Sandra Ung (, born September 13, 1974) is a Cambodian-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

attorney and politician from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She is a member of the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

for the 20th district, which is based in

Flushing Flushing may refer to: Places * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom * Flushing, Queens, New York City ** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens ** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens ** Flushing ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

Early life and education

Ung was born in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

to ethnically

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

parents. Her family fled to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

soon after she was born to escape the

Cambodian genocide The Cambodian genocide ( km, របបប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍នៅកម្ពុជា) was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party of Kampuchea genera ...

, and immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

when Ung was seven years old. After growing up in

, Ung attended

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

for her undergraduate degree, and went on to receive her JD from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 2001.

Career

Prior to seeking elected office, Ung held a number of jobs in and around New York politics, among them

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

to Assemblyman (and father to

Grace Meng Grace Meng (born October 1, 1975) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 6th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, her district is in the New York City borough of Q ...

)

Jimmy Meng Jimmy Kuang Zui Meng (, born 1944) is a Chinese-Taiwanese American former politician, who served as a member of the New York State Assembly. A Democrat, Meng represented the 22nd Assembly District in Flushing, Queens from 2005 to 2006. He is the ...

, legislative assistant to City Comptrollers Bill Thompson and

John Liu John Chun Yah Liu (born January 8, 1967) is an American politician in New York City. A member of the Democratic Party, he is a member of the New York State Senate for the 11th district in northeast Queens. He previously served as the 43rd New Yo ...

, and most recently special assistant to Congresswoman Meng. She has also worked as a practicing attorney at the firm

Dorsey & Whitney Dorsey & Whitney LLP (known as Dorsey) is an American law firm with over 500 lawyers, and a similar number of staff, located in 21 offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. The firm's headquarters is in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where ...

2021 City Council campaign

In July 2020, Ung announced she would run as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

for the 20th district of the

, held by term-limited incumbent

Peter Koo Peter Ah-Ming Koo (born September 5, 1952) is a Chinese American politician who represented the 20th district of the New York City Council from 2010 to 2021. He is a Democrat. The district includes portions of Bayside, College Point, Flushing ...

, in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

. She received influential endorsements from the Queens Democratic Party and Congresswoman Meng, and was among the top fundraisers in City Council races across the city, cementing her as the race's frontrunner. In an effort to overcome Ung's advantages, seven of her opponents in the race formed a coalition together in May 2021, with each candidate encouraging their voters to rank other non-Ung candidates on their ranked-choice ballots. The seven ran on significantly different platforms–among them were John Choe, the race's most left-wing candidate, and Neng Wang, its most conservative–but argued that they were united against the Queens Democratic Party's influence. Ung nevertheless emerged with a lead on election night in June, receiving 24 percent of first-choice votes. When

absentee ballot An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online votin ...

s and ranked-choice votes were counted two weeks later, she defeated former Assemblywoman Ellen Young 55-45%; she formally declared victory on July 7. Ung easily won the November

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

in the strongly Democratic district.

Personal life

Ung lives in

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ung, Sandra Living people 1974 births Politicians from Queens, New York Hunter College alumni Columbia Law School alumni New York (state) Democrats American people of Cambodian descent American politicians of Chinese descent American women of Chinese descent in politics Cambodian emigrants to the United States Taiwanese emigrants to the United States Asian-American people in New York (state) politics 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American politicians Women New York City Council members New York City Council members