Meet Dave & Jane
Our Senator Dave Min is committed to building an economy and community that uplifts every Orange County family.
My name is Dave Min, and it is my honor to serve Orange County in the California State Senate.
Over the past three years, we have been able to build a better Orange County by ending gun shows at the Orange County Fairgrounds, appropriating $2.1 billion for COVID-19 relief grants for small businesses, and making California the first state in the nation to recognize reproductive coercion as a form of domestic violence. We have also taken 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’m running 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 we prioritize our environment and the education and 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, they had an incredibly positive view of Americans, who came from so far away to give their blood, their sweat, and even 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 American GIs to struggling Korean families in the aftermath of the war.
Before returning to the Golden State to work as a business law professor at UC Irvine School of Law, I served as an enforcement attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, economic and financial policy advisor to Senator Chuck Schumer, and economic policy director at the Center for American Progress.
I met my wife Jane, who is the most amazing woman I know, while attending Harvard Law School. Jane teaches Family Law and runs the Domestic Violence Clinic also at UCI Law. She is also 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, we’ve been 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”) is 12 and loves soccer, chess, piano, and violin; Emerson (“Emmy”) is 10 and plays piano, dances, and makes slime; and Paxton, age 7, 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 State Senate, and Dave and I have been partners in the campaign, 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 the incredible campaign Dave is running to represent our district and better the world, and we hope you join us.
This campaign is people-powered. Dave doesn’t take a dime from corporate PACs—he’s counting on grassroots supporters like you.