9/24/2023 0 Comments Yumi kim![]() ![]() Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer takes on Trump as coronavirus cases rise.Analysis: The surprising rise of Andrew Cuomo.How Governors Have Responded to the Coronavirus Crisis When she moved with her husband into the governor’s mansion, much was made in the press about her special kimchi refrigerator, which she has used many times, cooking meals for guests and events. Yumi Hogan served as a helpful campaigner, and when her husband won, she became the first Asian American first lady in Maryland and the first Korean American first lady in any state in America’s history. Though politically passionate, Hogan wasn’t a much of a career politician, which made his victory after a grueling 2014 governor’s race something of a surprise. When she met Hogan, he was not only a confirmed bachelor but also a wealthy businessman with his own real estate development company. She had three daughters before divorcing and moving with the girls to Maryland, in search of a strong school district and a place to practice her art and teach. She was young when she married her first husband, and the two moved to America. The stately, brick Maryland governor’s mansion in Annapolis is a long way from Jeonnam, Korea, the rural countryside where then-Yumi Kim spent her childhood, one of eight children, on her parents’ chicken farm. But she sat there politely and silently,” Hogan wrote. Yumi was sitting there as the President hurled insults at her birthplace. “The South Koreans were ‘terrible people,’ he (Trump) said, and he didn’t know why the United States had been protecting them all these years. In the op-ed, Hogan outlined a speech from Trump at a private governors retreat dinner in early February that he called “jarring.” She is proud of her South Korean heritage, and, Larry Hogan wrote in the Washington Post op-ed, he was deeply honored himself when South Korean President Moon Jae-in referred to him as “the son-in-law of the Korean people.” They married in 2004, in a ceremony that included traditional Korean elements. Her art is actually how she met Hogan, 20 years ago, at an art show, where he was more interested in the artist than her work. She is an artist, an abstract painter whose work is typically centered on nature and is done on hanji, paper made from native Korean trees. However, Yumi Hogan is not a professional diplomat, or a politician or someone proficient in the intricacies of scientific approvals needed by numerous government agencies for the test kits to be used in the United States – all of which were secured. “She truly is a champion of Operation Enduring Friendship,” said Hogan. Hogan dubbed the test kit mission “Operation Enduring Friendship,” relying heavily on the bond he and his wife had established with South Korean Ambassador to the US Lee Soo Hyuk. “The administration made it clear over and over again they want the states to take the lead, and we have to go out and do it ourselves, and that’s exactly what we did,” Hogan said at an April 20 news conference, his wife in a pink coat, silk scarf tied around her shoulders and a blue face mask, standing to the side of the podium. Hogan described that moment, writing: ” ‘Congratulations, honey,’ I told Yumi as the pilot turned off the engines. Inside were enough test kits from Korea’s LabGenomics for Maryland to perform 500,000 tests. On April 18, both Hogans were on the tarmac at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, greeting a chartered 777 Korean Air plane with no passengers aboard. “We convened countless calls, nearly every night, sometimes it seemed like all night,” said Hogan of the 22 days he and the first lady worked in conjunction with the Korean government to land the mother lode of hard-to-come-by coronavirus test kits. She not only used her native language to help secure the tests but also helped negotiate the deal. Maryland’s first lady was born in South Korea and became a US citizen in 1994. His wife, he wrote, was “almost a celebrity” in South Korea, and “made a personal plea in Korean” on a call with her husband and South Korean Ambassador to the US Lee Soo Hyuk in late March, setting in motion an unprecedented effort to provide Maryland with desperately needed testing supplies. GOP governor chronicles efforts to secure testing supplies as he slams Trump's 'hopeless' Covid-19 response Larry Hogan announces he will lift an order that closed non-essential businesses during a news conference in Annapolis, Maryland, Brian Witte/AP ![]()
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