US Midterms 2026
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Derek Tran, a Democrat and Army Reserve veteran who has represented California's 45th congressional district since 2025, faces Republican Chuong Vo, a former mayor of Cerritos, in 2026.
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Tran, a Democrat and child of Vietnamese refugees, is defending his Orange County seat in a newly redrawn, moderately Democratic district (-about five points more favorable after Prop. 50).
Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-OR-05) – C [...] Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-OR-05) – C
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BentzKurdianThe article covers Orange County’s 45th Congressional District (CA-45), not CA-31.
Derek Tran is the Democratic incumbent representing California’s 45th Congressional District (CA-45), which covers most of Orange County and a small part of southeast Los Angeles County.
The article discusses Fairshake and its affiliated groups, which are backed by major crypto donors, including Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.
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Derek Tran was born on December 22, 1980, in Los Angeles County, California, and grew up in the San Gabriel Valley as the son of Vietnamese refugees who established a corner store after immigrating to the United States.
He enlisted in the United States Army when he turned 18 and spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve, serving as a cook and being activated for Operations Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom before his honorable discharge.
He then graduated from Bentley University with a B.S. and earned a J.D. from Glendale University College of Law, and in 2012 he moved to Orange County. He lives in the city of Orange with his wife, Michelle, and their three children.
Derek Tran has worked as an attorney since 2014, and in 2020 he founded the Tran Firm in Huntington Beach, which focused on personal injury and employment law and was acquired by Feher Law in 2023. He has served on the board of the Consumer Attorneys Association of America and was appointed traffic commissioner for Orange, and with his wife he co-owns a pharmacy in Anaheim.
In 2024 Tran ran in California's 45th congressional district against Republican incumbent Michelle Steel, placing second in the top-two primary 366 votes ahead of Kim Nguyen-Penaloza.
He defeated Steel in the general election by 653 votes out of nearly 316,000 cast, one of the closest races of the 2024 cycle.
Tran was sworn into the 119th Congress on January 3, 2025, as the third Vietnamese American elected to Congress and the first to represent California, and he was appointed to the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Small Business.
He was also chosen to co-lead the Democratic Party's congressional National Security Task Force.
Derek Tran is the Democratic incumbent in the 2026 election for California's 45th congressional district, which he flipped in 2024 with 50.1% of the vote.
In the top-two primary on June 2, 2026, he finished first with 53.76%, and Republican Chuong Vo, a former mayor of Cerritos, placed second with 15.34% in a Republican field that also included Westminster mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen, realtor Tom Vo and Westminster city councilor Amy Phan West.
Tran and Vo face each other in the general election on November 3, 2026.
