It was close for a little while there, but the registrar has called it – Derek Tran will be the Democrat running against the awful Michelle Steel this fall, and it’s time for all of us (who aren’t MAGA) to unite behind Derek and get rid of probably California’s Worst Congressperson, who is not only loyal to Trump but socially regressive, mean-spirited, hell of corrupt, a HUGE shameless liar, and really really really dumb to boot.
Hats off to Kim Bernice Nguyen-Penaloza for a gracious concession, and I want to know – can Derek use her cool hashtag #strongerthansteel now? Direct off our transom:
For Immediate Release: March 23, 2024
Contact: press@derektranforcongress.com
Tran Wins Top Two Primary Finish in CA-45
Army veteran advances to face Michelle Steel in the 2024 General Election
Democratic Primary Opponent Kim Nguyen-Penaloza Endorses Tran
Garden Grove, CA — Last night, following the Orange County Registrar of Voters’ certification of the March 5 primary election results, U.S. Army veteran, consumer rights attorney, and small business owner Derek Tran, will advance to the November General Election and take on Republican Michelle Steel in the race for California’s 45th Congressional District which President Joe Biden won in 2020 by +6%. Though Tran joined the race just last October, he quickly built a strong coalition, both locally and nationally, and amassed a competitive war chest to match. Garden Grove Councilmember, Democrat Kim Nguyen-Penaloza who finished 3rd, endorsed Tran upon news of the results.
“I congratulate Derek Tran on his victory and wish him the best of luck in the general election. It is time for us to unite as Democrats to defeat the corrupt Michelle Steel.” – Councilwoman Nguyen- Penaloza
Democratic Nominee Derek Tran issued the following statement:
“I am profoundly grateful to the people of CA-45 for choosing me to take on Michelle Steel and fight for the best interests of Orange County families.
“I’d like to acknowledge my primary opponents for running strong campaigns, and I look forward to working with them as we advance toward our shared goal: removing corrupt and extreme politician Michelle Steel from office, and giving Orange County families the kind of representation and advocacy they deserve in the halls of Congress.
“If given another term, Michelle Steel will continue putting her far-right politics first, enabling the chaos and dysfunction of her party, and voting against the interests of middle-class Californians. We can’t afford her failed leadership any longer, and that’s why I’m ready to fight back.
“I want to thank my family, my friends, my campaign team, and most importantly, the people of CA-45 – for standing up to extremism and fear, and instead choosing to put the values of justice, freedom, and opportunity first. Thank you for your trust and faith in me. Now, it’s time to get to work.”
#
California’s 45th is a Congressional District representing portions of Orange and Los Angeles Counties in Southern California. A majority-minority district, the District has the second largest AAPI population (36.97%) of any Congressional District, and the largest Vietnamese community in the country. President Biden won the current district lines by +6 points and it has a +6 point Democratic registration advantage. It includes all or part of the Cities of Garden Grove, Westminster, Cerritos, Buena Park, Placentia, Hawaiian Gardens, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Artesia, Los Alamitos, La Palma, Brea, Lakewood, and Fullerton, as well as the unincorporated community of Rossmoor. The DCCC has listed it as a “District In Play.”
Use of Derek Tran’s military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Dept. of Defense or U.S. Army.
Derek Tran For Congress
The Orange Juice Blog Interview.
It’s going to be a tough race. Shawn Steel will spend enormous amounts of money to re-elect his wife — and we can expect repeats of the sorts of tricks like candidates setting up their own drop boxes and doing the sort of ballot harvesting in nursing homes (with signatures in non-Latin scripts very difficult to verify) from patients who may or may not know that they are having “their” votes counted.
Tran is well-suited to take on that task, as the distance between Little Saigon and (North) Koreatown is great.
We should press the Registrar of Voters soon and persistently about how he plans on checking against the systematic voter fraud that MAGA Republicans accuse others of in part because they imagine that it puts them beyond suspicion when it comes to their own acts. Are they right about that?
A bitter pill for the Dem establishment, no?
Somewhat. Like when Josh Newman beat out Sukhee Kang in 2016. The Parties just endorse too early, and Kim was a real go-getter. But she’s part of the most conservative, law-enforcement-allied wing of the Party. Her biggest allies are the Valerie Amezcua trio in Santa Ana, Lou Correa and his henchman Claudio, and Avelino (who’s coming to our Club meeting April 4 to talk about his state audit.) If Derek had tried earlier he MIGHT have got their endorsement. Like Sarmiento did for Supervisor in 22.
Derek was asked to join the race somewhat late, in Sept-Oct, by people who didn’t think Kim could beat Steel. Not to compare Derek to old Pat Bates, but it was a little like when the OCGOP endorsed Diane Harkey early on for Supervisor and a bunch of more reasonable Republicans asked Pat to jump in anyway. But hopefully Derek does a lot better against Steel than Bates did against Katrina Foley.
If it’s a bitter pill it’s because I backed Derek, although I applauded Cheyenne Hunt’s strength on Gaza. Derek was better on Gaza than Kim, calling for a two-state solution and saying “there shouldn’t be indiscriminate bombing, it needs to be strictly targeted for minimal civilian casualties”… but then he asked me not to print anything about Gaza in my interview with him, because this was right when AIPAC was dumping millions against Dave Min (for similarly modest comments) and he didn’t want that to happen to him. (Hopefully Min’s primary victory was a bitter pill for AIPAC, and I’m sure they will be backing Steel and Baugh.)
I was curious to see if Dan C would post this press release, and he did this morning, with no commentary, despite his earlier “Comeback Kim!” piece a couple weeks ago.
I was glad to see Kim pledge her support to Derek, like Joanna Weiss did to Min (and like Allyson still has NOT to the awful liar Joe Kerr.) And I’m sure Kim’s baby will appreciate having her mom at home.
That is all.
Now Farrah vs Wagner, that was a real bitter pill.
Irvine Council sure keeps you on your toes. I find myself agreeing with Farrah and Agran, who’ve called for a Gaza ceasefire, and who oppose our friend Treseder’s Santa Ana-style protest restrictions, when there haven’t even been any disruptive protests in Irvine.
And Tammy on the fence. Who’s the 5th member again now? Is Jim Carroll still there? [Checks. Sorry, it is MIKE Carroll. Last of the Irvine Repugs.]
https://voiceofoc.org/2024/03/another-orange-county-city-considers-curbing-protests-at-homes/
Umm, two democratic parties in Irvine both sanctioned by the DPOC is a bitter pill. The shepherd has lost control of the flock.
See Will Rodgers.
(This comment seems to have puzzled Eric, and I hate to repeat over-repeated quotes, but Will said, “I don’t belong to an organized Party, I’m a Democrat.”)
Tran is the big government, public employee union guy that will be all about expanding government, increasing regulation, promoting cooky ultra left marxist dialectic race baiting nuttines that characterizes the democratic party. They pretend to be about the people but just promote their own power and nonsense at the expense of the good hard working people of Orange County.
Government that governs less governs best is not Tran’s motto. It’s too bad that his immigrant parents who escaped North Vietnamese tyranny didn’t teach him more about the dangers the dangers of Marxist Lenninist ideology he now follows.
Do you know much about Tran? Or would you just say that about any Democrat, that they’re all “Lenninist?”
I was going to accuse Michelle Steel of writing this opening salvo herself, but it contains too many completed thought shards to be her work. And it would be ”cooky” for her to attack someone else about escaping North Vietnam, when that’s what her own family did, right? At least she has a point about public employee unions being a Marxist development. Little known fact, but the Sheriff’s Deputies and the Teachers Union have a special arrangement where the former provide security for the latter’s reeducation centers.
Tran should hope that the future criticisms of him will be of this same level of quality.
Korea for Michelle. I had thought Michelle came from North Korea, but maybe it was just Korea Korea.
Still it made it a double-pisser that she and her hubby accused Jay Chen of being a Commie when he literally spent time in Korea protecting her relatives from the NK loonies.
In other news, while awaiting sentencing. Melahat sought permission to travel to Canada of all places and was denied. Duh.
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/66746190/united-states-v-rafiei/ (See entry 42, there has been some recent action on the docket, I heard Irvine was going to proclaim April as Melahat sentencing month)
Farrah Khan and Melahat Raffiei have something In common. They are small business owners. And full of f’ing shiat!
What? The sentencing is still May 10, isn’t it?
The DPOC loves Tran now.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4ygsVLPBgi/
Meanwhile Ada is staying in the present on a European vacation. Or planning her escape?
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0rjnZnsYuLYwJbvthj9hjyyKkQnNYtT5DsPvDgsfdp93STQKTYh532zWLpEtLK6Gdl&id=100068183651270
I think she may be looking for Tony Castro. I asked her if he was over there.