Building on its successful work during the Virginia Special Election, the American Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee (AEPAC) is announcing the creation of a National Election Campaign Committee (NECC), mandated to coordinate, lead and manage an election campaign effort for the Midterm elections. The NECC will serve as an umbrella organization to mobilize Ethiopian Americans, Eritrean Americans and their allies.
This committee will be supported by State/district-level campaign committees and advisory boards consisting of Election Research, Media Management, Data Management and AEPAC Youth Committees.
Through the NECC, AEPAC has now begun a fully-fledged national campaign – at present, targeting 30 priority states. State election campaign committees (SECCs) have been established in 21 states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. SECCs will soon launch in a further 20 states, including Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Vermont.
AEPAC Chairman, Mesfin Tegenu, said:
“Last year in Virginia we saw the power of Ethiopian Americans as voters. Our community helped put Glen Youngkin in the Governor’s Mansion. With the midterms approaching, the one million-strong diaspora in the United States will be a key constituent for candidates to court.
“Through AEPAC’s national and state committees, we will ensure that this community turns out for those who commit to supporting the century-old relationship between America and Ethiopia, and who can help reverse the damaging policies recently enacted by the Biden Administration and oppose current efforts to harm Ethiopia like HR 6600.”
AEPAC will be monitoring the outcome of upcoming primaries and will start supporting candidates shortly after, based on commitments to the AEPAC NECC policy platform of:
- Calling on the TPLF to end its offensive in Afar and for their remaining forces to commit to an unconditional ceasefire.
- Recognising the humanitarian aid challenge now extends far beyond Tigray into Afar and Amhara, with an estimated 9 million people in need of support across the three Northern Regions.
- Wholeheartedly supporting the national dialogue commission in order to secure a lasting peace.
- Supporting efforts to cease punitive sanctions on Ethiopia and reverse the de-listing of Ethiopia from AGOA.
AEPAC’s campaigning efforts will include recruiting and training dedicated election campaign volunteers, assigning competent election campaigners to lead the state and district committees, running voter registration drives, conducting voter education, planned campaign activity, organizing campaign rallies in support of our candidates, hosting fundraising events to support AEPAC and conducting Get Out The Vote drives.