Mixed Fortunes for Korean-American Candidates: Dan Koh Enters US House, Muncrief Falls Short of First Governorship

Korean-American candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives and governorships experienced mixed fortunes in the U.S. midterm elections.

In Massachusetts' 6th Congressional District in the East, where vote counting results came in first, Dan Koh (Korean name Ko Won-young), making his first bid for the U.S. House, won to become the 7th Korean-American federal lawmaker in history.

With 42 percent of the vote counted, Koh secured 64.5 percent of the vote, comfortably outpacing Republican challenger Micah Queeney Jones, who stood at 35.6 percent, by a wide margin of over 30 percentage points to secure an early victory in the initial stages of vote counting.

Following his father to use the Jeju Ko clan as his surname, he previously ran in a different district in the same state in 2018, suffering a defeat in the primary.

This time, he actively leveraged his experience working as a White House aide during the Joe Biden administration to finally claim final victory on his second attempt.

In Washington's 10th Congressional District, incumbent Democratic Representative Marilyn Strickland succeeded in securing a fourth term.

Born to a father who was a Korean War veteran and a Korean mother and also known by her Korean name Kim Soon-ja, Representative Strickland claimed victory with 64.4 percent of the vote at around 8:21 p.m. Western Time as 62 percent of the vote was counted.

Fellow Korean-American and Republican rival Chris Jung (Korean name Jung Dong-bok) garnered 35.1 percent of the vote.

Representative Strickland stated in her acceptance speech, "The American people rejected the chaos, cruelty, and corruption of President (Donald) Trump," adding that she would fight against the Trump administration for lower living costs, worker wages, and voting rights.

Another Korean-American House member, Dave Min (Democrat-California), declared victory and celebrated just about 30 minutes after vote counting began.

With 47 percent of the vote counted, Representative Min held a commanding lead with 59.5 percent of the vote over Republican candidate Jenny Rae Le Roux, who had 40.5 percent.

Representative Min, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2024, is poised to secure a second term once his victory is finalized.

He said, "It's a tremendous night for Democrats," adding, "It is a new experience to be able to immediately lock down a victory and say we won. I am honored, viewing this as a validation of the work of the past two years and the work we intend to do moving forward."

Supporters cheered as they shared news that Representative Min was maintaining an overwhelming advantage over Republican candidate Le Roux in the early stages of counting.

However, election statistics agencies and U.S. media outlets have not yet released analyses designating Representative Min's victory as certain.

In Oklahoma, Democratic candidate Cindy Munson, who challenged to become the state's first Korean-American governor and first Asian-American female governor, suffered a narrow defeat against Republican candidate Mike Mazzei.

In Oklahoma, a staunch Republican stronghold where Republicans have not relinquished the governorship since 2010, Munson ran under the Democratic banner but failed to flip the state despite a spirited fight.

Munson, whose father was in the U.S. military and mother is Korean, secured 45.9 percent of the vote with 97 percent of the ballots counted, trailing Mazzei by a 6.1 percentage point margin.

Representative Young Kim (Korean name Kim Young-ok) of California's 40th Congressional District is also engaged in a tough battle against fellow party member and 17-term veteran Representative Ken Calvert.

Facing Representative Calvert, who emphasized his support for President Donald Trump and MAGA (Make America Great Again), Kim focused on appealing to moderate voters, but the situation in the early stages of counting is unfavorable.

As of 9:30 p.m. Western Time with results from 35 percent of the ballots released, Representative Calvert stood at 54 percent and Kim at 46 percent, showing a gap of about 8 percentage points.

Representative Calvert and Kim, who ended up competing in the same district due to state legislative redistricting, advanced side-by-side to the general election after winning 34.9 percent and 20.6 percent respectively in the June primary.

However, given the characteristic high volume of mail-in ballots in California, it is expected to take some time before final results are available.

The possibility of the results flipping during this process has also been raised.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.