Asian American delegates first organized as the Asian American Democrats of Texas, Inc., at the Texas Democratic State Convention in Houston in 1990. AADT was then recognized as an official caucus of the Texas Democratic Party (TDP).

 

The original group was composed of Robert W. Gee, former Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas and former Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs and for Fossil Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy; Gordon Quan, former Houston City Council member at-large and Mayor Pro Tem; Mark Lee, former Senate District 17 Chair for the Harris County Democratic Party; and Judy Lee, a founding member.

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In 2006, two Asian Americans were first elected to the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) to be their respective senate districts’ representatives: Farrukh Shamsi and Arif Gafur. The party rules were also amended to include two members of the community as perpetual add-on members of the SDEC: Mini Timmaraju and AJ Durrani.

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In 2012, Farrukh Shamsi was elected as the Vice Chair for Finance of the party, the third-highest ranked position in the state leadership and executive committee. In 2016, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) granted Texas a new at-large seat. The community then nominated AJ Durrani as the first Asian American from Texas to be elected to the DNC. To date, we have sent 17 Asian American national delegates to the national conventions.