Since elected in 2020 to represent Orange County’s 37th State Senate District, Senator Dave Min, the former UC Irvine law professor turned government official, has been a strong voice against anti-Asian hate across the state.
As the only Korean American in the Legislature, Senator Min is Vice Chair of the California Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Legislative Caucus which has been instrumental in the passage of the historic AAPI Equity Budget. He also serves on many Senate committees, including Natural Resources and Water (Chair), Budget, Education, Banking and Financial Institutions, Energy, and Judiciary.
Ethnic Media Services recently spoke with Senator Min at the convening of organizations and leaders representing the Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community hosted by his office in Irvine, Orange County.
What inspired you to become a public official?
The 2016 election. But I would say that I’ve always been interested in public service. My very first job out of Harvard law school was at the Security Exchange Commission. I turned down many lucrative offers, including Goldman Sachs, to go into government. This was right after 9/11 and the scandals of Enron and WorldCom, which made me angry and I wanted to serve my country. I joined the SEC to crack down on corporate frauds and then I went to work for Senator Chuck Schumer, and after that the Center for American Progress. My goal was to help create a fairer economy for everyone.
At the personal level, it’s my own immigrant story. My parents grew up during the Korean War and came to the US with nothing in their pockets like so many immigrants. Today, my brother is a Stanford-educated doctor and I’m a Harvard-educated lawyer. But my parents have always reminded my brother and I while growing up that if it weren’t for the 36,000 US soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in the Korean War in the 1950s, none of us would be here today. So I’ve always tried to give back.
After the 2016 election, I found a calling to run for office because I felt the country was going in the wrong direction. I have young children. I care about the future we are leaving for them. We all have to step up.
Since being elected, you have produced legislation on climate change, gun control, domestic violence, economy, and others. Why these issues?
I’m elected to fight for the issues that people care about. And I think we all want to create a society with opportunities for people to have the American dream. So from renewable energy to violence prevention and innovations to help small businesses, I fight for these causes.
One bill I’m particularly proud of is the banning of gun sales on state properties, including the fairgrounds. As you know, access to guns has been associated with crimes, mass shootings, and even domestic violence. A lot of people said I wouldn’t be able to do it because of the push back from powerful gun lobbyists. But with the support of my staff and legislative allies and it helps that I’m on the budget committee, I was able to push it through.
When you first learned about the rise in hate crimes targeted at the AAPI community, what were your feelings and reactions?
I didn’t run for the senate based on any anti-Asian hate platform because it emerged as a crisis after I got elected. When it became clear, I didn’t personally feel scared but when I saw many cases where the Asian seniors, the weakest Asians who were being targeted, that made me very angry. I wanted to stand up to those people doing it.
The people who attack Asians are a very small minority in this country. They feel emboldened right now because of Trump’s rhetoric against China, which has fueled racism, and felt like they could go out there and say things and do things and get away with it. We have to loudly condemn this and get other communities to do the same because these people, the perpetrators, need to understand this is not acceptable.
Tell us about your two anti-hate bills that Governor Newsom signed this year.
My SB 1161 bill is about safety in public transit and SB 434 is about street harassment. Originally these bills said you have to collect data and then act on it. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the money for transportation agencies to take actions so right now these laws allow us to collect data to quantify what’s happening exactly. Who’s getting targeted and how frequent? Are incidents happening in San Francisco different from LA and Riverside? What are the types? We also need to distinguish between hate and harassment.
In the long run, these data will help institutionalized policies and programs as permanent tools to create the proper response to hate crimes, incidents, and other forms of aggressive behavior in public spaces.
In general, combating hate is not easy. Assemblymember Phi Ting led the effort and I was proud to be a supporter to secure nearly $200 millions in government funding up to date for the anti-hate campaign that many CBOs and ethnic media members are taking part in. And of course, more resources are needed because the challenges are great and deep rooted. Unfortunately, California is projected to have a deficit of $68 billion in 2024. So we have to wait and see for other opportunities.
You are running for Congress in 2024. If elected, would the anti-hate fight continue?
Of course. If elected, I want to join the amazing Asian American leaders in Congress like Judy Chu, Ted Liu, and Mark Takano in this fight against hate at both national and state levels. These are the people I looked up to and have the privilege of calling friends. There’s not enough of them and so I want to help add to their voices and help advocate against hate and discrimination here in Orange County and across the country.
I will work with them to have a seat at the table on behalf of the AAPI community to access a fair share of the budget, getting the same priority as those other groups at the table. I want to continue advocating for resources to community organizations and ethnic media. All of these things are important to me.
This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.
