For a city with the country’s second-largest Asian American population, L.A. has gone for long spells without a single Asian American on its city council.
In 1985, Michael Woo became the first Asian American elected to the council and was the only one in city history until 2015, when David Ryu won a seat.
In the decade since, the number of Asian Americans on the 15-member council has steadily grown to three: Kevin de León, Nithya Raman and John Lee.
Their political ideologies and approaches vary widely, underscoring what community advocates have been shouting from the rafters for forever: the Asian American Pacific Islander community is not monolithic.
In November, voters could add a record fourth Asian American council member to the mix.
The latest primary vote tallies that dropped late Friday afternoon show three Asian American candidates on track to head to the runoffs.
Lawyer and community leader Grace Yoo is on course to challenge council member Heather Hutt in the centrally-located Council District 10 encompassing Koreatown, Mid-City and West Adams. Yoo, who's running in second place to Hutt in the primary, would, if elected, be the first Korean American woman on the council.
Another run-off is happening in the 14th District in northeast L.A., which will continue to have a council member of Asian descent no matter what; the question is who.
Embattled council member de León is expected to square off with tenant rights lawyer Ysabel Jurado in a district that includes Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock and a big chunk of downtown.
Jurado, the primary’s top vote-getter so far, could become the city’s first council member of Filipino descent if she were to defeat de León, who identifies as Latino and Asian American. His campaign said de León has Chinese ancestry on his paternal side.
The winners will join Raman and Lee around the council dais. Those council members won re-election to their seats outright in the primary by each getting more than 50% of the vote.
According to numbers provided by the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's Office, 2,844 ballots remain to be counted countywide.
A milestone, both symbolic and significant
The growing presence of Asian Americans on the city council is part of a trend in L.A. where more candidates of color are emerging — and winning, said UCLA political scientist Natalie Masuoka. Notably, in 2022, city controller Kenneth Mejia became the first Asian American elected to citywide office.
This generation of Asian American politicians are the children of immigrants who arrived in the U.S. after immigration laws were liberalized in 1965.
As immigrant communities have become more settled and larger, Masuoka said, they've also become "more invested in politics, because they really have the time and space and an opportunity to do so."
That evolution, she said, is reflected in the increased Asian American representation on the council.
But what does this demographic shift mean for city politics?
For Woo, the milestone is in many ways symbolic as he said most council business doesn’t typically divide on ethnic lines, let alone ideological ones, with much of members’ time devoted to the grind of budgeting and allocating money for city services.
And just because a politician comes from the same background as underrepresented constituents doesn’t mean they’ll vote or speak out on issues that reflect the needs of their community, Woo said.
A survey showed Asian American Angelenos have found political representation wanting, even with a growing number of Asian American council members.
Just 46% of the Asian American respondents said they feel represented well at City Hall, which was the lowest percentage of any racial group by double digits, according to the survey released Dec. 2022 by the Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment, a voter education group.
Woo questioned whether Asian American voters are keeping track of the changing demographics of the council or just paying attention to who represents them. But for some, it could be powerful to see someone from the community guide the city, Woo said.
“It shows there's somebody who's in a leadership position, who looks like me, and maybe this means I could be there [in City Hall] or my kids someday could aspire to be,” Woo added. “Also, just putting the hours into being visible in a community is one way to give people who otherwise feel excluded or irrelevant to the political class some connection.”
In the past, council members have elevated issues relevant to Asian Americans.
Woo recalls that during his time on the council he called for the police department to make more Asian American hires to reflect the city's population. As a result, the department put more resources into advertising and outreach in Asian American communities.
“Without somebody on the council to bring this up, these things tend to get ignored,” Woo said.
During the surge in anti-Asian violence during the pandemic, then-council member Ryu sponsored a resolution supporting a federal bill targeting hate crimes. He also raised topics important to Korean Americans, such as commemorating the anniversary of Korea’s independence in a speech in council chambers.
In 2022, Lee and Raman joined then-Mayor Eric Garcetti in proclaiming May 3 as Asian American Pacific Islander L.A. Day.
The proclamation of the holiday was a rare instance of Lee and Raman joining forces. The Asian Americans on the council do not vote as a bloc when it comes to topline issues such as police funding or homelessness.
Case in point: Raman, who is part of a newer, progressive flank of the council, has harshly criticized a controversial city ordinance that bans homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools, parks and daycare centers.
By contrast, Lee, an independent and only non-Democrat on the council, has taken an aggressive approach to the encampments in his Valley council district. The 12th District saw the most arrests made last year under the anti-camping ordinance.
The council members “really represent such a diversity from AAPI communities,” said Nancy Yap, the executive director of the Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment.
"For a long time, our Asian American and Pacific Islander community has been seen as one monolith," Yap said. "Just how these two council members carry themselves is already very different from one another."
Yap sees the same political diversity in the Asian American candidates headed to runoffs in November.
While research has shown that Asian Americans strongly support candidates who share their background, Yap said there’s also recognition that effective representation can come from outside the community.
“Sometimes we can relate to folks who are from our community who know us really well,” Yap said. “But it is about who we believe will advocate for us the best.”
If Asian Americans have enough numbers where they could make the margin of difference in a close race. But for the best chance of getting their top choice into office, they will need to vote in coalition with other groups to get their top choice into office, according to a study co-authored by UCLA's Masuoka and Nathan Chan, a political scientist at Loyola Marymount. She said because of the way districts are drawn, Asian American voters do not have a majority or plurality anywhere in the city.
There's long been talk of redrawing district lines so Asian hubs such as Thai Town and Historic Filipinotown can be grouped together to help consolidate Asian American voting power.
Woo noted that redistricting is the rare order of council business where ethnic solidarity comes into play. And it's an occasion in which Asian American council members working together could hold sway as they pick the commissioners who rearrange the voting maps every decade.
