Derek Tran

How times change. That was our conclusion after recently interviewing U.S. Rep. Derek Tran, the Democrat from Orange who defeated Republican Rep. Michele Steel in 2024 by around 600 votes in the 45th congressional district. The seat encompasses Little Saigon and central and northern Orange County, plus parts of Los Angeles County.

We endorsed Steel, now a U.S. ambassador, that time around even though we had our share of disagreements with her. Tran, by comparison, was a neophyte. His only political post was city traffic commissioner. After our interview, we concluded that “Tran repeatedly struggled when asked a direct question about where he actually stood on the issues.”

This go-round, we found him thoughtful, focused and conversant in the key issues. He spoke out forcefully about matters that concern us, including ICE’s abusive practices. He also blasted Congress’ unsustainable deficit spending, the administration’s incoherent foreign policy, the foolhardy nature of Trump’s tariff policies, and the president’s costly war of choice in Iran.

The son of Vietnamese refugees, he also told us of his so far unsuccessful effort to get the Republican-controlled House to include a note on Vietnam in its annual resolution denouncing socialism.

“As a Member of Congress, I have been unafraid to stand against communist and socialist governments that flagrantly violate human rights,” he said after the latest rejection. “I’ve pressured the Trump Administration to demand the release of prisoners of conscience, including Le Huu Minh Tuan. And I have fought to uplift the stories of the Vietnamese diaspora so that the communist regime cannot erase its atrocities.”

Tran suspects it might have something to do with the Trump Organization’s $1.5 billion resort deal in Vietnam. These days, you never know.

When we talked about the debt and the state of entitlements, he didn’t take the “let’s just cut waste” dodge. He recognized the depth of the problem and called for a commission to propose solutions to Social Security’s potential insolvency. We appreciated his poise, knowledge and forthrightness. We were left thinking: Is this the same Derek Tran we previously interviewed?

His opponent, retired police officer and former Cerritos Mayor Chuong Vo, is running on a familiar theme of protecting the American dream for future generations. Which indeed is a deeply felt cause for him. Vo was brought to this country as a toddler after his family escaped communism in Vietnam. In our interview with him, Vo hammered democratic socialism, made clear he was against “defunding the police” and stressed the importance of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.

Those are all well and good, but the challenge for Vo is in going beyond the slogans and applying classic conservative principles in the shadow of the Trump administration.

To his credit, drawing upon his background in law enforcement, he explained to us his criticisms of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, particularly in the first year. He suggested more training was needed for ICE agents and made clear he opposed some of the rights violations perpetrated by federal agents.

“I do not support any police, any law enforcement, trampling over private property without the authority to do so,” he said. Like Tran, he also recognizes immigration reform as a long-term necessity.

On key matters, though, Vo either retreated to slogans or ignorance. In the face of a $40 trillion national debt, a $2 trillion annual deficit and looming entitlement cliffs, Vo insists “waste, fraud and abuse” is the key, which is an answer that sounds like an answer but isn’t an answer since it lacks any specifics.

When asked what he thought about the president floating a $1.5 trillion defense budget, he replied, “I don’t want to say I wouldn’t support it or I would support it without knowing [more].”

Likewise, when asked about the Iran war, he at times rationalized the war – arguing that Iran would be a danger to the world if it had nuclear weapons – but also declined to elaborate on whether the president was justified in unilaterally launching the war without congressional approval. “I don’t have the whole intelligence of what happened before this whole war started… I don’t have the intel, so I can’t speak on that,” he said.

While some caution is understandable, Vo is running for a seat in the branch of government with the constitutional power to declare war and control the purse strings. He did, to his credit, express a wish for the Iran war to end soon and agreed that Congress should have the power over war. But he gave no indication he’d vote to end the war.

Vo isn’t particularly doctrinaire, but came across as someone who would largely support Trump administration policies without pushing back very much. A rubber stamp, in other words, much like all but a handful of Republicans in Congress.

To be sure, as an editorial board committed to limited government and free markets, we have our share of disagreements with Tran. He supports so-called assault weapons bans, a higher federal minimum wage and putting the thumb on the scale in favor of unions with the PRO Act.

Fortunately, there is not much chance of movement on these points over the next term.

All things considered, Tran has earned another term, especially at a time when the Trump administration’s policies are disrupting the economy, dragging the United States into endless conflicts and wrecking the constitutional order.