Young Kim

In 2018 Kim was the Republican Party candidate in California's 39th congressional district. Kim was defeated by Gil Cisneros in the general election. Had she won, Kim would have become the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress. She has filed to rematch Cisneros in 2020.

In 2017, Kim announced she would be running for the Orange County Board of Supervisors, a nonpartisan office, in the 4th district, which includes the cities of Fullerton, Placentia, La Habra, and Brea, plus portions of Anaheim and Buena Park. However, in January 2018, immediately after Royce announced his retirement, Kim publicly declared that she would instead enter the race to succeed Royce as the representative for California's 39th congressional district. Royce endorsed Kim the day after announcing his retirement. Her opponent was Democrat Gil Cisneros. Polls showed a tight race throughout the campaign, with FiveThirtyEight rating the race as a toss-up. Early results on the night of the election showed Kim holding a 52.5%-47.5% lead, but Kim ultimately lost the election to Cisneros, who received 50.8% of the vote to Kim's 49.2% after mail-in ballots were counted. She conceded on November 18.

Kim's platform for running for Assembly in 2016 included opposing changes to Proposition 13, which limits property taxes. Her 2018 congressional platform included opposition to the Affordable Care Act, support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, support for "the anti-sanctuary city stance taken by the County Board of Supervisors" and support for chain migration. In 2018, NBC News reported that the issues important to Kim included "creating jobs and keeping taxes low", "beef[ing] up education funding in science, technology, engineering and math", and reforming the immigration system to "ensure those brought to the U.S. 'as children without legal documentation are treated fairly and with compassion.'" She supports student loan forgiveness if the borrower is on the verge of bankruptcy.

She was elected to the Assembly in 2014, defeating Democratic Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva. In 2016, in turn, Quirk-Silva defeated Kim in a rematch.

Kim and her husband, Charles Kim, have been married since 1986. They have four children. Their oldest, Christine, graduated from UC Irvine; the others, Hannah, Alvin, and Kelly, graduated from Cal State Fullerton.

She began studies at the University of Southern California in 1981, and earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from that institution.

Kim was born in Incheon, South Korea, and spent her childhood in Seoul. She and her family left South Korea in 1975, living first on Guam, where she finished junior high school.

Young O. Kim (born Kim Yong-ok; October 18, 1962) is an American politician who served in the California State Assembly. A Republican, she represented the 65th Assembly District, including parts of northern Orange County. She is the first Korean-American Republican woman elected to the California legislature.