Yee Leng Xiong was a shy, introverted high schooler. He was always interested in politics, but he never thought he could one day join the ranks. Born in the city of Wausau and raised in the village of Weston to two refugee parents, he never thought of himself as a leader, or someone who could be a voice for the voiceless.
Until one day, sitting in AP government class at DC Everest High School, his teacher said something along the lines of, “Any of you can run for office. Even you can.”
“When he said that, he pointed to me and I was thinking to myself, ‘A child of refugees whose parents came from Southeast Asia, run[ning] for office?’ Xiong recalled. “‘Is that even possible? Can someone who’s young even run and win?’”
This moment of hopeful possibility ignited a fire that was in Xiong all along. In 2014, at age 19, he secured a position as a School Board Member to be a voice for teachers and students. In 2016, he ran and won a seat on the Marathon County Board of Supervisors, a position he used to advocate for first responder resources, mental health services, and transportation services.
Since 2016, he’s also been the executive director of the Hmong American Center, which provides a wide range of services—for the elderly and individuals with disabilities, advocacy for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking, and more—and “works to dismantle barriers for Southeast Asian community members.”
One could say that this impressive roster of civil service and nonprofit leadership has shaped him for his biggest office run yet: A seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Because of the redrawing of Wisconsin’s political maps that was signed into legislation in February of this year, the state’s 85th District, which has historically been a Republican stronghold, has become a complete toss-up.
“The reason why I decided to run was because I saw how Madison’s let us down [and] how my opponent has chosen to tackle many of the issues,” Xiong said of Assembly incumbent Pat Snyder and the past few years’ relatively unproductive legislature.
His campaign is set to change that.
A family history of resistance
Though Xiong has forged a personal history of advocacy in his home state of Wisconsin, his family’s story of resistance and sacrifice began even before he was born. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Xiong’s parents made the decision to flee political persecution and seek safety in America.
Traversing through the jungles of Laos surviving off of roots and mud water, Xiong’s parents were able to escape to Thailand, where they lived in a refugee camp for a few years. When they finally came to the United States, their first jobs were in worms farming in Wausau’s Marathon County Park.
Xiong’s mother would later go on to work as a seamstress, while his father began working on a local ginseng farm. It was there that Xiong’s father joined a union, and Xiong witnessed the working class’ labor struggles firsthand.
“One day when my father came back home from work, he was wearing a poncho, and it was drenched wet, and he was carrying a sign,” Xiong recalled. A young Xiong asked his father what he was doing, and his father explained that he was protesting alongside his coworkers for better wages and working conditions.
“Here’s the interesting thing: He couldn’t speak English, yet he was out there making his voice heard,” Xiong said. “And despite the fact that we grew up lower middle class, [my parents] told us that even if we had nothing, we needed to be able to still give back to our communities.”
A commitment to the people
Whether on the school board or as the executive director of the Hmong American Center, Xiong has kept a commitment to the people at the heart of his work. This has often meant making sure that organizations and government entities have the financial ability to support community needs.
“[Coming] from the working class, we were always taught to be as frugal as possible,” Xiong explained. “We stretch every dollar we can,” he said, citing county board bid decisions, being creative with school resources, and even successfully lowering taxes.
“We want to make sure that working-class folks like us are able to live,” he said.
Beyond fiscal responsibility, Xiong is also passionate about ensuring that working-class Wisconsinites “have a voice at the table.”
“The 85th is the heart of Wisconsin,” Xiong said, boasting of its varied industries, diverse communities, strong education, and growing population of new refugees. “The vast majority of the people here are middle-class Americans who are just chasing the American dream.
A way forward
Despite running as a Democrat, Xiong says that if given the opportunity, he’s most excited about “going across aisles” and actually creating change for people’s everyday lives through legislation.
For Xiong, the most pressing issues for Wisconsinites are: (1) lowering the cost of living, (2) restoring reproductive rights, (3) and keeping communities safe.
“Right now what’s happening is we are having people that are struggling,” Xiong said, pointing to the many barriers to childcare and healthcare in the state.
“We need to lower the cost of living, the cost of childcare, the cost of expanding healthcare, [and accept] Medicaid so that we can provide coverage for over 80,000 Americans,” he said.
“The state legislator has continuously not taken or addressed those issues. And if we don’t do that, it impacts people on a day-to-day basis.”
Xiong is determined to take action to face these struggles head on. “I’m a person that wants to see practical solutions rather than partisan bickering,” he said. “The role of government [is] to provide a hand up and not a handout.”
From his conversations with community members in the 85th district, he says that everyday Wisconsinites share the same frustrations. “The thing that I hear at the doors is that people are tired of the gridlock,” he said.
Xiong plans to continue working with people at the grassroots level and meeting them wherever they might be: at town hall meetings, at nonprofit volunteer days in order to get to know their challenges.
“I intend on doing that—not just showing up when there’s celebration, but showing up when there’s hardships as well,” he said.
“We want to be that voice that the 85th assembly district has desperately been lacking in Madison.”
The Asian American Vote
If Xiong were to win his election, he would be the first Hmong American to ever hold a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly — a position he won’t be able to secure without the Asian American vote.
“Our elections come down to about 1%” Xiong said, citing the marginal wins of both President Joe Biden and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers in the 85th district. “We’re a district that’s truly 50/50.”
“The AAPI community is the margin of victory,” Xiong emphasized. “It has to be recognized that there’s no overcoming [it]. They are the reason why people are getting elected, and their voice means more now than ever, especially with how close elections are,” pointing in particular to the 4,000 Laotian and Hmong community members in the 85th district.
And for Xiong, he believes that Wisconsin is ready to see an Asian American in this position: “AAPI Americans are just as capable as any other Americans to be leaders.”