Our History

History of Asian American Involvement

in Texas Democratic Party

1990

Founding

The AAPI community organized as the Asian American Democrats of Texas, Inc at the Texas State Convention in Houston. AADT was recognized as an official caucus of the Texas Democratic Party (TDP).

The original group was

Robert W. Gee (Chairman Public Utility Commission of Texas and Assistant Secretary in US Department of Energy), Gordon Quan (Council Member, City of Houston), Mark Lee (Chairman SD17, Harris County Democratic Party), Judy Lee (Founding Member AADT)

Farrukh Shamsi and Arif Gafur are elected to represent their senate districts. The TDP Rules were also amended to include two members of the AAPI community as perpetual Add-On members of the SDEC. Mini Timmaraju and AJ Durrani.

2012

Vice Chair Finance TDP

2006

First Elected Texas Senate District Executive Committee (SDEC) members

Farrukh Shamsi was elected as Vice-Chair Finance, the third highest ranked position in TDP leadership and Executive Committee.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) had granted Texas a new at-large seat in 2016. The Asian American community nominated AJ Durrani as the first Asian American from Texas to be elected to the DNC.

2016

New DNC Seat

We have also sent 17 AAPI national delegates to the conventions to date.

The future is bright and we will be the margin of victory. We will shape the future of Texas and be part of the narrative.