Election 2020: Most congressmen of Vietnamese descent are elected Democrats

Two weeks after the general election on November 3, the vote count is almost complete. Although not yet officially, former Vice President Joe Biden considered the winner with 79 million popular votes and 306 electoral votes, President Donald Trump received 73.3 million votes and 232 electoral votes.

There have been complaints in several states of the losing side about how voters voted, the deadlines and how to count them, but don’t expect the results to be reversed.

Although Democrats win to own the White House in the next four years and the House of Representatives still has a majority, it is not as high as it used to be because it lost five seats to the Republic. The Senate currently has 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats, Georgia’s remaining two seats will vote for the second round on January 5.

In the House of Representatives, the latest results are 219 Democrats and 204 Republicans. Three of the five seats moved from Democracy to Republic are from California, where a large number of Vietnamese live.

As the blue wave swept through American politics in the 2018 election, the Republic lost a majority in the House of Representatives and Orange County, the Republican stronghold in California, also turned green when Republicans in power went defeated.

On November 3, the Republic regained Unit 39 with current Democratic congressman Gil Cisneros and lost the Korean Republican candidate Young Kim. Unit 48 with Republican candidate Michelle Steel defeats incumbent Democrat Hardy Ronda.

Unit 21 in central California is the agricultural region, Republican candidate David Valadao beat current Democratic Congressman TJ Cox.

Particularly in the Vietnamese community, Vietnamese voters in many states are also very interested in this year’s elections, from running to campaigning for two consortia of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

The political opinion of Vietnamese Americans, according to an AAPI and AAJC poll in late summer on the presidential election, 48% support Trump, 36% Biden.

Before Election Day on 3/11, the America’s Voice poll showed that Vietnamese had 61% support for Biden and 36% for Trump. The Vietnamese people support Trump in second place, after the Filipinos with 38%, of Asian ethnicity. The Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Korean ethnic groups support Biden by 70% or more. Vietnamese-Americans voted for Donald Trump and 41% for Joe Biden.

In the last elections, the majority of Vietnamese candidates for the state legislature who have been re-elected are Democrats.

In Florida District 7, Representative Stephanie Murphy (Dang Thi Ngoc Dung) was re-elected.

Bee Nguyen ran again for Georgia State Representative and was unrivaled.

Massachusetts has Tram Nguyen, Washington has Thai My Linh, Texas has Hubert Vo, Nevada has Rochelle Nguyen, all elected and Democrats.

The state of Virginia has Kathy Tran and Washington, with Senator Joe Nguyen, both of whom are sitting elected Democrats who are also Democrats.

On the Republic side, in Massachusetts is Senator Dean Tran, a Vietnam-born Republican in politics since 2017. He ran for reelection and lost in the last election.

Orange County, Southern California, Republican Janet Nguyen defeated Diedre Nguyen of the Democratic Party to represent District 72 in the State House of Representatives. Janet Nguyen was a state senator and did not run for re-election a few years ago.

He will replace Representative Tyer Diep in the California House of Representatives. Mr. Diep was new to the legislature two years ago, but lost to Janet in the March primary.

Two cities with a large number of Vietnamese in Orange County are Westminster and Garden Grove. Among the 30 candidates of Vietnamese origin in the region, there are both successes and failures.

Kimberly Ho was re-elected as a deputy for Westminster District 3, after the city made a change in the way it is elected.

Westminster Area 2 has three people competing for parliamentary seats, two Vietnamese, Nam Quan Nguyen and Trung Ta, and lost to candidate Carlos Manzo.

In this city, with 91,000 inhabitants and a density of Vietnamese descent close to 50%, the highest in the United States, 77% of voters also passed a law to limit the mandate of the elected city, whether it is a member or mayor, time in politics a total of only 3 terms, that is, 12 years. The future Westminter will have a lot of excitement in election season.

In Garden Grove, with a population of 171,000 with 40% Vietnamese origin, Congresswoman Kim Bernice Nguyen ran again for a parliamentary seat and was elected. While Congressman Phat Bui was running for mayor and Julie Diep was running unsuccessfully for parliamentarian.

Currently, the number of Vietnamese elected at all levels is concentrated in the two cities of Westminster and Garden Grove.

Orange County Capital Santa Ana will have for the first time a Vietnamese on the city council, Phan Viet Thai, a lawyer who won the elections in District 1. Ms. Thai, 32, was born in a field refugees in Thailand.

At the county level, incumbent supervisor Andrew Do won re-election through a difficult campaign, garnering 51.8% of the vote compared to 48.2% for his rival Sergio Contreras.

Fountain Valley also has a few Vietnamese running for city council. Among the 7 candidates, there are 4 Vietnamese. Voters choose two. Ted Bui is second and will be a member of this city. The most surprising candidate was Mai Khanh Tran, a doctor who ran for federal congresswoman in 2018 but was only fourth out of 7 candidates.

Several candidates of Vietnamese origin were also elected to the local board of education or the public services committee on sanitation and water.

In the Valley of Yellow Flowers, the election results were bad news for the San José community when Congressman Lan Diep, representative from District 4, lost his election.

So there are no more Vietnamese in the San Jose parliament, where since 2005 Madison Nguyen was the first elected member of the Vietnamese-born and at one point there were two people of Vietnamese descent on the town hall, although the Vietnamese people were only about ten percent. .

The city of San José used to have members Madison Nguyen, Manh Nguyen, Tam Nguyen, and Lan Diep.

With almost one million inhabitants, San José is the city with the largest Vietnamese population in the United States. There are no more Vietnamese in parliament, this is a huge political failure for the Vietnamese community here.

Next to San José is the small town of Milpitas, with a population of 80,000, the electoral results have had better news. Mayor Richard Tran ran for reelection and won brilliantly. The City Council has re-elected the young MP Anthony Phan.

Several other Vietnamese from the San José area have successfully run for the local board of education. Bryan Do joined the East Side High School District, Khoa Nguyen was re-elected to the Berryessa Union School District and Scott Hung Pham joined the Alum Rock Unified School District.

The last election on November 3 was an active election, albeit limited, due to the translation of Covid-19. The number of voters who participated in the vote reached a record high, a total of 154 million, compared to 2016 was 135 million.

Due to Covid-19, most states allow voters to vote by mail, so the number of voters who participated in the vote increased by 19 million compared to 2016, which is beneficial for the Democratic Party. Many Vietnamese Democratic candidates have won glorious victories in many states.

But not a huge (landslide) victory for the Democratic Party. The 306 electoral votes went to Biden and 232 to Trump, just when Trump had unexpectedly obtained the same votes from the electoral college four years ago.

Until now, President Donald Trump and many Republican supporters still do not want to acknowledge the election results, American politics will continue to simmer in parliament in the next two years, the next four years.

Four years ago, the November after the elections also sparked a wave of opposition. The situation this year seems to be repeating itself, but with a greater risk of crisis.