FACT CHECK: Did Voters Just Elect The First Asian-American Woman To Congress?
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk claimed on Twitter that midterm voters elected the first Asian-American woman to Congress on Tuesday.
“Oh yeah, she is a REPUBLICAN,” he said Wednesday. “Don’t expect the media to report this.”
Verdict: False
Voters first elected an Asian-American woman to Congress in the 1960s. A spokesperson for Kirk clarified that he meant to say that voters had elected the first Korean-American woman to Congress.
Fact Check:
Kirk’s tweet came after Republican candidate Young Kim, an immigrant from South Korea, appeared to beat out Democrat Gil Cisneros in a close race for California’s 39th congressional district.
Kirk deleted the tweet, but many on Twitter nonetheless refuted his claim.
TP USA founder Charlie Kirk deleted this tweet after it got 15K RTs. To be clear: not the first Asian American woman elect to Congress. Her race hasn’t been called. She was critical of Trump during the campaign. pic.twitter.com/LwYvBA4dHZ
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) November 8, 2018
“To be clear: not the first Asian American woman elect to Congress,” tweeted CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski.
Another merit badge for self-ownage. Young Kim is not the first Asian American woman in Congress, not even the first Asian American Republican woman. pic.twitter.com/6ERduloFlj
— Alana Horowitz Satlin (@achorowitz) November 8, 2018
“Young Kim is not the first Asian American woman in Congress, not even the first Asian American Republican woman,” tweeted Alana Horowitz Satlin, a senior editor at HuffPost.
What the actual fuck, there are seven Asian American women CURRENTLY in the House, and three in the Senate
Just how dumb is Charlie Kirk anyway
(HT @SarahNEmerson, who pointed out that Patsy Mink was the first Asian American woman elected to Congress, in 1965) pic.twitter.com/nTuNTgJdoh
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) November 9, 2018
“What the actual f***, there are seven Asian American women CURRENTLY in the House, and three in the Senate,” tweeted CNN contributor Jeff Yang.
The first Asian-American woman to be elected to Congress was Patsy Mink, who served as the representative for Hawaii’s 1st congressional district from 1965 to 1970. She later represented Hawaii’s 2nd district from 1971 to 1976 and 1990 to 2002.
Patricia Saiki was the first Republican Asian-American woman to be elected to Congress, serving from 1987 to 1991.
Currently, there are 11 Asian-Pacific American women serving in Congress, including Sens. Kamala Harris, Mazie Hirono and Tammy Duckworth.
Kirk deleted the tweet the next day, presumably after being corrected by numerous people on Twitter.
A spokesperson for his team responded to a request for comment, saying, “He meant ‘Korean’ but tweeted ‘Asian’ by mistake. When he realized the error he deleted it. It was an honest mistake.”
Kim would be the first Korean-American woman to serve in Congress.
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