Mark Keam

Mark Lee Keam (born May 10, 1966) is a Korean American lawyer. Since 2024 Keam has led the Korean American Institute. KAI is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to produce insightful and actionable research to improve decision making on issues facing Korean Americans.

He is a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates in the United States. A Democrat, Keam represented the 35th District, which encompassed a portion of Fairfax County, Virginia, including the town of Vienna, Virginia, where he resides. He resigned his seat on September 6, 2022, to take a position in the Biden administration as a deputy assistant secretary running the National Travel and Tourism Office in the International Trade Administration.

Keam was born in Seoul, South Korea, and has lived in Vietnam, Australia, and California. He was formerly an aide on Capitol Hill, and was an executive with Verizon Communications until he left in 2009 to run for the Virginia General Assembly. while their father was founding pastor of the Korean parish of the Uniting Church in Australia at Strathfield, New South Wales. The family eventually settled in Orange County, California. To help support his family, Keam worked odd jobs, from construction to collecting shopping carts in a retail parking lot. He earned a degree in political science from the University of California, Irvine, and later earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Hastings College of the Law.

Virginia House of Delegates In 2009, Delegate Steve Shannon, the Democratic incumbent, did not seek reelection in the 35th district in order to run (unsuccessfully) for Attorney General of Virginia. Keam declared his intention to run for the seat. On Election day Mark Keam defeated Republican challenger James E. Hyland, making Keam the first Asian-born immigrant and the first Korean American elected to any state-level office in Virginia. He was sworn into office on January 13, 2010, at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia.

In February 2010, Keam and fellow freshman delegate James LeMunyon, a Republican, authored an op-ed in The Washington Post about their introduction of a bill to the General Assembly, which would attempt to make the voting records of General Assembly members more accessible to the public. The bill passed the House of Delegates 86 to 13 later that month. A State Senate committee carried the bill over for a year, and it has not yet been voted on.

He told a local newspaper in his district in January 2010 that he can legislate from an immigrant's point of view; saying that "I want to be able to speak on issues where people say, 'I've never met an immigrant in my life; I don't know what you guys think about it,'... I want to be able to say, 'Well, let me tell you what they think about it.'" He has also sponsored another bill which would raise the number of ESL, or "English as a second language" teachers in Virginia's schools from 17 full-time positions to 30 full-time positions for every 1,000 students.

Keam said in 2010 that he would abstain from voting on any bill which would pose a conflict of interest due to him being on an unpaid leave of absence from Verizon Communications, and he would not introduce any telecommunications legislation to the House of Delegates.

Keam was re-elected to his seat in Virginia's House of Delegates on November 7, 2017.

In 2021, Keam co-founded the General Assembly's first Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus.

Committee assignments Keam has served on the House committees on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources (2012–); Education (2012–); Finance (2010–); and Militia, Police and Public Safety (2010–2011).

Electoral history Date Election Candidate Party Votes % Virginia House of Delegates, 35th district June 9, 2009 Democratic primary Mark L. Keam 3,653 55.05 John F. Carroll 1,163 17.52 Esam S. Omeish 1,050 15.82 Roy J. Baldwin 769 11.59 November 3, 2009 General Mark L. Keam Democratic 12,606 50.66 James E. "Jim" Hyland Republican 12,252 49.24 Write Ins 22 0.08 Steve Shannon ran for Attorney General; seat stayed Democratic November 8, 2011 General Mark L. Keam Democratic 9,636 96.17 Write Ins 383 3.82