ABOUT
Read about our history and mission and meet our team
HISTORY
We began our journey as Korean Americans for Obama in 2012 as an allied group for the Obama re-election campaign. Our volunteers worked successfully to help get greater than 78% of the Korean American community to vote for President Obama – up from 64% in 2008.
After President Obama’s re-election, we changed the name of our group to Korean Americans for Organizing. In 2016, we became Korean Americans for Hillary, and our grassroots volunteers, again, worked on critical field activities such as hosting phone banks and canvasses to bring out 84% of the Korean American community to vote for Hillary Clinton. The increasing numbers show that we helped make an impact.
Our momentum during the presidential campaign may have started in the Capitol region, but we have had volunteers from all over the country including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Atlanta, and even abroad — Korean Americans are everywhere! We have built a national coalition of politically active and progressive Korean Americans throughout the country and we are continuing to grow.
In 2018, we saw an unprecedented number of Korean Americans run for offices on all levels across the country. Upon filing as a PAC, we successfully tested our infrastructure and ability to mobilize by running our first small-dollar online in support of a candidate who went on to become the first Korean American Democrat elected to Congress.
VISION & MISSION
We envision a more politically empowered Korean community in the Democratic Party. To this end our principal mission is to elect Democratic Korean Americans nationally to offices on the local, state, and federal levels.
OBJECTIVES
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Increase the number of Democratic Korean American Members of Congress;
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Increase the number of Democratic Korean American state elected;
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Increase the number of Democratic Korean American local elected; and
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Support currently elected Korean Americans in public office and ensure their re-elections.
CORE TEAM
Julia Chun,
Co-President
Julia is Chief of Staff for Virginia State Senator Barbara Favola and former Chief Of Staff for Virginia Delegate Mark Keam, and the immediate past Chairman of the Virginia Asian Advisory Board. She lives in VA.
Linda Shim,
Co-President
Linda Shim is an Executive Director of External Affairs at Comcast NBCUniversal in Washington, DC. She works to advance Comcast's partnerships with external stakeholders including advocacy organizations, public policy groups, and political organizations. Linda has over a decade of experience on Capitol Hill working for Members of Congress from California. She most recently served as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-27) and also as a Legislative Assistant to former Congresswoman Jane Harman (CA-36).
Grace Choi,
VP of Campaigns
Grace is the Director of Policy in the NYC Mayor’s Office. She was a former staffer for the Obama campaign and an appointee in the Obama administration. She lives in NY.
Daniel Yi, Treasurer
Daniel is in the government relations department at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. He was a former Obama campaign field organizer and appointee in the Obama Administration. He lives in Washington DC.
Esther Im, VP of Operations / Secretary
Esther is a program officer for the National Committee on North Korea. She has previously worked at the Permanent Mission of South Korea to the United Nations and conducted research in South Korea as a Fulbright grantee. She was born and raised in Arkansas and now lives in Washington DC.
Erica Lee, VP of
Social Media
Erica graduated from George Mason University where she served as the president of the Korean-American Student Association and was an active board member of the College Democrats of America where she was elected as the National Director of Political Affairs and appointed as the National Chairwoman of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus. She currently works in Washington D.C. at FiscalNote, one of D.C.'s top tech companies.