Dan Koh’s election to US Congress celebrated by ancestral Koh clan in Jeju

News that Democrat Dan Koh, 41, won a seat in the US House of Representatives in the midterm elections has led to jubilation on Jeju Island, his grandfather’s birthplace.

 Koh Tae-sik, the president of the senior citizens’ association in Hagwi-1 Village, Aewol Township, Jeju City, told the Hankyoreh on Wednesday that he is a distant relative of Koh’s grandfather.

 “I’m a third cousin of his grandfather, and everyone in that family is brilliant,” he said. “It’s an honor for our family — as well as our village and all of Jeju.”

 Koh Tae-sik said the entire village was celebrating Koh’s victory and that residents were preparing to put up a congratulatory banner.

 Koh Tae-yong, the secretary-general of an association for the Yeonggokgong branch of the Jeju Koh clan, was equally delighted.

 “There are around 700,000 members of the Jeju Koh clan in Korea and abroad. I see this as an occasion to celebrate not just for our clan or the Yeonggokgong branch, but for the entire nation,” he said. “I’m deeply moved and grateful.”

 Dan Koh was declared the winner of the race for Massachusetts’ 6th congressional district on Tuesday night, becoming the seventh Korean American elected to Congress. His victory makes him the first Asian American elected to Congress from Massachusetts, following an unsuccessful run for a House seat in 2018.

Koh’s grandfather, Kwang Lim Koh, born in Hagwi-1 Village of Aewol Township, was the first Korean to earn both a master’s degree and a doctorate from Harvard Law School.

In 1960, the elder Koh served as minister and acting ambassador at the Korean Embassy in Washington under Prime Minister Chang Myon. Following the military coup on May 16, 1961, he taught political science at American universities.

 The congressman-elect’s father, Howard Koh (Koh Kyong-ju), served as assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama. His uncle Harold Koh (Koh Hong-ju), a former dean of Yale Law School, also served in the Obama administration as legal adviser to the US State Department, a position with the rank of undersecretary.

Dan Koh, whose mother is of Lebanese descent, graduated from Harvard Business School and has worked in the federal government.

 In 2013, he visited his grandfather’s hometown on Jeju Island, where he met with Woo Keun-min, then governor of the island.