5 Vietnamese American candidates compete for California’s 45th Congressional District seat

An almost entirely Vietnamese American field of candidates is competing for California’s 45th Congressional District seat, anchored by Orange County’s Little Saigon.

Democrat Derek Tran, 45, won the seat in 2024 by 653 votes over two-time incumbent Michelle Steel, becoming the first Vietnamese American to represent a district that includes the country’s largest Vietnamese community. The district covers parts of northern Orange County and Los Angeles County, including Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Lakewood, Norwalk and Westminster.

Democrats hold an eight-point registration edge, though roughly 25% of voters are registered with no party preference. Asian Americans account for about 40% of the district’s 750,000 voting-age residents.

The Vietnamese American Republican field includes Westminster Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen, Westminster Councilmember Amy Phan West, former Cerritos Mayor Chuong Vo and taekwondo studio owner Tom Vo. Operations analyst Mark Leonard, the only non-Vietnamese American challenger, is also on the Republican ballot.

Tran heads into the primary with a wide fundraising lead, having raised $3.9 million through March 31, as per the Los Angeles Times. His record includes the Warrior Act, which codifies women’s right to serve in combat, and the Small Business Innovation Research Foreign Interference Safeguard Act co-authored with Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.). However, he has also drawn criticism from VietRISE and others who said he has not done enough to push back on federal immigration enforcement sweeps in Little Saigon.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee made District 45 one of its earliest 2026 targets, running multilingual print ads in Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean community papers. Across the field, affordability and housing costs have dominated the policy agenda. “We truly believe we worked so hard to flee a communist party to come here for American values,” Chuong Vo, a retired police officer, told NBC LA. “We have to continue that here.”

The stakes extend beyond one seat. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Louisiana v. Callais narrowed Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The decision arrives as Asian Americans, the country’s fastest-growing racial group, are only starting to build the geographic concentration needed to elect representatives of their choice. Tran called the decision “a betrayal of the promise of equal representation.”

The top two finishers in the June 2 primary will advance to November regardless of party.