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Mother Jones: How Democrats (Just Barely) Flipped America's Most Expensive House Seat
Mother Jones - How Democrats (Just Barely) Flipped America’s Most Expensive House Seat
Derek Tran overcame red-baiting and Elon Musk’s cash to defeat a GOP incumbent.
Alex Nguyen
2 hours ago
In late November, more than three weeks after Election Day, GOP Rep. Michelle Steel conceded to Democrat Derek Tran in one of the most hotly contested US House races in the country. In the end, Tran won by roughly 650 votes in Southern California’s 45th congressional district, making it one of the country’s closest contests and helping ensure that the Republican House majority will be among the narrowest in history.
In an election cycle in which Republicans made big gains in California and among Asian-American voters nationwide, the CA-45 race stood out. As I reported in October, this majority-minority district—encompassing more than a dozen cities in Orange and Los Angeles counties—is home to a population that is 39 percent Asian American and Pacific Islander. About half of this group is Vietnamese, including many immigrants who came to the United States fleeing communist rule after the Vietnam War. In recent years, the district has become known for clashes over Asian identity and red-baiting, a strategy routinely employed by Steel’s backers, in particular. Vietnamese-language signs populate street corners and mailers are sent to households insinuating that candidates hold communist sympathies.
Amid the countless post-election analyses examining demographic shifts among voters, what has stuck with me the most is something that Jeanie Le, a board member with Orange County Young Democrats, told me months prior to the CA-45 vote: “We all fit in these diverse categories…but we are not a monolith. There’s so much happening in our community, and I just really want to make sure that when people write about this community, they reflect that.”
Still, the battles over identity were unavoidable. Democrats bet that Tran’s personal biography—a US Army veteran and the son of Vietnamese refugees—could help him withstand Steel’s anti-communist attacks and give him a better chance at connecting with Vietnamese voters. And indeed, Tran outperformed Jay Chen, a Taiwanese American who was the Democratic nominee in 2022, in the Republican-leaning cities of Westminster and Garden Grove in Little Saigon.
Christina Dao, a host and commentator for Nguoi Viet Daily News in Little Saigon, said that although Steel had many local Vietnamese leaders on her side, “the elders—they have a sense of patriotism—wanted to put a son of Vietnamese refugees into Congress.” Dao said that these sentiments fueled a door-to-door campaign in support of Tran. “They really want to do whatever they can to help the next generation build up the community and a voice and Vietnamese vote because they feel that is part of their duty.”
/snip
Derek Tran overcame red-baiting and Elon Musk’s cash to defeat a GOP incumbent.
Alex Nguyen
2 hours ago
In late November, more than three weeks after Election Day, GOP Rep. Michelle Steel conceded to Democrat Derek Tran in one of the most hotly contested US House races in the country. In the end, Tran won by roughly 650 votes in Southern California’s 45th congressional district, making it one of the country’s closest contests and helping ensure that the Republican House majority will be among the narrowest in history.
In an election cycle in which Republicans made big gains in California and among Asian-American voters nationwide, the CA-45 race stood out. As I reported in October, this majority-minority district—encompassing more than a dozen cities in Orange and Los Angeles counties—is home to a population that is 39 percent Asian American and Pacific Islander. About half of this group is Vietnamese, including many immigrants who came to the United States fleeing communist rule after the Vietnam War. In recent years, the district has become known for clashes over Asian identity and red-baiting, a strategy routinely employed by Steel’s backers, in particular. Vietnamese-language signs populate street corners and mailers are sent to households insinuating that candidates hold communist sympathies.
Amid the countless post-election analyses examining demographic shifts among voters, what has stuck with me the most is something that Jeanie Le, a board member with Orange County Young Democrats, told me months prior to the CA-45 vote: “We all fit in these diverse categories…but we are not a monolith. There’s so much happening in our community, and I just really want to make sure that when people write about this community, they reflect that.”
Still, the battles over identity were unavoidable. Democrats bet that Tran’s personal biography—a US Army veteran and the son of Vietnamese refugees—could help him withstand Steel’s anti-communist attacks and give him a better chance at connecting with Vietnamese voters. And indeed, Tran outperformed Jay Chen, a Taiwanese American who was the Democratic nominee in 2022, in the Republican-leaning cities of Westminster and Garden Grove in Little Saigon.
Christina Dao, a host and commentator for Nguoi Viet Daily News in Little Saigon, said that although Steel had many local Vietnamese leaders on her side, “the elders—they have a sense of patriotism—wanted to put a son of Vietnamese refugees into Congress.” Dao said that these sentiments fueled a door-to-door campaign in support of Tran. “They really want to do whatever they can to help the next generation build up the community and a voice and Vietnamese vote because they feel that is part of their duty.”
/snip
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