LAS VEGAS – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is ahead of her opponent Bernie Sanders when it comes to targeting Nevada’s rapidly growing Asian American population, according to activists who are attempting to increase voter turnout among immigrant communities in the early caucus state.

While Nevada’s substantial Latino population is well known – and its support much-coveted by presidential candidates – the state has also seen a massive increase in the size of its Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) population to almost 10% of the state's population. Given the closeness of the Democratic race, mobilising this support could be crucial in the state’s Feb. 20 caucus and could make the difference between a Clinton victory or a defeat to Sanders.

“Sanders is much more focussed on the Latino community than the AAPI community”, said Emily Persaud, the Nevada state co-ordinator for the iAmerica Action campaign, a non-partisan group which campaigns for immigrants to take citizenship and then become involved in politics.

Persaud told BuzzFeed News you just needed “to look at the pictures” of who was currently involved in the Sanders campaign to see a relative absence of Asian Americans. She wants all candidates to spend more time talking to Asian American voters in the state. She also said the media often focussed too much on more politically organised Latino groups and missed the recent influx of new Asian voters, especially those from the Philippines.

“Sanders is building up, but in terms of who has been interested it’s Clinton,” Persuad's colleague Christian Bato agreed, noting Clinton had produced a plan setting out what she would do for the AAPI community. “I hadn’t seen an actual [Presidential campaign] document based on AAPI before – that’s the first time I’ve seen that.”