There have been a slew of recent news articles referring to Asian-American voters as a major untapped bloc that will have a significant role in determining the course of the election, especially in Western states like Nevada and California. How is Obama trying to appeal to Asian-American voters throughout the country?

As in 2008, we’ve been building the voter files — just knowing where the Asian Americans are and getting them to register to vote. We’ve also made sure that the [campaign] literature is in multiple languages; we’ve got literature in Vietnamese, Hindi, Chinese, Korean, so everybody has access to the information they need. We’ve been building networks of Asian-American groups and having people like myself, [Cabinet Secretary] Chris Lu and others going out and speaking on a regular basis to build coalitions of Asian Americans. The more we have numbers, the more we’re able to show for it. Percentage-wise, AAPIs may only be two percent of the minority population, but the fact is that could mean 100,000 votes in one bloc.

And in terms of having a message that specifically appeals to Asian-American communities rather than other immigrant groups?

We have all of the data — everything from how the health care bill affected the Asian-American community to how many businesses have benefitted not only from the tax breaks but from government purchasing. Something like $12 billion worth of goods have been purchased from Asian-American businesses by the federal government, and Asian-American businesses gotten over $10 billion in loans from the Small Business Administration. We’ve been focusing on having the data available as to how much all of these policies — health care, education, small business, the economy — affect Asian Americans and also extending that focus to foreign policy. For the first time, the president has a foreign policy [agenda] that is focused on Asia and having a dialogue with Asian leaders.

In countless interviews, Ohio voters have expressed concern about the loss of manufacturing jobs overseas to China and other South Asian nations. How is the administration working to convince Ohioans that their jobs will remain secure?

I think that is a fundamental question. First, saving the auto industry was a big part of that. But it wasn’t just the auto industry. It was their suppliers, it was the trade routes that depend on the auto industry. The critical reason that the president tried to save the auto industry was that we need to have manufacturing jobs in the United States. The second is investing in all these new technologies that have the potential to augment investment in the United States, so we’re looking into a lot of new green technologies, new types of fuel cells, new types of batteries. All these investments that are taking place in the [research and development] space are in the United States. We can build new manufacturing for next generation by not only investing in the car companies as they build the next generation of cars but also investing in all of those other things that go into car parts and how to make them more green, more environmentally sustainable. That has been the president’s policy in terms of investing in more R&D to make that happen. And then third, what are the policies that can induce people to come back to the United States and build their manufacturing facilities here? In fact, many more companies are competing to come back to the United States because it is cheaper to operate here and easier to find a workforce. But we need to provide the incentives for a company to return, like saying that the government will purchase more for if you locate in Ohio or Iowa or wherever. … While it’s important for the rest of the world to grow, it’s also important for the U.S. to grow.

After President Obama’s election in 2008, he claimed that he was putting together one of the most diverse Cabinets and White House staffs of all time. How has this diversity facilitated or influenced decisions on immigration, education policy and other areas of particular interest to minority communities?

While this diversity is true across the board, I can give you some of the statistics about Asian Americans in particular. Prior to Obama, the number of Asian Americans who had been appointed to public office by any president was two. In the 220-year history of the United States, the combined total was two. This president appointed three Asian Americans as Cabinet secretaries in his first term — Secretary [Gary] Locke of the Department of Commerce, Secretary [Steven] Chu of the Department of Energy and General [Eric] Shinseki who runs the Department of Veterans Affairs. And that’s not even counting all the senior-level officials. What the range of backgrounds and ethnicities in the administration has brought more than anything else is diverse perspectives to make sure that when we get out to communities we’re keeping in mind all of the members of the community. It’s an inclusive government and I hope it continues to remain so. We need to accurately represent those perspectives at the table.

If Romney were elected, what effect would it have on the sort of programs put forth by the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation?

What we were trying to do was to recognize that there are great non-profits in this country and they are doing great work on the community level but they need capital to scale and that is what government is good at doing. We should be able to find the best organizations, we should be able to get the data that shows what is working, and we should be able to invest in these organizations so we can start solving our problems. There is no reason that there should be a 50 percent high school dropout rate. There is no reason why we can’t help people have better health care, no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get people the resources they need to get out of poverty. What our office did was ask how can we work together with the private sector, with government and with non-profits to actually solve problems. This shouldn’t be a Republican or a Democratic issue. It should be an American issue. If America wants to grow, these are things we have to fight for.