Attorney who worked on CHIPS Act running for Congress in Michigan

Melissa Nann Burke, The Detroit News on Apr 30, 2025

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DETROIT — A former Commerce Department attorney who worked to implement President Joe Biden's 2022 law to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing is running for Congress in a key swing district in the Detroit suburbs.

Eric Chung, 32, of Sterling Heights on Wednesday announced his bid for the U.S. House in Michigan's 10th District that is currently represented by Republican U.S. Rep. John James of Shelby Township, covering southern Macomb County, Rochester and Rochester Hills. Democrats consider the seat a top target, as James is running for governor, leaving the seat up for grabs.

Chung is the fifth Democrat to file to run for the seat after former prosecutor Christina Hines, Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel, Army veteran Alex Hawkins and Brian Jaye. He said he's had conversations with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and that there's excitement about a candidate with local roots and national experience in the government.

Chung criticized the Trump administration for "shoot-from-the-hip" policies that are "gambling away people’s life savings by taking a chainsaw to job creation programs like the one I worked on," along with Social Security, Medicaid and public education.

"I want to make sure that every single family and child can be able to be protected, to ultimately have economic opportunity, to be able to grow and flourish like my family was coming from a country that did not have as much economic opportunity or the freedom to be able to speak your mind, to have your own beliefs," said Chung, the son of immigrants from Vietnam.

"I'm fighting for Michigan families. I'm fighting for making sure that there is some check on this administration when it abuses its powers. I think we need new leaders who can offer that message and check the administration when it overreaches."

Chung grew up in Madison Heights, with his dad working at auto plants in Warren, Sterling Heights and Shelby Township, he said. Chung attended public schools, got a full ride to attend Harvard University and later graduated from Yale Law School, he said.

His background is in constitutional law, administrative law and public policy law. He advised the Senate Judiciary Committee on the confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson after her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court and worked with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice on matters of fairness and opportunity in education, according to his campaign.

Prior to his two years at the Commerce Department, Chung worked to draft parts of the CHIPS Act while he was at the law firm Covington & Burling LLP, and he studied it.

After it was enacted, he was recruited to go to Commerce because he understood the legislation that intended to invest $39 billion back into the economy to spur domestic semiconductor manufacturing, including a $325 million investment for Hemlock Semiconductor in Michigan "that, unfortunately, is on hold now because of this administration," he said.

Chung said he went to the Commerce Department excited to work on the CHIPS Act, which he viewed as a project to bring jobs and manufacturing back to places like Michigan. But the Trump administration "gutted" the program and replaced it with "reckless" tariffs, he said.

So he decided to leave, moving back to Michigan earlier this month.

"I didn't want to just sit by and watch and see this administration drive us into another recession, and that's where I ultimately decided that I would take the message back home," he said.

"I would ultimately have a conversation with our community so that folks understand that this administration made a lot of promises, and it would have been great if they had kept them. But instead, they're really playing fire and playing games with people's lives right now."

Asked how he intends to stand out in what's become a crowded Democratic primary, Chung pointed to his roots in Michigan and his experience working in all three branches of government ― from the halls of Congress, to clerking in the courts and serving in both the Biden and Trump administrations.

"I could go to D.C. and go toe to toe with this administration, and ultimately make sure that we have Michigan values and voices represented there in those halls," he said.

"I don't think that at this particular moment, we can really afford to learn on the job."

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