About Dave

My name is Dave Min, and it is my honor to serve Orange County in Congress.

Since January 2025, I have proudly represented California’s 47th Congressional District and I am now running for my second term. With the passage of Prop 50, California’s 47th Congressional District includes the cities of Irvine, Laguna Beach, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forrest, and Tustin as well as parts of Newport Beach and Mission Viejo.   

Prior to coming to Congress, I served as a State Senator and worked tirelessly to advance our communities’ priorities in Sacramento. We ended gun shows at the Orange County Fairgrounds, secured $2.1 billion for COVID-19 relief grants for small businesses, and made California the first state in the nation to recognize reproductive coercion as a form of domestic violence. We also took aggressive action to address our climate crisis — bringing back nearly $80 million in direct funding to Orange County for key district priorities related to wildfire prevention, outdoor space preservation, and green innovation, as well as hundreds of millions more in indirect funding for small businesses and unemployed workers. 

I ran for Congress because, as a first-generation, Korean American, I want my kids to grow up in the same California that attracted my parents and so many immigrants like them to come plant roots here—where everyone has a fair shot at the American Dream, where women have autonomy over their own bodies, we prioritize our environment and the safety of our children, and where we maintain the spirit of openness and innovation that makes America so special. 

I learned the importance of hard work, education and economic opportunity from my parents. They came to this country from Korea in 1971 for their graduate studies, and ended up settling down in California to raise my younger brother and me. My mom and dad grew up in the aftermath of the Korean War, and like most Koreans from that era, respected and admired the 36,000 American GI’s who had given their lives to help protect and then rebuild South Korea. Like many Koreans from that era, my dad still has an occasional (OK, frequent) hankering for Spam, which was given out by Americans to struggling Korean families in the aftermath of the war. 

Their story – which is like that of so many Orange County families – is a constant inspiration to me, especially with the American Dream under attack by President Donald Trump. In Congress, I chose to serve on the House Oversight Committee and the Joint Economic Committee, to help push back on this administration’s reckless agenda, which threatens many of our shared values here in Orange County. As a former professor at UC Irvine School of Law and having cracked down on corporate greed as an enforcement attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, upholding the rule of law has become central to my time in Congress. 

In Congress, I immediately took action to stand up to Donald Trump and MAGA extremists like Elon Musk. I introduced legislation to crack down on Elon Musk’s government overreach and put forth a bill to empower the American public to fight back against Donald Trump’s lawlessness. On the House Oversight Committee, I’ve been a leading voice to hold this administration to account, pushing back on the nonstop chaos and cruelty that’s been a hallmark of Donald Trump’s second term. I also serve on the House Natural Resource Committee, where I’ve continued my work to make Southern California more resilient to wildfires and to protect our pristine coastline, and I’ve already introduced three bipartisan bills to do just that. Stopping offshore drilling and protecting our communities from wildfires shouldn’t be partisan issues and I’m working with Democrats and Republicans to find common ground. I always work to make certain that Orange County has a voice in Washington.

When not in Washington, I enjoy spending time with my wife Jane, the most amazing woman I know, who I met while attending Harvard Law School. Jane teaches Family Law and runs the Domestic Violence Clinic, also at UCI Law. She is the founder and director of UC Irvine’s Initiative to End Family Violence, a signature initiative of the university working to find better solutions to the terrible and unfortunately all too common problem of domestic abuse and violence. She’s been a thought leader in her field, and with her partnership while I was in the State Senate, we were able to pass 8 leading bills to protect survivors of domestic violence.

We are grateful to be raising our three young children in Irvine. We love Orange County’s vibrance, diversity, and neighborliness, and of course the weather is amazing. To Jane and me, this district represents the very best of California – and America.

Jane Stoever is the founder and director of UC Irvine’s Initiative to End Family Violence.

My name is Jane Stoever, and Dave is my wonderful husband. I grew up in a family committed to peace and justice.

My mom had been a nun for 11 years and was a teacher, and she eventually left the sisters in hopes of having a family. She met my father while she was working for United Farmworkers and he was teaching courses on nonviolence. Mom is joy and generosity, building community wherever she goes, and like my dad, a strong voice for peace and justice. When I was a child, my father opened a small law office in an inner-city part of Kansas City to be a community lawyer, providing legal help to those in need. Our family spent weekends at two homeless shelters (where my sister Anneliese and I were later live-in staff members), and at vigils and rallies in between my debate and speech tournaments. Anneliese and I were inspired by our parents’ work, how they lived their values, and how they were partners to each other.

I dreamed of one day becoming a lawyer or teacher, continuing in my parents’ path of working for peace and justice, and having a family of my own. During college, I co-founded the organization Working Against Violence Everywhere, worked at a shelter for teenage girls and at a shelter for homeless families, interned at the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, DC, and was the president of my university’s Commission on the Status of Women. My parents and I still remember the day I received news of my admission to Harvard Law School. I recently returned to campus to present my research, and had wonderful memories of being a student attorney in the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, making close friends while learning the law, and meeting my husband in our Family Law class. 

Since Dave and I met, we’ve been journeying together, building careers in public service, and creating our family. Theodore (“Teddy”)  loves soccer, chess, piano, and violin; Emerson (“Emmy”)plays piano, dances, and makes slime; and Paxton loves his family, superheroes, and friends. With Dave in the California State Senate, I continue to be a professor at UC Irvine School of Law, where I teach Family Law, represent abuse survivors through the UCI Law Domestic Violence Clinic, and direct the Initiative to End Family Violence. Our concern for the world we want for our children is what propelled Dave to run for public office, and Dave and I have been partners in each of his campaigns, along with so many amazing community members.

Growing up in Kansas City, I saw how my parents advocated for what was right, not necessarily what was popular or easy. Dave and I are teaching our kids to stand up for what they believe in and to be positive forces for change. Teddy, Emmy, Paxton, and I are so proud of Dave for his work to represent our district and better the world, and we hope you join us.