Young Kim

Young Oak Kim (born October 18, 1962) is an American politician and businesswoman serving as the U.S. representative for California's 40th congressional district, previously representing the 39th congressional district from 2021 to 2023.

Her district includes northern parts of Orange County.

Kim was born in 1962 in Incheon, South Korea, and spent her childhood in Seoul.

She and her family left South Korea in 1975, living first in Guam, where she finished junior high school, and then Hawaii, where she attended high school.

She has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Southern California.

After graduating from USC, Kim worked as a financial analyst for First Interstate Bank and then as a controller for JK Sportswear Manufacturing.

She also started her own business in the clothing industry.

Kim worked for state senator Ed Royce after her husband met Royce while promoting a nonprofit organization, the Korean American Coalition.

After Royce was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Kim worked for 21 years as his community liaison and director of Asian affairs.

During much of that time she also appeared regularly on her own television show, "LA Seoul with Young Kim", and her radio show, "Radio Seoul", on which she discussed political issues affecting Korean Americans.

Along with Steel and David Valadao, Kim was among the first three Republican candidates to unseat an incumbent House Democrat in California since 1994.

A member of the Republican Party, Young Kim served as the California State Assemblywoman for the 65th district from 2014 to 2016, defeating the incumbent Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva in 2014.

Kim was elected to the Assembly in 2014, defeating Democratic Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva.

Kim lost the seat in a rematch with Quirk-Silva in 2016.

Kim was the first South Korean-born Republican woman elected to the California State Legislature.

In 2016, Quirk-Silva defeated Kim.

In 2017, Kim announced her candidacy for the Orange County Board of Supervisors, a nonpartisan office, in the 4th district, which includes Fullerton, Placentia, La Habra, and Brea, plus portions of Anaheim and Buena Park.

In 2018, Kim was the Republican nominee in California's 39th congressional district, narrowly losing to Democrat Gil Cisneros in the general election.

In January 2018, immediately after Royce announced his retirement, Kim announced that she would instead enter the race to succeed Royce as the representative for California's 39th congressional district.

Royce endorsed Kim the day after announcing his retirement.

Kim received the most votes in the primary election among a field of 17 candidates, allowing her to advance to the general election along with the Democratic candidate Gil Cisneros.

Polls showed a tight race throughout the campaign, and FiveThirtyEight called the race a toss-up.

Early results on the night of the election showed Kim with a 52.5%-47.5% lead, but she ultimately lost to Cisneros, who received 51.6% of the vote to Kim's 48.4% after mail-in ballots were counted.

As the ongoing ballot count showed Kim losing the race, she made allegations of voter fraud but provided no evidence.

She conceded on November 18.

In April 2019, Kim announced that she would run again to represent the 39th district.

Immediately after her announcement, top party officials rallied behind her, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

In the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections, Kim, Michelle Park Steel, and Marilyn Strickland became the first three Korean-American women elected to the United States Congress.

Kim and Steel are also the first Korean-Americans elected to Congress from California since Jay Kim.

In 2020, Kim defeated Cisneros in a rematch.

In the March 2020 jungle primary, Kim received 48.3% of the vote to Cisneros's 46.9%, and thus both advanced out of the primary to a rematch.

Kim proved to be one of the top House fund-raising challengers across the nation, outraising Cisneros $6.16 million to $4.36 million.

Unlike in the previous cycle, most election observers rated the race "Lean Democrat", with FiveThirtyEight predicting Kim had a 26% chance of winning.

At the end of election night, Kim led by about 1,000 votes.

As mail-in ballots were counted, her lead continued to grow, in contrast to the trend in the previous election.

The Associated Press projected her as the winner on November 13.

She won even as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden carried the district by 10 points.

Kim, Michelle Steel and Marilyn Strickland became the first Korean-American women elected to Congress.

In December 2021, Kim announced that she would seek reelection in California's 40th congressional district, due to redistricting.

On January 3, 2021, Kim was sworn in to the 117th United States Congress.