FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 29, 2010
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The Tea Party Express (website: www.TeaPartyExpress.org) announced its endorsement of Asm. Van Tran (R-CA) for Congress today.

“Van Tran has spent six years fighting against higher taxes and irresponsible budgets in California,” said Amy Kremer, Chairman of the Tea Party Express. “His conservative principles and strong leadership are exactly what we need in Congress.”

Tran is running against incumbent Democrat Loretta Sanchez in the historically conservative Orange County, CA.

A key success? Van Tran, a California assemblyman running against Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Tran, an immigrant whose parents left Vietnam on a military plane in the days before Saigon fell, lives in California's 47th District, which has the highest concentration of Vietnamese-Americans in the country. When McCarthy sat down to find someone to challenge Sanchez in a district that gave 60 percent of its vote to Obama in 2008 but voted for Bush in 2004, Tran was a natural fit: a popular elected official with a natural base beyond the party itself.

"You have to encourage the right people in the right districts," McCarthy says. He recalls a top House Democrat approaching him after Tran announced he would run, acknowledging the seat would become more difficult for Democrats to hold: "Van Tran - now that one hurt," the Democrat said."

Click here for the full article.

By: Kasie Hunt
July 28, 2010 05:21 PM EDT

Source: Politico.com

Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam, co-sponsored the Vietnam Human Rights Act, has worked to release Vietnamese political prisoners, employs a full-time Vietnamese caseworker in her California field office and has visited Vietnam twice.

This year, she’s finally facing a candidate who can directly challenge her from inside the community she has been working to help: Van Tran, a Vietnamese American who hasn’t been back to his homeland since April 25, 1975, when his family fled Saigon just five days before the city fell to the North Vietnamese.

And Tran, the Republican challenging Sanchez this fall, is making the race all about Vietnam.

“There’s a big debate in the community whether she’s effective or not — whether she’s doing it for lip service or for votes, because the big question is, after 14 years in the House, what substantial and tangible results can she show in terms of advancing Vietnamese democracy and human rights,” Tran told POLITICO in an interview Tuesday. “Show us your accomplishments — what bills, what legislation, what political prisoners?”

With less than three weeks remaining till the primary election on June 8, Quang Pham, a former candidate, has endorsed Assemblyman Van Tran, whom he used to run against. Tran is now in a three-way race, facing  two other candidates in the Republican primary: Tan Nguyen, the GOP’s 2006 nominee for the same race, and Katherine Smith, a member of the Anaheim Unified school board.

Van and Quang at the Vietnamese American Natoinal Chamber of Commerce Gala in Northern Virginia in late 2009 (Photo Credit: Ly Vuong).

Below is the official press release announcing the endorsement from Van Tran's campaign:

Santa Ana – Today, Assemblyman Van Tran is proud to announce receiving an endorsement from Quang Pham, a former opponent in the Republican primary for the race for the 47th Congressional District seat held by Loretta Sanchez.