FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KOREAN AMERICANS CONTRIBUTE MORE THAN $200 MILLION TO FEDERAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEES ACCORDING TO UPDATED STUDY BY THE CENTER FOR CIVIC CULTURE STUDIES

Contacts: 

Sam Choi, Communications Liaison 

Annie Woo, Assistant

info@civiccentral.org

703-677-8230 (Office Voicemail)

Mclean, Virginia, October 25, 2022 -- Korean Amerians made federal campaign contributions totaling over $200 million to federal campaign committees and candidates since the U.S. Federal Election Commission (“FEC”)  started keeping digital records in its database starting in 1993. According to a new and updated study by the Center for Civic Culture Studies, a nonprofit research group based in Virginia, Korean Americans on average contributed $222 through 801,058 transactions, twice the average U.S. contribution of less than $100.  

The study relied on peer-reviewed research by Diane Lauderdale of the University of Chicago and Bert Kestenbaum of the Office of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration who created an unconditional Korean surname list for application to datasets without race information.  Using the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Master Beneficiary Record (MBR) of those entitled to social security benefits or enrolled in Medicare to derive ethnic Korean surname lists, that list was further refined and validated against a sample file of the 2000 US Census.  The 2022 Report and the original 2000 Report can be accessed at www.civiccentral.org. Validated surname lists were also created for Indian Americans, Chinese Americans, Vietnamese Americans and Filipino Americans are currently subjects for future research.

“Together with voting, making a campaign contribution is as American as apple pie, and one of the great, even if controversial, American traditions of exercising one’s freedom to participate in our American democracy,”

said Sean Woo, President of CCCS.

Senior Advisor to CCCS said, “In less than three weeks on November 8, 2022, Americans all across the country and overseas in U.S. military bases will be voting in yet another consequential midterm as the country prepares for the presidential elections in 2024.  We hope that this report will also move Asians tovote and make a difference not just with their money but also at the voting booth, “ 

Future reports will include similar studies of Asian Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans and other Asian American groups.  Together with Chinese and Filipino Americans, these origin groups make up 85% of Asian Americans.  According to a Pew Research Center study, Asian Americans recorded the fastest population growth rate among all racial and ethnic groups in the United States between 2000 and 2019. By 2065, the number of U.S. Asians are projected to rise to 35.8 million, more than triple their 2000 population, and projected to surpass Hispanics as the largest minority in America.  

The Center for Civic Culture Studies is a private nonpartisan independent research organization dedicated to the study of the norms and networks of civic and political engagement among and within a variety of civic groups in the United States.  Subjects currently under research include campaign finance and elections, healthcare, education, and emerging technologies.