Meet Kimberly - Kimberly Yee for Arizona Treasurer

Homegrown Arizona Roots

Born and raised in Arizona, Kimberly Yee is a small business owner who comes from a family of small business owners. Her grandparents immigrated to Arizona in the 1930s and opened the New State Market grocery store in Phoenix, building a successful business and community landmark that operated for over 60 years.

Living out the American Dream, Kimberly learned the importance of working hard and giving back to the community, state, and country that welcomed her family and gave them the opportunity to succeed, from her mother who worked as an Arizona public school teacher for 38 years and father, a U.S. Army veteran and small business owner.

Kimberly worked her way through college and graduate school, attending Pepperdine University and Arizona State University with a focus on conservative public policies. She served in the administrations of two former governors and a former state treasurer.

After witnessing the “tax and spend” destruction of California in her early career, Kimberly returned home to Arizona committed to protect the American values of freedom and opportunity that allowed her family to prosper and thrive.

Kimberly ran for office in 2010 and became the first Asian American woman elected to the Arizona Legislature in the state’s history, representing the district where she was born and raised. Kimberly was elected the second female Senate Majority Leader in the state’s history following Sandra Day O’Connor, who served in 1973 as the first female Senate Majority Leader, 44 years earlier. She has been named by Congressional Quarterly’s Roll Call as one of the “25 Most Influential Women in State Politics.”

In 2018, Kimberly was elected the State Treasurer of Arizona, becoming the first Asian American elected to statewide office in Arizona’s history. She is also the first Chinese American Republican woman ever elected to a major statewide office in the history of the United States. In the 2018 general election, she received the second most votes of any Arizona statewide candidate on the ballot.

Arizona First Legacy

Kimberly brings years of experience to public budgeting and executive agency management. During her time as Arizona State Treasurer, Kimberly has achieved outstanding historic record performance with investment growth of government assets she manages by 96% to $30.2 Billion, helping state and local governments keep taxes low.

Treasurer Yee increased local government assets by 75.4% so cities and towns have more funding for roads, education and law enforcement, helping rural Arizona and all 15 counties. Land endowment funds reached an all-time high of $7.99 Billion, an increase of over $1.8 Billion more than last year under Kimberly’s leadership. In this fiscal year, Treasurer Yee is distributing $402 Million to the K-12 public schools based on investments under the Permanent Land Endowment Trust Fund, which is additional money beyond the legislative appropriations to schools.

As a longtime advocate of financial education, Kimberly sponsored legislation to ensure financial literacy was included in the K-12 academic education standards in schools. As Treasurer, Kimberly created a law that requires high school students to complete a semester of personal money management before graduation. She continues this work as the Chairwoman of Arizona’s first-ever Financial Literacy Task Force which she created in 2019 to help expand the statewide awareness of personal money management with students, senior citizens, veterans and vulnerable families.

As administrator of the statewide AZ529 Education Savings Plan since October of 2020, Kimberly has grown assets by historic numbers, to more than $1.78 billion with 21,737 new accounts opened in just 23 months of operation, helping families save for higher education and workforce development to build a stronger economy in Arizona.

Family

Kimberly is blessed to be a wife, mother and small business owner. She and her husband own a small local business in the West Valley, and comes from a family line of small business owners who understand the importance of workforce development and maintaining a strong economy.

She enjoys spending time with family and friends, and volunteers in her church and community. Kimberly has served as a Sunday School teacher and helps in her church’s music and children’s programs.

Over the years, Kimberly has maintained a reputation as a “taxpayer watchdog” and a conservative Republican, with a long record of accomplishments as a fiscal conservative who always puts the taxpayer first.

MAKE A DONATION