How did Dr. Lee involve in GOP since 1980?
The original documents of all the referred events in the following paragraphs are organized in the files chronologically under the Resource Room. Dr. Lee’s political resume at various stages of her life can be found in her bio and vita section.
GOP Involvement in 1980
Recognizing Dr. Esther Lee’s leadership via Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) and Organization of Chinese-American Women (OCAW) involvement, Ms. Esther Kee, a Chinese American volunteer of the National Democrat Committee contacted Dr. Lee in Feb. 1980. Ms. Kee was trying to recruit Dr. Lee to support President Carter’s re-election. Initially, Dr. Lee was excited by such an offer to become an appointed delegate to the Democrat’s National Convention.
Yet, she considered the offer and her decision seriously. She first consulted with Rev. David Chan of Houston Chinese Church. He pointed out that she needed to make sure that her family life and church services would not be affected. In order to make sure that the philosophy of the Democrat Party was consistent with hers, she went to the university library to study the platforms of both the Democrat and Republican Parties. At the end, she realized that the Democrat Party is not the one for her. Thus, she decided to take part in the Republican Party from ground zero.
Meanwhile, Dr. Lee was advised to become partisan by Mr. John Wu. Mr. Wu was a Reagan appointee as assistant deputy secretary of Adult Education in the US Office of Education, (later became Dept. of Education). He pointed out the importance of being partisan; it’s impossible for those highly qualified OCA members to be appointed unless they were involved in partisan politics.
One day, Esther learned from the local newspaper that the Bay Area Republican Women’s Club was having a meeting and Vicki Hapke was the contact person. So, Esther called Vicki who immediately paid a home visit with a lot of books about the philosophy of the party and party leaders, such as the president Ronald Reagan and Congressman Jack Kemp. She immediately recruited Esther for working with her at the Reagan’s reelection campaign. Consequently, Esther was able to become a delegate to the district convention and serve as the vice chair for Pages Committee with Vicki. Since then, Vicki had become Esther’s political mentor in TX until Vicki’s relocation to other state.
