ATLANTA — About six weeks into Georgia's 2023 legislative session, freshman state Rep. Long Tran started growing a beard.
Tran, who is Vietnamese American, said his colleagues routinely confused him for two of his House colleagues — Democratic Caucus Whip Sam Park, who is Korean American, and state Rep. Marvin Lim, who was born in the Philippines. And it came from both Democrats and Republicans, he said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen either of them grow a beard, so I said, ‘All right, I need to differentiate myself,’ ” he said. “I think the beard made a difference, but also, the deeper we get into session, people get to know you better and they’re less likely to make this mistake.”
