Derek Tran

Derek Truyen Tran (born Trần Truyền Đức; December 22, 1980) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative from since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Tran is the third Vietnamese American to be elected to Congress and the first to represent California.

Early life, military career, and education Tran was born in Los Angeles County, California, on December 22, 1980. Tran grew up in the San Gabriel Valley as the son of Vietnamese refugees. His father fled Vietnam in 1975 after the fall of Saigon as a boat person. Their boat capsized, resulting in the deaths of his first wife and children. Later, his father returned to Vietnam and met Tran's mother. After living in a refugee camp for about a year, his parents immigrated to the U.S. and established a corner store.

Tran has stated that his family's reliance on government assistance, such as SNAP, WIC, and Section 8, He spent eight years serving in the U.S. Army Reserve, He also served as a cook in the Army. He was activated for Operations Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom before receiving an honorable discharge.

Career Tran has worked as an attorney since 2014; in 2020, he founded his own law firm, the Tran Firm, in Huntington Beach. The now-defunct firm's website said it focused on personal injury and employment law. In 2023, Feher Law, a practice based in Torrance, acquired Tran's firm.

Tran has served on the board of the Consumer Attorneys Association of America and was appointed traffic commissioner for Orange. With his wife, he co-owns a pharmacy in Anaheim. it was determined that Republican incumbent Michelle Steel finished first while Tran had placed second by finishing ahead of Kim Nguyen-Penaloza by 366 votes.

Steel was running for a third term in the competitive "battleground district". The majority-minority district encompasses parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties including the predominantly Vietnamese cities of Westminster, Fountain Valley, and Garden Grove in Little Saigon in addition to the predominantly Asian American communities of Artesia and Cerritos. Hence, Tran's campaign emphasized the centrality of his Vietnamese American identity to his bid. KABC, the Los Angeles ABC affiliate, reported that the district was 39% Asian.

Both Steel and Tran vied for support from the district's Vietnamese community. On October 19, Steel claimed to a Vietnamese TV station, VietFace TV, that she was "more Vietnamese than my opponent" due to a better understanding of the Vietnamese community. Tran challenged her claim of being more Vietnamese than a son of Vietnamese Americans, noting it was "insulting and disgraceful."

The candidates exchanged accusations of communist sympathies, with some outlets identifying the remarks as red-baiting. Referencing a 2020 The Wall Street Journal report, Tran accused Steel's husband, Shawn Steel, of accepting bribes from the Chinese Communist Party in exchange for information, stating that Steel thus could not be trusted with political office in the United States. Subsequently, on October 22, the Los Angeles Times reported that Steel's campaign mailed campaign fliers associating Tran with Mao Zedong and the hammer and sickle, warning Tran intended to "take our country back to socialism". in August of holding cryptocurrencies, Steel also alleged in a mailer that, despite cryptocurrency being banned in China since 2021, Tran owned "thousands of dollars of cryptocurrency linked to China". The mutual accusations caused sixteen Asian American nonprofits to write to the Orange County chairs of both political parties that rhetoric that falsely implied Asian American candidates were "national security threats" should not be used by candidates since it could promote the false narrative of Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners. In October, Hakeem Jeffries stumped for Tran at a campaign event in Anaheim, stating that the race would be close. Later in the month, Bill Clinton also appeared in Orange County to campaign for Tran and Dave Min.

21 days after the election, Tran held a lead over Steel by 581 votes and had declared victory to LAist. The next day, when the lead had grown by 32 votes, Steel conceded the district's seat to Tran, and the Associated Press called the race for Tran. Altogether, Tran defeated Steel in the general election by just 653 votes out of the nearly 316,000 cast, making the race one of the closest in the 2024 election cycle.

Tenure

Tran was sworn into the 119th United States Congress on January 3, 2025, and appointed to the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Small Business.

In May, Tran was chosen to co-lead the Democratic Party's congressional National Security Task Force alongside Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, and Mikie Sherrill. He regarded the Russo-Ukrainian war and the Chinese Communist Party, especially regarding the political status of Taiwan, as pressing issues related to national security.

In March 2026, Tran, alongside representatives Haley Stevens, Eric Sorensen, and Andrea Salinas, introduced the No Getting Rich in Congress Act, prohibiting members of Congress from buying and selling individual stocks.

In May 2026, Tran said that he and Robert Garcia had launched an investigation into GKN Aerospace regarding the Garden Grove chemical leak.

Committee assignments For the 119th Congress: (Executive Board Member) Congressional Fire Service Caucus For Country Caucus Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Economic Growth & Cost of Living Working Group He supported nationwide availability of fertility treatments such as to in vitro fertilization, claiming that fighting for reproductive rights was crucial. He advocated for comprehensive immigration reform such as prioritizing border security through technology and officer training, modernizing asylum procedures, and providing a path to citizenship for productive undocumented immigrants. Later, in June, the Vietnamese immigrant rights group VietRISE criticized Tran for voting for a resolution that expressed gratitude to members of law enforcement, including ICE, instead of opposing ICE's presence in Little Saigon.

Judiciary When asked about Joe Biden's proposed reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court, Tran suggested that justices should place their assets into blind trusts, be forbidden from accepting gifts, and be especially scrutinized for potential "partisan actions they or their family members may be engaged in." intended to curb foreign influences in American higher education, warning against the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in U.S. academic institutions.

Personal life Tran lives in the city of Orange with his wife, Michelle, and their three children. Tran is a Buddhist.

Electoral history