by YUJIE ZHOU JANUARY 22, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)
The Rose Pak Democratic Club, one of the city’s most prominent progressive Asian political organizations, today announced that it has decided not to recharter with the San Francisco Democratic Party, saying the Democratic brand has become toxic to local Asian voters.
“After a resounding defeat in November, it is abundantly clear that the Democratic Party cannot continue with business as usual,” wrote the Rose Pak club’s president Jeremy Lee, vice-president Alvin Lee and secretary/treasurer Joy Zhan in an open letter addressed to Nancy Tung, the chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party.
Specifically, the letter continued, during the club’s voter engagement work with monolingual Chinese seniors, members noticed immediate distrust of Democrat-endorsed candidates.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump gained significant ground with the same voters by “speaking to fears around public safety, economic stability, stagnant wages, and the rising cost of living — issues where the Democratic Party has fallen short.” Though support for Trump in San Francisco was minimal, Asian neighborhoods were some of the most supportive in the city.
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The change was announced by the club’s leadership at a Democratic County Central Committee meeting on Wednesday. Moving forward, the club will be known as the Rose Pak Asian American Club.
Apart from the name change, the club’s mission will remain the same, said Lee. The club will work to improve language access and support low-income seniors, SRO families, and new immigrants.
The lack of Democratic Party affiliation will, said Lee, hopefully help the club’s work supporting local candidates and issues. “Through interacting with voters, we find that people aren’t as ingrained in their camps as we think they are,” said Lee.
For example, in his personal capacity working on Chyanne Chen’s campaign for District 11 supervisor last year, he came across voters who were enthusiastic Trump supporters, or enthusiastic supporters of MAGA Republican mayoral candidate Ellen Lee Zhou, but also enthusiastic Chen supporters.
“On a policy level, on an ideological level, all these individuals are vastly different,” said Lee. “But they’ve been able to speak to voters of our immigrant communities and resonate with them.”
Club members also complained that the local Democratic Party did nothing after District 9 supervisorial hopeful Trevor Chandler used publicly accessible Rose Pak Democratic Club material to denigrate eventual winner Jackie Fielder, one of the club’s endorsed candidates.
Members of the club will remain Democrats, despite the decision. “I personally still think a lot of our Democratic Party policies very much benefit the Asian American community,” said Zhan, the club’s secretary.
The club is named after the late Rose Pak, a longtime power broker and “a tireless force in city politics.”
In November’s election, the club endorsed a completely different set of candidates than the local Democratic Party. Although all were Democrats, District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar was the only overlap. The club largely picked progressives: It endorsed Aaron Peskin for mayor, and Connie Chan, Sharon Lai, Dean Preston, Fielder, Melgar and Chen for district supervisors.
Many of Rose Pak Democratic Club’s members and former members have grown to become active figures in City Hall: Han Zou, mayor Daniel Lurie’s director of public affairs; Jen Low, chief of staff for Melgar and former Board President Norman Yee; Sunny Angulo, chief of staff for former Supervisor Aaron Peskin; Natalie Gee, chief of staff for Supervisor Shamann Walton; Calvin Ho, a legislative aide for Board President Rafael Mandelman; Calvin Yan, a legislative aide for Peskin and Chan; Lauren Chung, the campaign manager for Ahsha Safaí’s mayoral campaign and upcoming chief of staff for Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, and Jennifer Li, a legislative aide for former supervisor Hillary Ronen.
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YUJIE ZHOU
REPORTER. Yujie Zhou came on as an intern after graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is a full-time staff reporter as part of the Report for America program that helps put young journalists in newsrooms. Before falling in love with the Mission, Yujie covered New York City, studied politics through the “street clashes” in Hong Kong, and earned a wine-tasting certificate in two days. She’s proud to be a bilingual journalist. Follow her on Twitter @Yujie_ZZ.More by Yujie Zhou
