Elected Officials

Hon. Van Tran (R)

Van Tran was elected to the California State Assembly in November 2004. He represents the 68th Assembly District in Orange County, including the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Newport Beach, Stanton, and Westminster.

Assemblyman Tran serves on the Business and Professions, Banking and Finance, and Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committees. Additionally, he is a member of the Select Committee on Critical Issues and Asian Pacific Islander Joint Caucus.

Since his election to the Assembly, Van has made quick work to advance common-sense solutions to some of the biggest problems facing California. His efforts include Assembly Bill 199, an act to expand the number of Enterprise Zones in California and help create new jobs, and Assembly Bill 38, cutting the excessive salary for members of part-time boards and commissions, saving California over $5 million per year. Van’s agenda includes balancing the budget deficit through spending restraint, eliminating waste in the bureaucracy, and improving our infrastructure, particularly roads and highways.

Van’s family first came to America in 1975, evacuated by the U.S. Army a week before the fall of Saigon. Originally settling in Michigan, the family moved to Orange County while Van was in high school. Politically active during his university days, Assemblyman Tran started as an intern for Congressman Robert Dornan and for then State Senator (now Congressman) Ed Royce.

Leading up to his historic election as the first Vietnamese American in a state legislature, Van was the focus of broad media and public coverage. He was featured in the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar alongside Colin Powell and Abraham Lincoln. Van’s biographical profile has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, Sacramento Union, Grand Rapids Press (MI), and by the Associated Press.

Prior to serving in the Assembly, Van was managing partner of his own law practice, served on the Garden Grove Planning Commission, and served as Vice-Mayor of Garden Grove, having garnered the highest number of votes in the city’s council election. His community involvement has been extensive, including as Vice Chairman of the Orange County based ‘El Capitan’ District of the Boy Scouts of America. He is also a lifetime member of the prestigious American Council of Young Political Leaders, and a 2002 Delegate to the Young Leaders Conference, organized by the American-Swiss Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2004, OC Metro Magazine recognized Van as one of the ‘Hottest 25 People in Orange County’. The Orange County Register recognized him in 2001 as a ‘person to watch’.

Van completed his Bachelors Degree in Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, and went on to earn both a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and a Juris Doctorate from Hamline University School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 2004, he married Cindy Nguyen of Elk Grove.

More Information:
Assemblyman Van Tran Website
Contact Assemblyman Van Tran