Many Asian American candidates encountered racist comments during campaigning amid the pandemic, which the U.S. president blamed on China, National Public Radio (NPR) reported on Sunday.

Yuh-Line Niou, a member of the New York State Assembly who was born in China's Taiwan region, told NPR that she was verbally harassed by a passerby when she was passing out KN95 masks in her district.

"He said something like, 'You're the one who brought the virus here. I hope you die,'" Niou was quoted by NPR as saying.

David Kim, a Korean American and a Democratic congressional candidate in Los Angeles County, met racism during his campaigning.

It's been reported that the Twitter inbox of Kim, who ran a largely virtual campaign, had been filled with racist messages telling him to "go back to your country." 

He told NPR that "I've gotten so many comments, online at least. I'd never heard that type of racism to my face – not to that extreme."

In recent years, more and more Asian Americans have become political candidates and leaders in America. The number of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) candidates who ran for federal offices this year doubled to 99, from 48 in the 2018 midterms, according to Madalene Mielke, president of the nonpartisan Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

The racism-marked pandemic has been a setback to Asian American candidates but has also propelled them to come together to address attacks on their communities, having gained motivation from the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Every AAPI is on edge. But now is the time to use our voices," Judy Chu, a Democrat from California, was quoted by NPR as saying.