Santa Clara County D2 Board of Supervisors Race

In late February this year, at the Vietnamese American Business Association  (VABA) Anual Gala 2023 where over 800 guests enjoying their multi-course gourmet dinner and listening to speeches of  elected officials from Sacramento to Orange County,  one of the attention-grabbing buzzes  is the presence of Madison Nguyen and her hinting of a run for the soon to be vacant D2  Board of Supervisors seat. 

Conventional wisdom predicts that Madison Nguyen, former SJ city councilmember who has not been seen for the last 4 years with a rumor that she mostly lives in Nevada, will be one of the 3 or 4 Vietnamese-American candidates for this hotly contested seat.   Not to be outdone, the Latino community will have at least 3 or 4 candidates also. 

So who are the potential candidates and why D2 is so appealing?

District 2 after the 2022 redistricting to reflect the 2020 census was drawn with a heavy Latino population by the Board of Supervisors.  This is to counterbalance District 3 where the boundary was designed for an Asian majority.  The current Supervisor Cindy Chavez is termed out in 2024 and her chief staff,  Betty Duong, will officially anounce her candidacy this coming Sunday at her sister's coffee shop in downtown San Jose.

But not too be outdone, other potential candidates including ESHUSD Board Trustee Van Le and the newly elected SJ Councilmember Bien Doan also have expressed their interests.  

On the Latino side, rumors are picking up that former SJ Councilmembers Nora Campos, Maya Esparza and Magdalena Carrasco will be running.  

District 2 has about 176,000 registered voters.  The breakdown is 29% Asian, 35% Latino and 34% non-Latino, non-African American, and non-Asian.   Vietnamese-American registered voters make up 17% of the total.  This is not unexpected since D2 covers most of San Jose City D7, D5 and D3 where there are a lot of Vietnamese-American families. 

Madison Nguyen, if runs, will be a business friendly candidate while Betty Duong is loyal to Labor Union. This will make another interesting race where the two will be vying hard for their natural base, Vietnamese voters, as well as other voters in a very diverse demographic.