Tag: Young Kim

Two Congress Members Drop Endorsement of Korean-American Candidate

It seems like a pretty big unforced error for Sery Kim, but who knows maybe this is what the people in the district she is running for want to hear. Additionally it has given her national media attention because I have never heard of her until now:

Multiple U.S. media outlets reported that Young Kim and Steel issued a joint statement to say they cannot continue to support Sery Kim, who is running to represent Texas’ sixth Congressional District.

“As the first Korean American Republican women to serve in Congress, we want to empower and lift up fellow members of the AAPI community who want to serve their communities,” the lawmakers said in the statement CNN reported on Saturday. “We talked with Sery Kim yesterday concerning her hurtful and untrue comments about Chinese immigrants, and made clear that her comments were unacceptable.”

Sery Kim is currently mired in controversy, after she answered a question about U.S. immigration during a forum on Wednesday. “I don’t want them here at all,” she said, referring to Chinese immigrants.

“They steal our intellectual property, give us the coronavirus, and they don’t hold themselves accountable,” she said. “And quite frankly, I can say that because I’m Korean.” The candidate also lashed out at China, claiming that the coronavirus was created at a lab in Wuhan, according to a YouTube video recording of the event uploaded by Kim’s election camp.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Young Kim Wins and Then Loses California Congressional Election

Well so much for Young Kim being the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress:

Republican candidate Young Kim, who was expected to become the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress, has been defeated by Democratic rival Gil Cisneros in California’s 39th district, a report said Saturday.

The South Korea-born politician took the lead in initial vote counting in the Nov. 6 election. But she lost to Cisneros by 1.6 percentage point as of 8:00 p.m. after mail-in ballots were counted, according to the Associated Press.

They competed to succeed Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in the district, which includes parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties and is two-thirds Asian and Latino.

Despite being home to former Republican President Richard Nixon and traditionally Republican, the district was won by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, in the 2016 presidential race.  [Yonhap]

It is amazing how long the vote counting has been going on for these races.

First Korean-American Woman Elected to US Congress in California

Here is anecdote from this week’s US midterm elections:

Young Kim appeared certain to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, becoming the first Korean-American woman to serve in Congress.

With 97 percent of the ballots counted, the 56-year-old Republican garnered 51.4 percent of the vote against 48.6 percent by Democrat Gil Cisneros in California’s 39th district.

If finalized, she will succeed outgoing Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The only other Korean-American to serve in Congress was Jay Kim, a Republican who represented California’s 41st district from 1993 to 1999.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but it should be no surprise that Young Kim is against President Trump’s executive order to end chain migration.