against Leo McCarthy for the right to challenge the Republican incumbent, Pete Wilson. Amid poor fund-raising totals and her husband's unwillingness to release details of his business interests, Eu dropped out later that year. President Bill Clinton appointed Eu as United States Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia in 1994. She served in that post until 1996. In 2002 Eu, then age 79, ran again for Secretary of State, saying she was doing so because "Florida made me mad", referring to the voting problems in Florida during the 2000 United States presidential election. She lost in the Democratic primary to Kevin Shelley, who went on to win the election. Later life and family Eu resided both in California and Singapore with her second husband Henry Eu, a multimillionaire industrialist. Her adopted son, Matt Fong, was a Republican activist who served as California State Treasurer for a four-year term that began January 1995. She also had a daughter, Suyin. Her hobbies in retirement included Chinese brush painting and calligraphy. Eu died on December 21, 2017, at age 95, following a fall. Recognition In 2019 California's Secretary of State building in Sacramento was named after Eu (as the March Fong Eu Secretary of State Building); this made it the first state-owned building to be named for an Asian-American woman. The National Notary Association gives an annual March Fong Eu Award to "the individual who or organization that, in the judgment of the Association's Executive Committee, has done the most to improve the standards, image and quality of the office of Notary Public." Eu was the first recipient of the award in 1979, named after her "for her extraordinary leadership in spearheading enactment of progressive Notary reform legislation, despite opposition from powerful lobbies who preferred lower notarial standards." References External links March K. Fong Eu political history 1922 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in California Ambassadors of the United States to the Federated States of Micronesia California politicians of Chinese descent American women ambassadors American women of Chinese descent in politics Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly Mills College alumni People from Oakdale, California Politicians from Richmond, California School board members in California Secretaries of State of California Stanford Graduate School of Education alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Women state legislators in California 21st-century American diplomats 21st-century American