Coffee with Esther Kim Varet

The CA-40 contender likes her java black, with no sugar. She also likes the idea of relocating to preserve democracy.

I had coffee with Esther Kim Varet yesterday morning. We met at the Kona in Mission Viejo.

She arrived on her cell phone.

I arrived with semi-negative expectations.

One of the leading Democratic contenders to take on Young Kim in the CA-40 has, in some ways, not been my favorite local political figure. First, until recently she lived in LA (which definitely bothered me). Second, some of her Instagram posts … eh, well. Third, we sorta had a little mildly prickly back-and-forth exchange via DM a bunch of months ago. I can’t say it got heated, but it wasn’t the bestest. Fourth, I dunno. Just something about her approach, her mojo, her vibe.

So, I repeat, we had coffee yesterday morning. Two iced beverages—mine with milk and sugar, hers black. She greeted me with a warm sidearm hug. We sat inside at a table, felt one another out. She started off with a fairly flat sorta-political message, and then …

Well.

Eh.

Um.

Fuck.

I really liked her.

Chatting with Kim Varet is like chilling with a homie. And I don’t mean chilling with a politician homie pretending to be down with the people to score points. I mean, Esther drops a lot of fucks and shits and flashes a really familiar/comfortable, “Can you believe this bullshit?” smirk-glare. Even though she’s a born and raised Texan, she speaks with the bluntness of a New Yorker (her home before SoCal). Talks with her hands. Looks you in the eyes.

Esther is 42, has two kids, a husband, a recently deceased dog named (coincidentally) Kona. She’s worked in art for a long-ass time (this New York Times profile from 2024 will help fill you in), but was devastated after Kamala’s loss to Donald McRapester last November and—like many of us—found herself lost, confused, wayward, bewildered.

So she Googled: “How do you run for congress?”

And it’s funny. That sentence can be read one of two ways—amazing or ridiculous. I actually find it amazing. Here was Esther: A wealthy, successful art big gun who—like many of our richest—could have tried to withstand the storm of the next four years by cocooning within her own universe and just attending galas and fancy dinners and pretending the hellscape was not her concern. Instead, she found herself at her laptop with the ol’ Google and “How do you run for congress?”

Now she’s in Kona.

Esther and I spoke mainly off the record, just a sorta get-to-know-you thing. But when I asked about her moving to CA-40 relatively recently (roughly six months ago), and whether that was sorta bullshit, she had a reply ready. The last election, she said, did something to her. Kinda broke her. Her faith in the eternity of democracy. Her belief that humanity will choose righteousness. So she delved into winnable races that could—in her mind—possibly save this nation, and landed upon Young Kim and the 40th.

And here we sit.

•••

Now, can Esther Kim Varet beat Young Kim?

Hmm.

It’s certainly possible.

Positives: She’s young and energetic. She will have a load of money at her disposal. She has fundraising experience. She’s Korean in a district where that certainly helps. She’s Yale educated and plenty smart. Her political record is blank enough that she’s hard for an opponent to pinpoint. In one on one settings, she’s very likable.

Negatives: Like me, she definitely needs to work on social media/DMing impulse control. She’s strongly pro-Israel at a time when that feels increasingly dicey. She’s not from Orange County. She’s never run a political campaign. For someone in her early 40s, some of her Instagram posts are a hair cornball. She definitely has a little bit of a wealthy-LA-dogg thing that needs a sandpapering. In other words, she lacks a blue-collar git that, say, a Joe Kerr offers in bushels.

Will she be the nominee for the general? Unless Perry Meade has these superpowers I know not about, I suspect so.

Do we win? I hope so.

I really hope so.