CA-45: Democratic daughter of Vietnamese refugee enters race against red-baiting Republican
Garden Grove City Councilwoman Kim Bernice Nguyen on Wednesday became the first notable Democrat to announce a campaign against Republican Rep. Michelle Steel in California’s 45th Congressional District, a western Orange County constituency that Joe Biden carried 52-46 in 2020.
Nguyen, who used her opening video to tell the audience, “My father is a Vietnamese refugee, my mother a Mexican immigrant,” made history in 2016 when she became the first Latino to ever serve on her City Council. Nguyen four years later challenged Republican County Supervisor Andrew Do only to take fourth place in the nonpartisan primary, but she ran for another seat in 2022 when redistricting created the first majority-Latino Board seat in Orange County history.
Nguyen’s opponent this time was a fellow Democrat, Santa Ana Mayor Vicente Sarmiento, and both contenders had some prominent supporters in their corner. Nguyen’s backers included Rep. Katie Porter, a prominent progressive who was successfully running for the 47th District; the sheriff deputies union; and even her old opponent Do. Sarmiento, meanwhile, sported endorsements from Gov. Gavin Newsom and the county Democratic Party, and he ended up beating Nguyen 52-48 in an election that saw their party take its first majority on the Board of Supervisors since 1976.
Steel herself has pulled off two close congressional wins in Orange County, an area where plenty of voters still back Republicans down the ballot even as they’ve become more open to supporting Democrats overall. Steel won a promotion from the Board to the House in 2020 when she unseated Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda 51-49 even as Biden was taking the old 48th District 50-48. (Rouda is now running to succeed Porter, who is campaigning for the Senate.)
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/26/2149283/-Morning-Digest-Democratic-daughter-of-Vietnamese-refugee-enters-race-against-red-baiting-Republican
