The Vietnamese Americans in California – A New Political Wind

 In 2024, the Vietnamese-American communities in Orange County and Santa Clara County saw a change of the guard in their political fortunes.   The political results from the 2024 election brought changes whether for better or worse depending on your political affiliation and allegiance.  The trend shows a matured voting bloc less favoring the Republican Party and the anti-communist rhetoric that have been the main political bend of the community since its first arrived in the US.   It also re-affirms that the high turnout myth of Vietnamese American voters is simply a myth.  Nevertheless, due to the redistricting efforts to create Asian-dominating congressional and supervisorial districts in the 2020 census, the communities in both counties have not only swing vote influence but become a majority-minority voting bloc in their respective regions.   

Swearing in Ceremony on Dec. 3rd for the seat vacated by former Supervisor Cindy Chavez
  (Betty Duong's Facebook)

Santa Clara County

Betty Duong, 43, became the first Vietnamese-American elected to the Board of Supervisors of the 6th most populated county in California.  The county has over 185,000 Vietnamese Americans with more than 130,000 living in San Jose.  The District 2 was the home of her mentor and former boss, political stalwart Cindy Chavez.  It was designed to be a Hispanic dominating district with over 34% of the registered voters being Latino.  The next largest minority voting bloc is Vietnamese-American with 18%.  In the general election, Betty Duong routed a well-known but polarized candidate, former SJC Councilmember Madison Nguyen, 49.  In winning the election, she also became the first generation Vietnamese-American born in the US after the Vietnam War to hold office in the county.

In the San Jose City Council race for District 8, Domingo Candelas, 35, crushed Tam Truong by 15 percentage points. This is a noteworthy result because the district is 25% Vietnamese-American and 43% Asian overall.  Tam Truong, 42, is a policeman receiving strong support from Mayor Matt Mahan and SJC Councilmember Bien Doan.   And yet, he lost every precinct (including the Vietnamese predominately Evergreen precinct) except for 2 by a sizable margin.

Truong’s campaign theme, Vietnamese supporting Vietnamese candidates along with anti-communist rhetoric did not help him win his ethnic base since the Vietnamese American voters in D8 tend to be more selective in their candidate choices.

Orange County

The era of Van Tran, 60,  playing Godfather along his political gang in Little Saigon finally ended with the loss to Janet Nguyen in the head-to-head campaign against his long-time nemesis.  The supervisorial race to replace the term-out Andrew Do ended with Nguyen trouncing Tran by 43.5% to 18%.  Tran was so badly beaten that he did not qualify to be in the general election in a county district where Vietnamese-American is about 17% of the total registered voters.  Tran's campaign focus was the worn-out story of Janet Nguyen went to the Vietnamese Consulate in SF 16 years ago and asked for financial contributions to support her campaign against Van Tran's gang.

Janet Nguyen, 48, won the election and took over her old D1 supervisorial seat she left 10 years ago to run for state senator.  During the 10 years in between, she won the state senator race, lost the seat in an upset with Andrew Do engineering her defeat, 2 years later ran for state assembly against the incumbentTyler Diep (R) and won, and then in 2022, won the state senate seat again due to redistricting.  Nguyen was hoping to serve as supervisor in a district that overlaps with the 45^th congressional district so that when Michelle Steel (R), 69, retires 8 years from now, she can take over Republican Party mantle to be the first Vietnamese-American Congresswoman in California. But her political road rises to meet her earlier than expected with the defeat of Michelle Steel by an unknown and novice Democratic candidate Derek Tran.

In an upset victory, Derek Truyen Tran (D), 44, won the 45^th congressional seat from the incumbent Michelle Eunjoo Steel (R) by 653 votes.  In a district where 35% is Asian, 22% Latino, and 42% White, the Vietnamese and Korean descendants ran the most expensive congressional race in the country with over $50 million spent.  Steel raised over $20 million while Tran over $12 million.  PAC’s spending for Steel was $17.4 million and Tran was $16.7 million.

The Democratic Party brought former President Bill Clinton to Orange County to rally for Tran. The district is comprised of 15% Vietnamese voters, and Tran used his ethnic base against Steel effectively enough to cause Steel to declare "I am more Vietnamese than Derek". Tran squeaked out the victory despite a multi-million dollar mud-slinging campaign by both sides. 

There are two other winners in this congressional upset  –

The Vietnamese-American Democrats who have been trying for the last 20 years to break the dominating political stranglehold of the Vietnamese American Republican candidates in Orange County.  

Within days after Tran was declared the winner, Janet Nguyen opened a congressional campaign committee even before she was sworn in as supervisor.  With Steel turning 71 in 2026 and the possibility of being appointed Korean ambassador under the Trump administration, the Republican Party will likely turn to a stronger candidate with an intrinsic Vietnamese base to take back a purple district.

And the two biggest losers in Little Saigon in 2024 –

Van Tran and his gang, including his right-hand man for the last 20 years, Lan Nguyen. After his poor showing against Janet Nguyen, the gang lost faith in him and there is now bitter fighting among them.  Lan Nguyen, a trustee for the Garden Grove Unified School District for 20 years, was soundly defeated in his Garden Grove mayoral race despite his strong name recognition and presence in the community.

Andrew Do, 62, and his shameful forced resignation from the Orange County Board of Supervisors for his bribery scheme that is still under investigation. He pocketed over $3 million in a kickback scheme for the Covid federal fund.  He pleaded guilty without going to trial to save his daughter (who was wittingly on the take) after a year of denying any faults.  Do is expected to serve a minimum of 4 years in federal prison in the upcoming March sentencing.  In prison, he will have time to reflect on his greed, and how it has destroyed his wife’s career and reputation as a superior court judge. But what will be with him forever is knowing that Janet Nguyen is having a last laugh at his downfall.  The complex mentor-mentee relationship of Andrew Do and Janet Nguyen and their entangled political fortunes have enough drama and subplots to make a good movie.  

Approaching the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, a fresh political wind is sweeping over the community under new political leaders born after 1975.  The old voters who built the community and laid down the political activism are now in their late70s and 80s.  The current majority of the voters are in the 50s and 60s and they are more attuned to mainstream politics, paying attention to the social and economic issues affecting everyday life.  In the next 25 years,  LSI will hopefully be around to see one of the future US presidents to be a Vietnamese-American.