Ron Kim ^Leaders

With his election in November 2012, Ron Kim became the first Korean-American ever elected to the New York State Legislature. As the only child to immigrant parents who ran a small grocery store, Ron saw first hand how difficult it is to be an immigrant and a small business owner in New York.

In Setepmber 2018, Ron became the first elected official in New York to stand against the expansion of Amazon into NYC, citing their extractive and exploitative practices that have ruined local economies. He followed with a series of op-eds in the NY Times, The Guardian, Daily News, Queens Tribune, and Queens Chronicle detailing why we should not subsidize Amazon's growth and made international news for introducing the nation's first legislation to end corporate welfare and invest that money into canceling student debt.

In his first three terms, Ron also led the way in sponsoring and passing legislation that expanded microloans for small businesses and protected mom and pops from unfair regulations. Currently, he is working on a new initiative called The Inclusive Value Ledger, the nation’s first public payment system that will turn NY’s $55 plus billion individual tax credits and social benefits into multipliable money, designed to capture unvalued work in our local economies.

During COVID, Ron made global news by exposing the former governor’s deadly policies that led to more deaths in long-term care facilities. Since then, Ron has focused on strengthening the rights of care workers and nursing home residents.

Raised in Flushing, Queens, Ron graduated from the Riverdale Country Day School in 1997, earned his B.A. from Hamilton College, and a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College. Ron resides in Flushing with his wife, Alison Tan and three beautiful daughters.

Ron is also a former college football player at Hamilton College and a 2004 Bench Press Champion in Queens County.