GOP candidate in Texas House race endorsed by fellow Korean American reps

California GOP Reps. Young Kim and Michelle Steel threw their support behind fellow Republican and Korean American Sery Kim in the race for Texas’s sixth congressional district on Wednesday. 

“I am proud to endorse Sery Kim for Congress and am confident she has the knowledge and experience needed to represent Texas’ 6th Congressional District,” Young Kim said in a statement released exclusively to The Hill. 

Steel highlighted Sery Kim’s work in the Bush and Trump administrations, as well as her academic achievements in her endorsement. 

“Sery has proven that she is the best woman for the job,” Steel said in the statement. “I look forward to serving with her in Congress.” 

Young Kim and Steel are among the first Korean American women to serve in Congress. The freshman congresswoman flipped Democratic seats in the onetime conservative stronghold of Orange County. 

Sery Kim, a first-generation immigrant from Seoul, South Korea, said she was “honored” to receive endorsements from Steel and Young Kim. 

The endorsements come after Sery Kim officially launched her campaign this week, pledging to take on the political establishment in Washington, D.C. She previously served as a as assistant administrator in the Office of Women’s Business Ownership at the Small Business Administration under Trump. 

Sery Kim highlighted her heritage in her campaign launch video.

“My parents immigrated here from Seoul, South Korea, when I was a child. They sometimes worked two jobs, three jobs, to put food on the table. And it’s here in Texas that I learned the value of sacrifice, hard work, resilience,” she said. 

The Texas Republican candidate joins a crowded field to replace the late Rep. Ron Wright (R-Texas), who died of the coronavirus earlier this year. A total of 23 candidates — 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats — have filed to run in the special election on May 1. Wright’s wife, Susan, is also among the Republicans running to replace him.