In near-final results from Orange County, California, conservative Republicans Michelle Park Steel and Young Kim are now on the verge of becoming the first two Korean American women ever to serve in Congress.
With nearly all votes counted in the 48th District, Steel, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, led Democrat Rep. Harley Rouda by 50.9% to 49.1% (or roughly 7,000 votes out of more than 385,000 cast).
“We’ve got about 11,000 more to be counted beginning Monday,” Shawn Steel, California’s Republican National Committeeman and Michelle’s husband, told Newsmax. “We feel good.”
In the neighboring 39th District, with about 98% of the votes counted, former Assemblywoman Young Kim was leading in a rematch with Democrat Rep. Gil Cisneros by 50.5% to 49.5% (about 3,000 out of 301,000).
Long the top district aide to former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman and Republican Rep. Ed Royce, Kim lost a squeaker to succeed him in 2018.
Both Kim, 58, and Steel, 65, were born in South Korea and spent their childhoods there before emigrating with their parents to Southern California.
Both campaigned as pro-life and pro-Second Amendment conservatives and as strong supporters of President Donald Trump.
The only Korean American to serve in Congress was Republican Jay Kim, who held a seat in Southern California from 1993-99.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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