Ya Liu
Cary Town Council
An introduction: Ya Liu was elected last year as the town’s first Asian-American council member. She is also a Duke University School of Law faculty member and board member of the Chinese-American Friendship Association of North Carolina.
Why run for public office? Every citizen with a good heart to serve the community can run for public office and make a difference.
Before I ran for town council, I was not active in politics. I was a community organizer and just doing a lot of volunteer work. I feel very fortunate to be elected to Cary’s Town Council, so I get the opportunity to represent our diverse community. Twenty percent of our citizens were born outside this country, and more than 90 percent of our citizens were actually not born and raised in Cary, so with my election, it’s a new Cary, and Cary has embraced me. I’m really thankful for our citizens.
Inspiration: I really enjoy working with people. There are so many volunteers in the (Chinese-American) organization, many of them are my friends, and we just enjoy working together on different projects.
What we do, truly does make a difference in people’s lives. During this pandemic, we were able to raise over $100,000 that enabled us to purchase PPEs (personal protective equipment) from China, and donate to the hospitals and assisted living facilities, nursing homes and businesses in Cary.
Favorite project: I love food, so I have organized many cultural festivals and events. It’s really a community engagement and outreach effort. At the festivals, we’re able to bring people together. People have different backgrounds and political views and perspectives, and everyone can enjoy some good food and good music.
We organized Taste of China Festivals in Raleigh. The first year we brought about 16,000 people to downtown Raleigh; in the second year we brought around 20,000 people from all over the Triangle to downtown Raleigh.
Biggest risk: Running for public office wasn’t something I dreamed of or envisioned. It wasn’t in my plan. So that was the biggest risk.
At the end of the day, it was really worth it and was worth the fight. Now I have the opportunity to be on the Council, bringing a diverse perspective to the council.
