Gary Locke

• Born: January 1, 1950
• Place of Birth: Seattle, Washington

LAWYER AND POLITICIAN

Governor of Washington from 1997 to 2005, Gary Locke was the first Chinese American governor in US history. He also served as US secretary of commerce from 2009 to 2011 and US ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014.

Full name: Gary Faye Locke

Birth name: Lok Gaa-Fai

Early Life

Gary Locke was the second of five children in the family of James and Julie Locke, who were immigrants from Hong Kong and traced their Chinese ancestry to the southern Guangdong Province. The family spoke Chinese in their home, and Locke did not speak English until he was five years old. Growing up in Seattle, he worked in his father’s grocery store. His achievements from childhood and youth include winning the distinguished Eagle Scout Award as a Boy Scout, graduating with honors from Seattle’s Franklin High School, and winning scholarships to Yale University, from which he graduated in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He then attended the Boston University School of Law and was awarded his law degree in 1975.

Life’s Work

After completing his law degree, Locke returned to Seattle and worked as deputy prosecutor of King County, specializing in felony cases. In 1982, he was elected to the state’s House of Representatives, where he was a member of the Judiciary Committee and the Appropriations Committee. In 1989, his colleagues selected him to serve as chairperson of the House Appropriations Committee, a position he held for the following five years. In 1993, he was elected the county executive of King County—the first Chinese American to hold that position. The following year, he married television reporter Mono Lee, with whom he would go on to have three children.

In 1996, Locke entered the race for governor of Washington, prevailing in both the Democratic primary and the general election. Because he was the first Chinese American in US history to be elected a state governor, Locke’s election attracted considerable attention. State regulators fined his political committee $2,500 for violating campaign finance laws during the 1996 campaign. As governor, Locke’s policies were in the progressive tradition, with an emphasis on promoting educational excellence, job creation, and environmental quality. A popular governor, he won reelection in 2000.

As Locke entered his second term in 2001, the state faced a severe budget shortfall of $2.5 billion; Locke upset many of the more liberal Democrats when he embraced the no-new-taxes approach of the Republican Party. The resulting reductions in spending necessitated the freezing of state employees’ pay and the dismissal of thousands of state employees, as well as painful cuts in health care, nursing homes, and programs for the developmentally disabled. Liberal Democrats were particularly unhappy with Locke’s final budget, which decreased funding for state education and suspended two pro-school initiatives that had been passed by voters. In order to make the cuts more rational and less painful, he pioneered in the practice of “budgeting for outcomes.” While governor, Locke made several trips to China in order to promote Chinese trading relations with the state of Washington.

During his second term, Locke appeared to be a rising star on the national stage. In 2003, he was chosen to give the Democratic Party’s response to President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address. Locke was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for vice president in the 2004 election. He announced in 2003 that he would not seek a third term as governor, however. Some journalists suggested that his decision was partially motivated by the large number of racial insults and threats leveled against him and his family.

After leaving office in January 2005, Locke was employed by the international law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, specializing in issues of Chinese trade, energy, and governmental relations. While in private practice, Locke continued to be a respected participant in the politics of the Democratic Party. Before and during the primaries of 2008, he worked as the Washington cochairman for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign.

On February 25, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Locke to head the Department of Commerce. A month after the announcement, Locke was confirmed by the Senate’s unanimous consent, and he was sworn into office by District Judge Richard Jones on March 26, 2009. He was the first Chinese American to serve as Secretary of Commerce, and he joined a presidential cabinet with two other Asian Americans: Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki.

As secretary of commerce, Locke was responsible for overseeing approximately thirty-eight thousand employees and a budget of more than $6 billion. His position came with a broad mandate to advance US interests in areas of trade, economic development, entrepreneurship, and statistical research. In the position, he gave frequent speeches, testified before Congress, and traveled often to promote international trade. He emphasized the importance of small businesses to US exports and was instrumental in the development of the Gold Key Matching Service, which acted as a “matchmaker” for US exporters and foreign importers.

In 2011, President Obama nominated Locke to be the US ambassador to China. Locke was confirmed to the new position in August 2011, becoming the first Chinese American to serve as an ambassador to another country. He served in that position until 2014, during which time he helped address air pollution in China, opened new markets for US-manufactured goods and services, and significantly reduced wait times for Chinese applicants seeking visas. Since leaving the public sector, Locke has served on the boards of several nonprofits and was named interim president of Bellevue College in Washington in May 2020. He left the post in 2023 to join a private law firm.

Significance

Locke has held the positions of prosecutor, city administrator, governor, lawyer, cabinet secretary, and ambassador. Over the course of his political career, he earned the reputation of being a dependable, hardworking, and honest person. Although a progressive Democrat, he has often been associated with a more Republican perspective on government expenditures, budget balancing, and the promotion of economic growth through free trade.

Bibliography

Cornwell, Paige. "Former Gov. Gary Locke Named Interim President of Bellevue College." The Seattle Times, 28 May 2020, www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/eastside/former-gov-gary-locke-named-interim-president-of-bellevue-college/. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

"Former US Ambassador to China Joins Dorsey as Senior Advisor." Bloomberg Law, 16 Nov. 2023, news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/former-us-ambassador-to-china-joins-dorsey-as-senior-advisor. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

LaFraniere, Sharon. “Chinese Flock to US Envoy, but Leaders Are Ruffled.” New York Times 12 Nov. 2011: 5. Print.

Lee, Joann Faung Jean. Asian Americans in the Twenty-First Century: Oral Histories of First- to Fourth-Generation Americans from China, Japan, India, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Laos. New York: New Press, 2008. Print.

Orens, Geoff. “Locke, Gary.” Current Biography 64.4 (Apr. 2003): 33. Print.