(코리아타운뉴스) Greenlight On For Korean-American Congressman

Election for California’s 34th district
Low voter turnout may actually work in favor of Robert Ahn
Ahn is the only Korean-American candidate running

The race to represent California’s 34th district is heating up. Xavier Becerra, who represented the region for the past 24 years, has recently been appointed as the state attorney general to leave the bid to take his position fierce. The election will take place in May.

The consensus within the circle of politicians in California is that the voter turnout for the election is expected to be considerably low.

In 2014, only 34,573 voters casted their ballots for the election. Then turnout was only 11 percent among 306,463 eligible voters. An anonymous source told the Korea Daily that the turnout rate for the upcoming election may remain in a single digit.

However, the low voter turnout may actually work in favor of Robert Ahn, who is running to represent the district.

There are approximately 20,000 Korean-American voters in the 34th district. “This is a precious and valuable chance for us as winning is completely a possible scenario [for Ahn] if Korean-American voters come out and support their candidate,” said Koreatown activist and lawyer Grace Yoo.

Currently a commissioner at Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Ahn is likely to run for the position to replace Becerra. Eleven candidates have so far declared their plan to run, including Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar and former L.A. City Council aide Sarah Hernandez.

Meanwhile, the 34th congressional district spans L.A. Koreatown as well as downtown, Boyle Heights, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Lincoln Heights, Eagle Rock and Westlake.


By Michael Won