Young Kim

Biography

Overview

Young Kim is a Republican U.S. Representative from California's 40th congressional district who has served in the House since 2021. Born in South Korea in 1962, she became the first South Korean-born Republican woman elected to the California State Legislature (2014-2016) and was among the first three Korean-American women elected to Congress in 2020. Before her House service, Kim worked for 21 years in Asian affairs and community liaison roles, and ran a television and radio show focused on issues affecting Korean Americans.

Career

Kim has focused on bipartisan efforts through her membership in the Problem Solvers Caucus and the Republican Governance Group. She championed efforts to reunite divided Korean-American families separated by the Korean Peninsula division and has consistently advocated for North Korean human rights. In her 2020 congressional race, she outraised her opponent $6.16 million to $4.36 million. She has sponsored legislation on financial institution regulation, critical minerals investment, organized retail crime, and healthcare innovation. She successfully won reelection in 2024, defeating her Democratic challenger by approximately 10 points.

Prior political experience

Kim ran for California's 39th congressional district in 2018 and narrowly lost to Democrat Gil Cisneros (Cisneros 51.6%, Kim 48.4%) after mail-in ballots were counted, despite leading on election night. In 2020, she defeated Cisneros in a rematch with a growing lead as mail-in ballots were counted, winning with 50.6% of the vote. She was among the first three Republican candidates to unseat a House Democratic incumbent in California since 1994. Due to redistricting, Kim ran in the newly configured 40th district in 2022 and successfully ran for reelection in 2024, defeating Democrat Joe Kerr by approximately 10 points. Earlier, she served in the California State Assembly representing the 65th district, winning in 2014 against incumbent Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva but losing her reelection bid to Quirk-Silva in 2016.

Biographical material adapted from the Wikipedia article (retrieved April 29, 2026), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ideology

Liberal–Conservative (DW-NOMINATE dim 1)

Liberal

Conservative

119th Congress+0.261

Secondary axis (DW-NOMINATE dim 2)(?)

−1

+1

+0.381

Source: Voteview DW-NOMINATE · 345 scored votes

Campaigns targeting Young Kim

No active campaigns target Young Kim right now.

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Officeholding history

Term	Seat	Term dates	Termination	Predecessor	Successor
2nd	U.S. House CA-40	2025–present	In progress	Young Kim	—
1st	U.S. House CA-40	2023–2025	Term ended	—	Young Kim
1st	U.S. House CA-39	2021–2023	Term ended	Gilbert Ray Cisneros, Jr.	Mark Takano

Committee assignments

East Asia and Pacific
HouseChair· 2025–present
Europe
House· 2025–present
National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions
House· 2025–present
Financial Institutions
House· 2025–present
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
House· 2025–present
House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party
House· 2025–present
House Committee on Financial Services
House· 2025–present

Current term legislation

Bills sponsored this term10

Bills cosponsored this term10

Elections

Year	Seat	Result	Vote share	Field
2024	U.S. House CA-39	Won	50.60%	Young Kim55.26% Joe Kerr44.74%