Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval was struck by the full house at the Wisconsin Tibetan Association community center on Madison’s east side: “I was mentioning to [Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway], I think this is the largest crowd of Tibetans that I’ve ever spoken to inside the United States.”
Pureval, the first Tibetan-American mayor of a major U.S. city, spoke at Saturday’s get-out-the-vote event at the center. Organized by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, he encouraged attendees to ensure that the candidates they vote for honor Tibetan-American “policies and priorities and values.” He mentioned climate change and environmental regulations as priorities more than once. Madison, one of 21 cluster sites of the U.S.-Tibetan Resettlement Project, is home to more than 600 Tibetans, according to a 2024 article in the Wisconsin Medical Alumni Association Quarterly.
Pureval talked about an incident in his home state, when Trump and his vice presidential pick, U.S. Sen. JD Vance lied about Haitian “illegal aliens” eating pets and geese. The Haitian migrants, despite Trump and Vance’s claims, reside in the U.S. legally under the Temporary Protected Status program. “How easy is it for that criticism and those conspiracy theories to be applied to the Tibetan community?” Pureval said. “Do you think in their mind they make a distinction? They don’t. They don’t want anyone coming to this country, legally or illegally.”
Pureval was presented with a khata, a Tibetan ceremonial scarf used to greet guests with honor and respect, when he entered the center. Students, dressed in brightly-colored chupa, traditional Tibetan clothing, then danced to Tibetan music. It marked the center’s first political visit since opening in 2019, WTA President Chikyap Dhonpa says. After Pureval’s talk, attendees drank Tibetan butter tea and ate momo, meat and vegetable-filled dumplings. Many attendees stuck around to grab photos with Pureval and introduce themselves.
In an interview with Isthmus after the event, Pureval says it was “inspiring” to see a Tibetan community center and community in a Midwestern state like Wisconsin, “where you don’t necessarily see a lot of international diversity from less well-known countries, particularly in Asia.”
Pureval, who was a featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention this year, has been campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris around the nation. But when he first ran for office, he says, Democrats told him that his candidacy for Hamilton County Clerk of Courts was a longshot: he was not well known, he faced a two-term Republican incumbent, and he was “a brown dude named Aftab.”
“Change your name,” he was told, “to Adam or to Al something.”
Pureval won the race for clerk of courts in 2016 and is now a rising star in the Democratic Party. Though he lost a race for Congress in 2018, he handily won Cincinnati’s mayoral campaign with 66% of the vote in 2021.
He recommends that Tibetans and others in Asian-American communities vote and run for office: “It is definitely challenging. But there are so many other Asian-American communities, be they Korean or Indian or Chinese or Japanese, that have figured out a way, particularly in areas where there are dense communities, to organize, support each other and ultimately get elected.”
Tsering Tashi, a Madison resident, tells Isthmus he came to the event “to show support for the first Tibetan mayor.” There are rumors that Pureval is seeking a cabinet position should Harris prevail, and Tashi asked Pureval during the event where the mayor saw himself in 10 years. Pureval said he is not looking that far ahead but intends to serve another four years as mayor if he wins an election in 2025.
Cincinnati, like Madison, faces a housing shortage, says Pureval, as new construction has not kept up with the city’s roughly 12,000 person population growth over the last 10 years. “When people talk about affordable housing, they often are thinking about people trying to buy a home,” he says. “I’m just trying to get people to be able to afford their rent.”
Pureval says he’s excited that both presidential candidates include housing policy proposals prominently in their platforms, though he says he doesn’t believe many items in Trump’s plan will be helpful. Pureval says mayors across the country, including Rhodes-Conway, are pushing for a comprehensive investment in housing: They want money for low-income housing tax credits, more support for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and increased prioritization of public housing facilities.
The big picture is important. It would benefit Harris, he says, “not to talk about zoning reform or even to talk about the amount of money she’s going to put into housing, but to very specifically say, ‘My plan will lower your rent,’” Pureval says. “We as Democrats should be talking about housing as something that is not only needed right now, but that could be transformational to combat generational poverty.”
