Former Orange County congresswoman and county supervisor Michelle Steel has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the next U.S. ambassador to South Korea.
The appointment returns a prominent Orange County leader to public service and fills a diplomatic post that had been vacant for more than a year.
Steel, who represented portions of Orange County in Congress from 2021 to 2025 and previously served on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, will play a key role in advancing U.S.-South Korea relations on issues including trade, investment, security and regional cooperation.
She is among a small number of Korean Americans to serve in the ambassadorial role.
Orange County is home to one of the nation’s largest Korean American communities and boasts extensive business, cultural and educational ties with South Korea.
Appointed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and subsequently elected, she served on the board, representing over 9 million Californians as the state’s tax regulatory official.
Steel represented the Second District of Orange County.
She served as the chair of the Board from 2017 to 2020, where she focused heavily on cutting red tape, keeping taxes low, and balancing budgets.
In 2020, she flipped California’s 48th Congressional District, unseating the incumbent Democrat Harley Rouda. In doing so, she and Young Kim became the first Korean American women elected to the U.S. Congress.
Former Los Al Mayor Troy Edgar had been nominated to serve as the Ambassador to El Salvador, but his nomination was pulled without explanation by the White House after the first set of U.S. Senate hearings on Capitol Hill.
Edgar remains at his post as a Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.