Rep. Michelle Steel of Seal Beach should not remain in Congress. That should be an easy choice for voters of the 45th Congressional District, which curves from Fountain Valley through a section of southern Los Angeles County and northern Orange County, including Garden Grove and Westminster.
The Republican has not been a positive force for the region or the nation. In 2021, he voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill. It was approved anyway, and when he contributed more than $8 million to his district in 2022, Steel claimed the credit.
She co-sponsored a resolution declaring that life begins at conception, has an A+ rating with the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Steel does not represent the values of your district. Most voters there voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and for California's abortion rights measure, Proposition 1, in 2022. He surprisingly has no moderate Republican challengers in the March primary.
Four Democrats are vying to run against Steel in November. The strongest among them, and the one most likely to unseat Steel, is Kim Nguyen-Penaloza, a Garden Grove City Council member who has experience and passion for improving health care and health insurance; He works as manager of Blue Shield's Medi-Cal program and is a strong advocate for reproductive rights. She believes she can do a much better job than Steel in bringing federal dollars to 45th place.
Voters can expect to see nasty and highly misleading campaign ads from Steel attacking Nguyen-Penaloza, who is endorsed by the California Democratic Party, as Steel tries to keep his seat. In 2022, he described his Democratic opponent Jay Chen as a communist sympathizer, even though the Navy reservist with top-secret clearance is the grandson of a woman who fled communist China. It was a message designed to upset the many Vietnamese refugees in Little Saigon, which straddles Garden Grove and Westminster.
It would certainly be difficult for Steel to file similar lawsuits against Nguyen-Penaloza, the daughter of a Vietnamese refugee and a Mexican immigrant. But Nguyen-Penaloza's background does more than simply protect her from baseless political attacks. It has given him a true understanding of the needs of the people and the problems of the 45th district. He grew up primarily in Garden Grove and shortly after finishing college, when he disagreed with the congressional district boundaries established for the elections of the city council, investigated and drew up a different map that was eventually adopted by the city. That's a lot of cleverness for such a young person.
At age 25, she was the youngest person elected to the City Council, where her accomplishments include spearheading a mobile mental health program that primarily serves the city's homeless population. That program is about to expand into a comprehensive homeless services center, which will provide food, job training and shelter. She is now in her eighth and final year as a council member.
What is notable about his accomplishments is that he was working with a board that, while officially nonpartisan, is dominated by Republicans. Still, he was able to find common ground to get important legislation passed, such as an agreement requiring contractors on public projects to hire a certain number of veterans and local workers. The ability to work successfully with members of another political party is a rare quality in a divided Congress.
Also running is Cheyenne Hunt, a 26-year-old public interest attorney who, while in law school, worked as a law clerk for a few months in the office of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and helped draft legislation. on regulation of online technology. She is knowledgeable and articulate, but while her desire to see more young people in Congress is a good idea (something Nguyen-Penaloza also offers), she is not as connected to the community and has too little experience for the job.
The other two Democrats on the ballot are Derek Tran, a 42-year-old attorney who specializes in consumer and personal injury law, and Aditya Pai, an affordable housing attorney.
Nguyen-Penaloza is strong on local and national issues; As a member of Congress, she will have to study thorny international problems. But there is no doubt that she has the intelligence and determination to do that and much more.
