In this episode of The Perez Notes, I sit down with Julie Won, New York City Council Member for District 26, as she makes the leap to Congress in a race to succeed Nydia Velázquez.

Julie Won is a trailblazer in New York City politics—the first woman and first immigrant to represent District 26, and the first Korean-American Council Member in the city’s history. A mother of two young children and a caregiver to her aging parents, Julie brings a deeply personal understanding of the realities facing multigenerational families across our city—and she’s built her career fighting to make government work better for them.

After immigrating from South Korea at age eight following the 1997 financial crisis, Julie’s family rebuilt their lives in New York. Her mother, once a culinary professor, worked as a nail technician; her father worked in local small businesses. A proud product of New York public schools and a graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, Julie later spent a decade at IBM advising the federal government on technology modernization. In 2021, she took on a crowded 15-candidate primary and won—running to confront the inequities COVID-19 laid bare.

We talk about her journey, her record, and what’s driving her run for Congress—and what kind of representation she believes New York needs next.

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