I live in the SF bay area, and I agree with the assessment that a lot of Asians are turned off from the Dems right now. The number one reason is safety. Anti-Asian hate crime happens once in a blue moon, but robbery and thefts is a daily occurrence. We only hear about Asian hate crime on the news, but every single one of us knows numerous people who are or have personally been victims of thefts and robberies. There are other issues, such as affirmative action being essentially against Asian interests, or conservative Asian values not aligning with the transgender agenda, but those are minor things.
People care most about things that directly affect their own lives, and safety is number one with economy being number two. You'll see DAs all across California getting voted out, and any politician in any major metropolitan area who doesn't take a tough on crime stance will get voted out as well. Too bad my own county's DA isn't up for re-election this time around, the nerve of her to oppose Prop 36 which allows for more severe punishment for drug and theft crimes. It's the one Proposition that passed in every single county, with a supermajority of >70% of the votes. She sure stood on the wrong side of that fight.
My overall assessment of the California area is that in general, people don't want to vote Republican for fear of standing with the overtly racist and generally intolerant Republican far right. However, they're primed for a change within the Democratic party. That means they're no longer gonna tolerate candidates who are soft on crime. That will take precedent over everything else. The gender wars get a lot of publicity, but IMO that simply doesn't factor into most people's voting decisions because at the end of the day, it just doesn't affect most people's lives.