Alex Lee (politician)

Alex Tinming Lee was born in San Jose, California to immigrant parents from Hong Kong.[2][3][4] His father is an engineer,[3] and his mother is a nurse.[5] After his parents divorced, Alex Lee lived alternately with his father in Milpitas and his mother in North San Jose.[6] He graduated from Milpitas High School in 2013, then became interested in filmmaking, and eventually decided to pursue a dual degree in political science and communications at University of California, Davis.[7] Lee ran for a seat on the student senate at UC Davis in 2014 and served as student body president in 2016.[8]

While attending college, Lee was an intern for several politicians including Mike Honda, Ed Chau, Evan Low, Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, and Kansen Chu.[9] He began working for Henry Stern as a full time legislative aide upon graduating from UC Davis in 2017 and leaving Low's office.[6] Lee began campaigning for California's 25th State Assembly district in June 2019,[10] a seat left open by Chu.[11] Prior to running for office, Lee delivered food, and lived with his mother due to the high cost of living in his district.[12][13]

In March 2020, Lee finished second in a field of nine candidates in the non-partisan primary election by splitting the vote with seven other members of the Democratic Party.[14][15] He was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.[16][17] In the general election, Lee easily defeated the Republican Party candidate who had finished ahead of him in the primary, Bob Brunton.[14] Upon taking his seat in the California State Assembly on December 7, 2020,[9][6] Lee became the body's youngest member and the first born in the 1990s, as well as its youngest Asian-American member and its first openly bisexual member.[9]

On his first day in office, Lee introduced a bill that would ban corporate donations to political candidates.[18]