Rep. Michelle Steel is a piece of work. She exploits fears of “communism” and ethnic tensions in the Asian communities of the 45th district to keep getting elected. This strategy was evident in the 2022 election.
In the 45th District anchored in Orange County, Steel, a South Korean immigrant looking for a second term in Congress, faced Chen, a Navy reservist and the son of immigrants from Taiwan. The race was being watched nationally for what it says about the preferences of the Asian community.
The candidates initially made inflation and hate crimes against Asian Americans key issues. But the race took an ugly turn and most of it focused on accusation and recrimination.
Chen’s advertising depicted Steel as an extremist who would threaten abortion rights, while Republicans accused Chen of “racism” after he told supporters an “interpreter” was needed to understand Steel’s remarks, arguing that Chen was mocking her accented English. Chen said he was referring to “convoluted talking points” that he said Steel uses to sidestep issues.
Steel also distributed flyers depicting Chen as a communist sympathizer, while Chen has said his grandmother fled China to escape communist rule.
Enter Derek Tran, a consumer rights attorney who has Little Saigon excited about his candidacy.
Tran, a 43-year-old political newcomer who previously worked as a lawyer for personal injury and discrimination cases and served in the U.S. Army, is running a campaign in one of the nation’s few competitive House races in the upcoming elections that will determine which party will control the lower chamber and play a major role in shaping or killing the agenda for the White House winner. Highlighting the competitiveness of Tran's race, it's one of the handful of districts that President Joe Biden won in the 2020 election but is held by a Republican – Biden won there by 6 percentage points.
A key component behind Tran’s campaign is his background and ability to connect with the Vietnamese population that Democrats believe no prior candidate could. The hope is that Tran can convince and turn out those voters during a presidential election cycle where [Harris] will be at the top of the ticket in one of the nation's deepest blue states.
Despite having the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam, the area has never been represented by a Vietnamese-American. Derek Tran is hoping to change that.
The question is whether or not he can fight back against the ethnic and “socialist” attacks that are coming.
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Derek Tran for California-45
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What’s the Big Idea?
CA-45 precinct results from the 2022 election.
THIS DISTRICT LEANS REPUBLICAN, with a D+2 PVI
This district covers interior portions of Orange County southeast of Los Angeles. Like many of the other districts covering Orange County, it is a recent convert to the Democratic cause. It was only in 2016 that Hillary Clinton carried the county by a narrow margin and 2018 before every seat in the county fell to the Democratic Party.
There was a clawback by the GOP in 2020, and the predecessor to the 45th district was one of the districts that the GOP won back through Rep. Michelle Steel. In a recurring theme for her, she won it back primarily through spreading language-specific misinformation.
Steel decided to move in order to stay in Congress after redistricting. Her district shifted quite a bit northwest from her previous one. This district now contains very little of the coastal regions she used to represent as it travels into the interior of Orange County to pick up bluer areas.
It is a district that is still fairly evenly split between Democratic and Republican voters. Asian voters and Hispanic voters are the critical swing votes in this area. The area covered by the 45th district voted for Biden by a 52.1% to 46.0% margin in 2020.
A Presidential electorate and a midterm electorate are different animals. In 2020, 223k voted in the Top2 primary and 415k in the general election. In 2022, 136k voted in the primary and 217k voted in the general election. It is possible our voters sat on their hands. In a nasty race, Steel was able to overcome the lean of the district and win 52.4% to 47.6% in 2022.
She is the slight favorite once again in 2024 according to ratings aggregators. It showed in the March Top 2 primary, where the incumbent Steel got 54.9% of the vote and the Democratic candidates added up to 45.1% of the vote. 142k people voted, which is closer to a 2022 result than a 2020 one.
Here’s where the 45th district race will be won.
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Fullerton: This city has traditionally voted for the GOP, but more and more of it now votes for Democratic candidates. The campus of Cal State Fullerton is in the district, and getting out the student vote may be key to Tran winning this district in 2024.
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Cerritos, Buena Park, Cypress: These suburbs remained loyal to Democratic candidates even as others nearby shifted hard right to support the GOP in 2020. Tran will need to at least match the Biden margins, if not exceed them to compensate for areas that Steel will be strong in.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
Derek Tran: the Consumer Crusader
Derek Tran has a record of fighting for consumers, which will sadly be painted as “socialism”.
Derek Tran is the son of refugees from Vietnam who fled Communism to seek a better life in southern California. His parents opened up a corner store in Little Saigon and Derek worked there until he joined the Army at age 18.
Tran went to law school after serving in the military. He could have signed up for high-paying jobs in corporate law, but he decided to open up a small law firm in Orange County instead. Instead of looking after corporations and deep-pocketed rich people, Tran decided to fight for the little guy: immigrants, workers, survivors of sexual harassment, and consumers.
Tran served on the Orange Traffic Commission to help solve some of the worst traffic problems in the US. Instead of pouring more money into more roads, Tran will come to Congress to pass grants for mass transit and other climate-friendly alternatives. He would also attempt to bring clean energy jobs back to Orange County.
Tran and his wife run a pharmacy in the area and were responsible for administering COVID-19 vaccines that helped reopen Orange County. In Congress, Derek will work to reduce the costs of prescription drugs, protect a woman’s right to choose, and expand coverage, because he feels that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.
Derek Tran is also running for this very important reason - to protect democracy. “I’m running for Congress to put people ahead of politics, protect our democracy, and ensure everyone, no matter what neighborhood they come from has the opportunity to succeed without fear of their freedoms being taken away."
These aren’t the only issues Derek Tran is emphasizing in his attempt to oust Rep. Michelle Steel. A full list of where he stands on the issues can be found at the bottom of his campaign website.
Rep. Michelle Steel: the Master Manipulator
Rep. Michelle Steel has compiled an alarming record in her four years in Congress.
Rep. Michelle Steel was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1955. She was educated in Korea, Japan, and the United States. She obtained an MBA from the University of Southern California. She is fluent in both Korean and Japanese in addition to speaking accented English.
Steel was elected to the California State Board of Equalization (which is the state tax board) in 2006. During her tenure, she was the highest-ranking Republican woman and highest-ranking Korean-American in elected office in California. She was elected vice chair of the board in 2011.
In 2014, Steel was elected to the Orange County Board of Supervisors. She made a name for herself as an ardent Trump supporter in 2018 by being the only elected official to greet him on his first official trip to California as President. Trump returned the favor by appointing her to a presidential advisory commission on AAPI issues.
Steel also made a name for herself by staunchly opposing any efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. She opposed mandatory face masks in Orange County, opposed face coverings for retail employees, and opposed mask mandates in public schools. She even questioned the efficacy of masks in preventing the spread of disease.
Michelle Steel also looked after the rich donors to her campaign while in office. She greenlighted a sweetheart deal for a private jet company at John Wayne Airport which then donated to her campaign. Then there was the land deal for one of her donors that mysteriously went through when other land deals were mired in red tape. Steel, for all of her anti-corruption crusading, has some skeletons in her closet.
Steel is a religious maniac, though she tries to have it both ways when it comes to informing the electorate of her stances. She voted against the Equality Act and the Respect for Marriage Act which shows her clear bigotry against people who are LGBTQ+.
Her hugest about-face comes on her support for the Life at Conception Act. She is anti-abortion and does not support exceptions for abortion rights. It is on the issue of IVF where Steel has some explaining to do. She supported an IVF ban until the Alabama Supreme Court decision was granted that outlawed it. Suddenly, she started backpedaling from her support of a ban of IVF. Who knows what she actually supports now?
To see other issues she’s terrible on, it is best to go to the primary source or to look at her VoteSmart profile.
How Can You Help?
Since this district is in the pricey Los Angeles media market, your donation dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it could elsewhere. Besides, Rep. Michelle Steel and Derek Tran are both well-funded now, though Steel has the cash-on-hand advantage. It seems like being on Red to Blue really helped elevate Tran, because he outraised Steel $1.4M to $1.1M in the Q2 reporting period.
Outside money is flooding into this area because of all of the competitive Congressional races. Not all of the $19.2M reserved by the House Majority PAC (Dem) and the $18.2M reserved by the Congressional Leadership Fund (GOP) is earmarked for this race. A significant portion of it will definitely be spent here though. Even the NRCC is getting in on the action with a $2.5M ad buy.
There have been frequent canvassing events for Derek Tran in Westminster and Brea. They are held on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 9:30AM to 12:30PM PDT. If you live in the area and are interested, click on the links above and see what events fit in with your future schedule!
There is also an effort to register voters on college campuses in the boundaries of CA-45 starting in mid-August. It will be every weekday except for Friday from 10:30AM-1PM PDT. If we get more of our voters to register and participate, we will flip this district!
If you wish to volunteer for Derek Tran on a more permanent basis, you can sign up with your contact information at the very bottom of his campaign website.
Derek Tran has a tough task ahead of him. Even though Presidential results say this district is flippable, 2022 results paint the story that AAPI and Hispanic voters aren’t always amenable to voting for Democratic candidates - especially if they are tarred with the “socialist” label. Tran did release a poll showing him in a virtual tie with the incumbent, but that was in early June so it is dated.
Rep. Michelle Steel knows her district well as evidenced by her continuing to get elected to offices in the area. She will use the same playbook once again - stoke ethnic tensions and frequently charge Tran with being a “socialist” or “communist”. According to Daily Kos, she is tied for the 11th most vulnerable seat held by a member of the GOP. She can be defeated, but a lot depends on how much MVP Harris excites the base.
The question for Derek Tran is whether his inroads in the Vietnamese community are enough to offset the attacks that are sure to come.
Derek Tran for California-45
Campaign Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | DONATE
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