English
A Democrat running in a Republican-leaning district, political newcomer Phu Nguyen hopes to sway enough voters to win the seat now held by the first Vietnamese state legislator.
 Phu Nguyen is running for the state Assembly district representing Garden Grove, Westminster, Costa Mesa and surrounding areas. An immigrant with little political experience, his campaign is relying on support from the Vietnamese community.After one month at sea, the death of nine children aboard their boat and eight months in a Hong Kong refugee camp, Phu Nguyen’s family finally arrived in America. His parents had only $2 in their pockets when they came to Orange County in 1981, Nguyen says, and today they have a multistate corporation and one of the nicest homes in Huntington Beach.
That quintessential immigrant story inspired Nguyen, 33, to try to improve the lives of people in Vietnam and in America, he said recently. Now the Democrat is running for the California Assembly seat that represents Costa Mesa, Westminster, Garden Grove and surrounding areas. A political newcomer, Nguyen has held leadership positions in Vietnamese American groups and has vastly expanded his family’s overseas remittance business, he says. But many of his accomplishments are from his time as a student, and he’s been criticized for his lack of government experience. |
