March Fong Eu

March Kong Fong Eu (Chinese: 余江月桂; Mandarin Pinyin: Yú Jiāng Yuèguì; Jyutping: Jyu4 Gong1 Jyut6 Gwai3; born March 29, 1922) is an American politician of the Democratic Party.

Fong earned a Bachelor of Science in dentistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1943 and a Master of Arts from Mills College. She earned a Ed.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 1954.

In 1966, Fong was elected to the California State Assembly from the 15th District, representing Oakland and Castro Valley. She served four terms. Fong Eu led the campaign to ban pay toilets, arguing that they discriminated against women since urinals were free. Eu was elected Secretary of State of California in 1974, becoming the first Asian American woman ever elected to a state constitutional office in the United States. Eu was the only woman to serve as California Secretary of State until 2006, when voters elected Debra Bowen. Eu was elected Secretary of State five times. In 1978, she won every county in the state, even heavily Republican Orange County, making her one of only four Democrats to win the county in a statewide race in the last half century.

In 1987 Eu was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, running against Leo McCarthy for the right to challenge the Republican incumbent, Pete Wilson. Amid poor fund-raising totals and her husband's unwillingness to release details of his business interests, Eu dropped out later that year.,^[1]

President Bill Clinton appointed Eu as United States Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia in 1994. She served in that post until 1996.

In 2002, Fong ran again for Secretary of State, but narrowly lost in the Democratic primary to Kevin Shelley, who went on to win the election. In 2003, she filed a statement of intention to run for governor of California in the gubernatorial recall election of Gray Davis, but later withdrew.

Fong is a Democrat, while her adopted son, Matt Fong was a Republican activist who served as California State Treasurer for a four year term that began January 1995.

Eu lives in both Sacramento and Singapore; she lives with her second husband Henry Eu, a multimillionaire industrialist.

References

External links

• March K. Fong Eu political history