One of the most competitive races in the country whose outcome could tilt the balance of power in Congress is in a district with the largest concentration of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam.
Winning over voters in Orange County's Little Saigon is critical to securing the 45th district seat, and this year's contest may see a sharper split in votes within the community than past ones.
Two-term incumbent Michelle Steel is Republican, like many of the older Vietnamese Americans who reliably head to the polls each election.
But for the first time, Steel is facing a Vietnamese American challenger in Democrat Derek Tran at a moment when many Little Saigon voters are eager to see someone with their background represent them for the first time in Congress.
The Communist threat
Polls indicate a tight race and the millions pouring into both campaigns are leading to a blitz of TV ads and massive campaign signs throughout the swath of northern Orange County that makes up the bulk of the 45th district. It also includes a smattering of L.A. County cities, such as Cerritos and Artesia.
The economy and reproductive rights have figured prominently in both campaigns, but in the Little Saigon community, proving anti-Communism bona fides is also crucial.
Dotted throughout Little Saigon are yellow and red signs — the colors of the Vietnamese flag — that read “Vote for Michelle Steel. Down with Communism!” in Vietnamese.
Steel declined to give an interview to LAist, but through a statement provided by her campaign said among her top priorities is "standing up to the Chinese Communist Party."
Tran, a lawyer, grew up in the San Gabriel Valley before moving to Orange County more than a decade ago, and started a family. He said he comes from a family of Boat People.
"I identify as a son of the community, so an attack on me would result in an attack on the entire community," Tran said.
In her 2022 re-election bid, Steel cast her Democratic rival Jay Chen, who is Taiwanese American, as a Communist sympathizer through mailers that featured a photoshopped image of him carrying a copy of the Communist Manifesto.
Similarly, Steel has sent mailers about Tran that indicate he is supported by Communists. That sparked a protest in Little Saigon and an online petition condemning the mailers.
Community split
A Vietnamese-heritage candidate like Tran might have an advantage in Little Saigon due to cultural or personal connections, but personality and experience still matters, said Long T. Bui, a professor of global and international studies at UC Irvine.
"Tran has to convince the community he is the right Vietnamese American candidate for them," Bui wrote in an e-mail response.
Steel maintains a stable of high-profile supporters in the Vietnamese American community who say they are not convinced that Tran, a first-time candidate, is qualified, including Van Tran, a former GOP state assembly member who ran for Congress.
Van, who until this summer worked as co-chief of staff for O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do, said Steel, coming from South Korea, recognizes issues important to those in the Vietnamese American community such as fighting Communism.
"She understands and has that affinity with our community," Tran said.
But others in Little Saigon say they feel that Steel is co-opting the Vietnamese experience while Tran, as the son of refugees, understands the struggle many in Little Saigon went through, fleeing authoritarian rule.
Retired college educator Hue Pham said Little Saigon should have a Vietnamese American Congress member, especially with the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon approaching next year.
"After 50 years, we should have more people representing us in the Congress," Pham said.
Pham added that even some of her Republican friends plan to vote for Tran, though they are not broadcasting the news because their peers expect them to support the GOP ticket.
