Chang was born on July 9, 1976, in Glen Burnie, Maryland.[1] He was one of three children born to Hak Jin Chang, who was a small business owner during the 1980s and 1990s, and his wife, who worked at Annapolis General Hospital and who died when Chang was eleven years old.[2][3] He is a first-generation Korean-American, with his parents having moved to the United States from South Korea in 1975.[3]
Chang entered politics in 2003 by becoming a member of the Anne Arundel County Republican Central Committee.[1] In 2006, he ran for the Maryland House of Delegates as a Republican and was defeated in the general election with 17.1 percent of the vote.[4] After his defeat, Chang went to work as a community liaison for Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold. In 2012, he switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democratic.[5] Chang was replaced by County Executive Laura Neuman after she took office following Leopold's corruption conviction and subsequent resignation,[6] and he subsequently worked as a legislative aide to state senator James E. DeGrange Sr.[4]
In 2014, Chang again ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 32, this time as a Democrat. He won the general election in November 2014, becoming the first Korean-American elected to the Maryland General Assembly from Anne Arundel County, and the first in the state alongside state delegate-elect David Moon.[2]
In the legislature
Chang was sworn into the House of Delegates on January 14, 2015. He has been a member of the Appropriations Committee during his entire tenure, and became the committee's vice chair in 2021.[1]
In 2019, Chang introduced legislation to fund developments at the Laurel Park.[13]
Social issues
In January 2016, Chang voted against overriding Governor Larry Hogan's veto on a bill restoring voting rights for felons on parole.[14]
During the 2019 legislative session and following incidents involving nooses on school campuses in 2018, Chang introduced a bill that would ban the use of nooses or swastikas to "threaten or intimidate someone".[15] The bill was reintroduced in 2020, during which it passed and became law.[16]
Electoral history
Maryland House of Delegates District 32 Republican primary election, 2006[17]