Grace Gary has lived in Georgia and New York before coming to China. She is currently registered to vote in Gwinnett County, Georgia (named for Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Button Gwinnett, who died from wounds received in a duel with Lachlan McIntosh, a Continental general, whose brother Gwinnett had arrested.

Her interest in politics began while she was living in New York in 2015. “You see a lot of injustice and anger living there, and the Trump campaign didn’t help. I got involved with DA in 2016, when I wanted to vote in my first presidential election.”

She is most interested in spreading accurate information through awareness posts, and providing voters what they need to get their ballots and check on its status.

Grace is an English tutor and college student working towards her forensic psychology degree.

“If you were President for a day, what would you do on Day One?” I asked.

“Not even sure if all of this is legal, but… I’d remove the Andrew Jackson portrait from the Oval Office, then issue executive orders to ending our inhumane and disease-ridden immigration detention camps. Some heads would roll for the dead/missing Latinx children. I would stop NASA from trying to desecrate a sacred place in Hawaii; get Flint clean water; and seek justice for however many people were responsible for the water crisis.”

She knows that getting people the required documents they need in order to get an ID or apply for an absentee ballot will be half the battle as we head towards January 1, 2020, when all voters abroad must re-register for an absentee ballot. She wants to fighting the corruption that has led to many Black people and many Georgians of every race and creed to carry birth certificates, Social Security cards, or other forms of picture I.D. She believes that it is voter suppression to have their rights called into question and for them to be denied a ballot if they lack a state-issued identification card. Additionally, Gwinnett County has reportedly thrown out thousands of ballots during election time, so preparing voters to continuously check their status through emails and calling will be a part of informing Democrats about whether there vote was counted.

For Grace, if an event or meeting is set-up in a familiar place with good food and drink then she knows everyone will be relaxed, and simultaneously productive and enjoying themselves! She leaves each DA meeting full of positivity & hope, and good food!

Why do you attend DA events? Let us know…

DA China takes a moment each month to highlight members of our community and board.

Kimberly “Kim” Wong has lived in New Jersey and New York, Japan and China. She is registered to vote in New Jersey. 

While she had never been heavily involved with politics in the US, she cared about large-scale positive systemic change, and being an active contributing member of society. 

“I like to get it DONE,” she says.

She got involved with DA as a volunteer around the time of the Women’s March when she hosted Democrats Abroad at Sproutworks, a restaurant where she was involved. She also tapped her friend Elaine Chow (our current Comms Director) to get a video from Krista Suh (creator of the Pussyhat) to help promote voter registration. 

“We got 100 registrants that day and I knew I could probably do more!”

“I care about electing Democrats, and want to do as much preparation as possible leading up to 2020,” she told me. She also cares deeply about Health and Education and has done extensive work for Food Heroes, a non-profit that aims to teach children about healthy eating.

Kim just launched her first clothing line under her brand cukimber. It’s colorful fresh and fun. She taught herself how to make compositions from paintings, and then create them into products — not just clothing, but accessories and home-ware. She designs for other brands, too.

If Kim were President for a day, what would she do? She said, with a smile, “Reunite kids with the parents. Welcome people into the country! Reduce emissions, gun control, pass ERA…all of it. A girl can dream, right?”

Anything that stops Democrats from voting is in Kim’s way.

Look out! Each state has different rules and it’s a little complicated, but she has become one of our old hands at registering people to vote and going the next step: making sure they secure and return their secret absentee ballot. 

"Thank goodness that we are going to have tons of Get Out The Vote volunteers!” she said and reminded me that we need to re-register to vote from abroad every year: “You better know what you’re going to be doing on January 1, 2020! The earlier the better.”

It’s hard to know what to do with all the news and crises everyday and it gets truly frustrating to see headline after headline that induces panic and fear. Being part of DA gives Kim and many others some peace of mind, to know that we can contribute proactively to get people onto the Blue Wave, and actually surf towards better solutions.