By: Cynthia Shaffer
On mid-term election night 2018, Young Kim was declared the winner of California’s District 39. She was included in the New York Times video (though not the accompanying write-up) of its run down of election history firsts. The first Korean-American woman to be elected to Congress. She was the last elected to be profiled in the video. Quietly, without any follow-up, she has been removed from the video.
Though the merits of my article (November 13, 2018) remain intact, I must correct the record. Young Kim did not win District 39. She will not be the first Korean-American woman to be elected to Congress. Though big media did not cover her House-bid as a first (like they did for so many other races), they are certainly covering her loss now because…well, you tell me.
Gil Cisneros, the Democrat, has subsequently been declared the winner. This means the California Democrats now hold 45 United States House of Representative seats (out of 53). Republicans just eight. California Democrats already hold both United States Senate seats. The last Republican to hold a Senate seat was 1992. The Democrats hold all major statewide offices and have a veto-proof majority in the California state legislature. Forget the Blue Wave. In California, it’s a Blue Flood of biblical proportion.
It is good to be a Democrat in California, and many people would like to see the rest of America rest in such a flood of Blue. Only time will tell if California survives this blip of #BlueParadise. Young Kim is just a reminder of the hypocrisy of those who preach racial demographics as the premier reason to ride #theBlueWave. Where I used to live, even the most seasoned of surfers who live by the ocean, can die by a wave.
