Here’s a snapshot of the Korean Americans who emerged victorious in the Nov. 2 midterm elections. Although most winners were from California, where Korean Americans are the most populous, Koreans were also elected to represent everything from a borough to statewideoffices in areas as diverse as Georgia, New Jersey and parts of the Midwest, as you can see from the above map (which includes several, but not all of the midterm winners).
See the list of the elected, which include both incumbents and newcomers after the jump.
HAWAII
Sylvia Chang Luke (D): State House of Representatives
Sharon Har (D): State House of Representatives
Donna Mercado Kim (D): State Senate
WASHINGTON STATE
Paull Shin (D): State Senate
Cindy Ryu (D): State House of Representatives
CALIFORNIA
Michelle Park Steel (R): State Board of Equalization
Mary Chung Hayashi (D): State Assembly
Sukhee Kang (D): Mayor of Irvine
Miller Oh: Buena Park City Council
Steve Hwangbo: La Palma City Council
Jane Kim (D): San Francisco City Supervisor
Helen Lee: Buena Park Unified School District
TEXAS
Tina Yoo (D): Court of Appeals Judge
MINNESOTA
John Choi (D): Ramsey County Attorney
MICHIGAN
Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D): State Senate
GEORGIA
B.J. Pak (R): State General Assembly
NEW JERSEY
Jason Kim (D): Borough Council Member (Palisades Park)
Trending Left?
Even as Republicans captured a number of new seats that gave them a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, results from a post-election November poll in California reflected a trend toward Democrats among Asian American and Latino voters, two of the state’s fastest growing groups.
Together, they comprise 25 percent of the state’s registered voters. In the highly contested race of California governor, victor Jerry Brown, currentlythe state’s Attorney General and one of its former governors, boasted a significant edge over Republican challenger Meg Whitman with Asian and Latino voters, according to the USC College/ Los Angeles Timespoll. Asian American voters favored the Democrat over Whitman, 61 percent to 37 percent; the margin was higher among Latino voters, 80 percent of whom voted for Brown, compared to 15 percent for Whitman.
With the U.S. Senate race in California, Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer, who ultimately won the election, notably lost the white vote to Republican candidate Carly Fiorina. However, Boxer won among Latinos and Asians, according to the multilingual poll of 1,689 registered voters, conducted November 3-14.
Janelle Wong, a political science professor at USC, noted that although Whitman ran some Chinese-language ads, candidates in this election did not launch any substantive outreach to the Asian American communities. “That’s going to have to change if candidates want to reach these voters,” she said. “Asian Americans have the potential to be the ultimate swing voters in the state.”
