deli in her district when she was verbally harassed by a stranger who approached her on the street.

"He said something like, 'You're the one who brought the virus here. I hope you die,' " she recalled. "It's horrifying. You're doing what you can to help people and everyone else wants you to die."

Niou, who's Taiwanese American, says that addressing the pandemic's toll on her district has left little time to campaign for reelection. In the spring, she says many Asian American businesses in her district, which spans lower Manhattan and includes Chinatown, were forced to shut down as customers avoided their restaurants and neighborhoods. She says the economic impact was an early consequence of racism that links the coronavirus to Asian American communities.

While the pandemic has made this an unprecedented election for all campaigns, it's brought a particular challenge for the record number of Asian American and Pacific Islander candidates running this year.