Michelle Park Steel (Korean name Park Eun-joo), a Korean-American Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing California's 45th district, is increasingly likely to secure a third term.
According to NBC and other foreign media on the 13th (local time), in the House election held alongside the presidential election on the 5th, Representative Steel received a final 50.8% of the vote, leading her competitor, Democratic candidate Derek Tran, who received 49.2%.
Born in Seoul in 1995, she moved to the United States in 1975 and earned a bachelor's degree from Pepperdine University and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Southern California.
She entered politics after participating in the election campaign of Richard Riordan, who ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 1993. She was the first Korean-American elected commissioner of the California State Board of Equalization and served as the supervisor for Orange County's 2nd district. Later, she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in California's 48th district in 2020 and was elected, then re-elected in 2022.
So far, a total of four Korean-Americans have been elected to the U.S. Congress. Along with Andy Kim (New Jersey), the first Korean-American senator, there are also three-term Representative Young Kim (Republican, California's 40th district), Marilyn Strickland (Democrat, Washington's 10th district), and first-term Representative Dave Min (Democrat, California's 47th district), all of whom have announced their election victories.
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