‘Jeju Go’ Dan Go “Thank you to the residents who hung up a banner congratulating me on my election”

“Hello,” began his winning speech in Korean… “Thank you” in Korean

“Korean culture, an axis of American culture… My role is to continue this momentum in the political field.”

“My child’s white friend also likes ‘Kedehun’… something my father never dreamed of when he was young.”

(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Na-ri Baek = "I would like to say this very clearly to the people of Jeju Island. Thank you for hanging the congratulatory banner. It meant the most to me."

Dan Ko (41, Korean name Ko Won-young), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, met with Korean correspondents at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on the 11th (local time) and said this. ‘Thank you’ was said in Korean.

He expressed his deep gratitude to Jeju residents for putting up a banner congratulating him on winning a seat in the House of Representatives in Massachusetts' 6th Congressional District.

President-elect Go is the ‘Jeju Go clan’. He was born to a Lebanese mother and his father, Howard Goh (Go Kyung-ju), a Harvard University professor who served as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Barack Obama administration.

On this day, President-elect Koh held a press conference with the newly elected Asians who entered the Federal Assembly after winning the midterm election, and began his remarks by saying "Hello" in Korean.

He was thrilled to say that decades ago, his grandparents and maternal grandparents dreamed of a better life in Jeju Island and Lebanon and eventually immigrated to the United States to realize the 'American Dream.' Less than two generations later, he became the first Arab and Asian member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

When he heard the news of his election, his 96-year-old grandmother congratulated him even though it was late at night. “It must have been extremely overwhelming to see my grandson represent the people in Congress after deciding to come to the United States 70 years ago,” he said. “I can’t even imagine what my grandfather (who passed away) would have said if he had seen this.”

President-elect Goh said he would like to visit Korea after taking office as a member of the House of Representatives early next year. He said he really wanted to take his children, now six and three years old, to Korea.

He laughed and said that although the flight was long, it would be okay as long as he played the children's favorite song, 'K-Pop Demon Hunters' on the iPad.

President-elect Goh said, "It's not that my child likes Kadehun because he's Korean. My white friends do, too," and listed the movies 'Old Boy' and 'Parasite' and the Netflix series 'Squid Game'.

He added, “All of this has become an important axis of American culture, and it is something that my father, who is in his 70s, could not have dreamed of when he was young,” adding, “It is my role to continue this momentum in the political field.”

President-elect Koh is a member of the Democratic Party. He served as chief of staff to the mayor of Boston, served as a White House staff member in the Joe Biden administration, and successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives again for the first time in eight years in this midterm election.