“I think one of the disappointments I will carry from this campaign is, where was my community? And I think we had an opportunity to make history,” Yee said. “I did not see them there as I had robustly in the past with respect to my donors.”
Yee grew up in San Francisco, the daughter of Chinese immigrants and the second oldest of six kids. In a February interview discussing her campaign with KQED’s Political Breakdown, she described helping manage the books for her parents’ laundry and dry cleaning business.
“Every week, my father would hand me a cigar box of the receipts, and I’d add up what our expenses were, and we’d figure out how much we had brought in. And it was eye-opening,” she said. “We may have been poor, but we were rich in values.”
Her first political experience came when she was 13 years old and testified at a school district hearing to advocate against a school busing desegregation program that would have sent her younger sister across the city. In the same interview, she said she would not take that same position today.
In her announcement, Yee teared up when thanking her family, including her 103-year-old mother.
“Every time I ask her, ‘How are you feeling about what’s going on in the world?’ Her response is always the same. ‘We know what we got to do,’” Yee said. “Mom, I’m just going to say: Yeah, I know. And I will continue to go do it.”
She did not endorse another candidate after dropping out but said she would assess the remaining candidates and announce her pick within the next few days.
When asked what qualities she’ll be looking for, she said she wants someone with “a demonstrated history of making progress” and an “ability to work with diverse interests.”
Looking ahead, Yee said she will continue standing up for immigrant and border communities and vowed to protect election integrity.
“I will be seeing you in the communities where I’ve been, but as of today, it will be in a different venue,” Yee said. “Not as a candidate, but as a fellow Californian.”
