About Me

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My name is Jay Xiong, and I am a State Representative in House District 67B on the East Side of St. Paul. I currently chair the Veterans and Military Affairs Division.

Fifty years ago, my family came to this country as immigrants and refugees. Like any other American family, we settled here because we fell in love with this city as a place to live, to work, and to play — because we believed in the American dream. I am a lifelong resident of St. Paul, and in my 45 years here, I've seen the changes that have come and gone. Some things in our community have changed for the better, while others have not. Too often, the decisions that shaped those changes didn't reflect our community.

As a proud graduate of St. Paul Public Schools, I know firsthand the struggles our children face in the education system, and I recognize the challenges our teachers navigate every day. It was my teachers who inspired me and helped propel me to St. Olaf College, in the same Northfield community where, a generation before, the great Senator Paul Wellstone taught across the river at Carleton. After St. Olaf, I came back home to St. Paul to build a life in public service, and I later furthered my graduate studies in public policy.

After college, I went into the education field, teaching students K-8 and working closely with kids navigating the same cycle of poverty I grew up in. That experience pushed me to want more for them than just a classroom — I wanted to change the systems around them. So I got involved in local school board campaigns, helping elect candidates who actually represented our students and families. It was there that I first realized something that has stuck with me ever since: too often, the people making decisions for our communities don't share our lived experiences and don't reflect who we are.

That realization is what led me into policy work, and eventually onto legislative staff here at the State Capitol. When my predecessor, Sheldon Johnson, announced his retirement, I had a choice to make. I've always believed politics isn't a spectator sport — you can't just sit on the sidelines and hope things change. You have to get involved. That's how I ended up running for office myself.

In the years since, I've organized voter registration drives, organized our community for civic engagement, run political campaigns, and — most proudly — had the honor of serving the people of our state, first on legislative staff and now as their State Representative.

Unlike many of my colleagues who have the privilege of not needing a job during the interim — or who were born into wealth — I'm like most working people in our district: holding down two jobs just to make ends meet. Between teaching citizenship classes, working evenings as a janitor, and serving as a cultural coordinator during interim, I'm out there doing what so many of you do every day — juggling multiple jobs to build a life for your family.