SUMMARY
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MANILA, Philippines – Two Filipino Americans vying for seats in the United States House of Representatives experienced different fates Wednesday, November 7.
Incumbent Democrat Rep Robert Scott was re-elected for his 11th term as representative of the 3rd District of Virginia with a convincing total of 80.96% or 243,814 votes.
Scott, who is of African-American and Filipino-American descent, holds the distinction of being the first Filipino-American to be a voting member of Congress and the 2nd African-American in Virginia to be elected to Congress.
In Ohio, Republican bet Dr Marisha Agana failed to attract enough votes in the new 13th Congressional District against incumbent Ohio 17th District Rep Tim Ryan, ending up with 86269 votes or 27.53% of the total number of votes.
On her Twitter account, Agana charged the whole thing to experience.
I started this race naive but experience has made me stronger this time!I will continue the fight by participating in government!
— Dr. Marisha Agana (@MarishaAgana) November 7, 2012
Aside from Scott and Agana, at least 15 Filipino-Americans vied for local legislative seats in the 2012 US elections.
But Will Sylianteng, Fil-Am candidate in Pennsylvania, failed to secure a seat in the Pennsylvania State House.
Wins, losses in Hawaii
In Hawaii, Filipino-American former Hawaii Gov Ben Cayetano, the first Fil-Am to be elected to such position, lost the race to become mayor of Honolulu.
Cayetano conceded after the third batch of election results showed him still trailing by a significant margin, the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported.
The final tally showed that Cayetano, the first Fil-Am to be elected governor, garnered 133,154 votes or 46.1% of total votes – 22,510 votes less than what his opponent, former Honolulu city managing director Kirk Caldwell, got.
Other Fil-Ams in Hawaii succeeded in clinching spots in the 2012 US elections.
Among the candidates running for positions in the Hawaii County Council, Greggor Ilagan (4th District) won, getting 3,877 votes or 59.1% but Fil-Am Chelsea Yagong (1st District) fell short with 38.1% or 2,683 votes.
Two Fil-Ams won seats in the councils. Don Guzman clinched a position as a Kahului Councilmember with 23,459 votes or 48.0% while Kymberly Marcos Pine (1st District) garnered 15,350 votes or 59.7% for a place in the Honolulu City council.
Soon to be members of the Hawaii House of Representatives include: Della Au Belatti (24th District) with 5,309 or 62.2%; Rida Cabanilla-Arakawa (41st District) with 4,277 or 57.6%; and Ty Cullen (39th District) with 5,239 votes or 70.4%.
One the other hand, Marissa Capelouto (42nd District) and Chris Manabat (40th District) failed to win seats with 2,190 votes or 25.5%, and 3,073 or 46.7% respectively. (Read the full story on Fil-Am candidates here.)
President Barack Obama won a second term on Wednesday (Manila time), beating Republican rival Mitt Romney.
Immigrants largely went for Obama in this race.
There are 3.4 million Filipino-Americans. The registered Fil-Am voters — about 700,000 — only comprise 17.5% of the population.
California, where 43% of Fil-Ams are located, is a solid Democratic state. Except for Texas (4%), a CNN map shows the other states populated by Filipino-Americans are solid Democratic states – Hawaii (10%), Illinois (4.1%), and Washington (4%). –Rappler.com
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