Kou Lee

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Kou Lee

Prior offices

Green Bay Area Public School District Board of Education At-large

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Elections and appointments

Last election

August 9, 2022

Personal

Profession

Business owner

Contact

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Kou Lee was a member of the Green Bay Area Public School District Board of Education At-large in Wisconsin. He assumed office in 2024. He left office on May 8, 2025.

Lee (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Wisconsin. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 9, 2022.

Lee completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Kou Lee's career experience includes owning Koreana Restaurant and working as a general manager.

Elections

2022

See also: United States Senate election in Wisconsin, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. Senate Wisconsin

Incumbent Ronald Harold Johnson defeated Mandela Barnes, Adam Nicholas Paul, and Scott Aubart in the general election for U.S. Senate Wisconsin on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ronald Harold Johnson (R)	50.4	1,337,185
		Mandela Barnes (D)	49.4	1,310,467
	Submit photo	Adam Nicholas Paul (Logic Party) (Write-in)	0.0	67
	Submit photo	Scott Aubart (American Independent Party) (Write-in)	0.0	0
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	4,758

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,652,477
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Bradford Spencer (Independent)
• Aaron Frank (Independent)
• Neal Long (L)
• Deliala Gaustad (Patriot Party Party)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Wisconsin

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Wisconsin on August 9, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mandela Barnes	77.8	390,279
		Alex Lasry (Unofficially withdrew)	8.9	44,609
		Sarah Godlewski (Unofficially withdrew)	8.1	40,555
		Tom Nelson (Unofficially withdrew)	2.2	10,995
		Steven Olikara	1.1	5,619
		Darrell Williams	0.7	3,646
		Kou Lee	0.7	3,434
		Peter Peckarsky	0.5	2,446
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	177

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 501,760
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Gillian Battino (D)
• Chris Larson (D)
• Adam Murphy (D)
• Chantia Lewis (D)
• Jeff Rumbaugh (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. Senate Wisconsin

Incumbent Ronald Harold Johnson defeated David Schroeder in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Wisconsin on August 9, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ronald Harold Johnson	83.6	563,871
		David Schroeder	16.3	109,917
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	693

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 674,481
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• John Berman (R)
• Mike Mangan (R)
• Brad Beyer (R)
• Justin Doty (R)
• Adam Benedetto (R)

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Kou Lee completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Lee's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Kou Lee. I am married to my beautiful wife (Janey) for over 20 years. We are currently living in Hobart, a village about 10 minutes west of the City of Green Bay. We are blessed to have 4 beautiful and healthy children; two girls and two boys.

I grew up in the City of Detroit and earned my 4 years college degree from Michigan State University. In 2010, we decided to raise our family in Wisconsin and started my company.

I am here today because of a choice my father made when I was two years old.

Forty-two years ago, in the dark of night, he led our family across the Mekong River. We were escaping Communist rule in Laos, swimming and pulling 6 people behind him to what he called to lights of freedom in Thailand.

For seven years we lived in a poverty-stricken refugee camp until we were allowed to come to America.

Everything I have. Everything I am. Every freedom I enjoy I owe to the United States of America. The college degree I earned, the family I’ve raised, the company I own.

My campaign for the U.S. Senate is for all of us. To preserve this democracy, the freedoms we hold dear, the quality of life we enjoy.

I’m Kou Lee.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• I am not a politician. I am result driven as a businessman. I will fight for all of Wisconsin.
• I want to serve the people of this great state of ours - Wisconsin. I will answer to you.
• I lack the endoresements of politicians, lobbiest and interest groups. However, I am endorsed by the working people - real people of our community; small business owners, single parents, general laborers, educators, nurses, mechanics and so many more.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Education, Technology-Cybersecurity and Renewal Energy.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

Lee’s campaign website stated the following:

“	Fixing America’s Troubled Schools By almost any measure, the United States is failing to prepare our children for the challenges of a 21st century world. Despite the billions we invest in public education, American children lag behind the rest of the world in reading, math and science. American students are being outperformed by those in China, Europe and Canada. It’s been that way for 20 years. In a 21st century world about to enter a second technological revolution, and an America facing fierce competition from China, it is imperative that we better educate our young, and better advance their skills in technology, engineering, math and science. It is an American problem. It begs for national leadership. It is as important to the nation we shall be in this century as winning the cold war in the last. Upping the performance we demand of public schools, where all who graduate have the skills required to get a job, keep a job or go to college. Allowing children trapped in failing schools to enroll in a school that works. Helping middle and lower-class children go to college, and graduate college without being saddled with a lifelong load of college debt.Winning the battle with China for supremacy in science, quantum physics and engineering begins in the classrooms of American Schools. Winning the Technological Revolution The global struggle over freedom and liberty will not be fought with nuclear weapons. It will be an economic struggle driven by advances in science, software and artificial intelligence. This world, our world is entering a new technological revolution. It will forever change the way we live. Data will move 100 times faster with 5G. It will be followed by a race for 6G, which will be 100 times faster than 5G. With it will come driverless cars, rapid advances in medicine, robotic manufacturing, smart homes and green technology. The country first to the gate with the equipment and software required to build it out will set the world standard. The country first to the gate will be the world’s pre-eminent superpower in the21st century. All in this world who wish to live free have a stake in struggle between the world’s greatest democracy and citadel of freedom, and the world’s most tyrannical and totalitarian regime. We have what we need to win. All it takes is political will. A national effort to spawn innovation through scientific research, in partnership with what are already the finest research labs and universities the world has known. Getting the country wired. Internet, broadband, cell towers are as important today as electricity was 100 years ago. Fixing our Cybersecurity problem. An attack that shuts the electric grid for a week would cripple the U.S. economy. Pipelines, ports, our food supply, dams, hospitals, factories and government entities are sitting ducks until we get serious about protecting the technology that makes our economy work and governments function. A Real Commitment to Renewable Energy The time for renewable energy is now. The more it is used, the cheaper it becomes. The more affordable it becomes, the more people will use it. It will create an infinite number of jobs as we better learn how to harness the power of the sun, wind and water. The United States must lead. When we do, the rest of the world will follow and buy it from us. I support the effort by the Congress to advance our renewable energy future. The time to construct of high-voltage transmission lines required to utilize wind and solar power is now. We need to increase the tax credits and research subsidies to create green energy locally, and green jobs nationally. We have subsidized the fossil fuel industry for a hundred years. We can help the green energy revolution get started. We need to make our farmers a partner, allowing them to profit through carbon credits by reducing tillage, increasing crop diversity and adding cover crops that take carbon dioxide out of the air.	”
—Kou Lee’s campaign website (2022)

See also

2022 Elections

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Candidate

U.S. Senate Wisconsin

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Footnotes

[show]

Wisconsin's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Tammy Baldwin (D)

Ronald Johnson (R)

Representatives

District 1

Bryan Steil (R)

District 2

Mark Pocan (D)

District 3

Derrick Van Orden (R)

District 4

Gwen Moore (D)

District 5

Scott Fitzgerald (R)

District 6

Glenn Grothman (R)

District 7

Tom Tiffany (R)

District 8

Tony Wied (R)

Republican Party (7)

Democratic Party (3)