Incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel holds a sizeable lead over her Democratic opponents in the race for the 45th congressional district.
Initial votes released by the Orange County Registrar of Voters and L.A. County Clerk/Registrar-Recorder Tuesday night put the two-term Seal Beach Republican ahead of her challengers.
With the Democratic vote split four ways between attorney Derek Tran, Garden Grove City Councilmember Kim Nguyen-Penaloza, policy advocate Cheyenne Hunt and attorney Aditya Pai, Steel was regarded as highly likely to advance to the November runoff. As of Tuesday evening, Tran and Nguyen-Penaloza followed Steel; Hunt and Pai trailed.
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The top two vote-getters in the primary, regardless of party preference, will advance to the general election in November, when voters will determine who will represent the over 752,000 people in the district that spans Orange and Los Angeles counties.
Steel, whose district is deemed a swing seat by election forecasters, may face a costly and precarious battle post-primary.
CA-45 is one of several Republican-held House districts that went for President Joe Biden in 2020 and registered Democrats in the district outnumber registered Republicans. According to state data, Democrats account for 37.8% of all the registered voters in the district while 32.6% are Republicans and 24% are no party preference voters.
Tran, a first-time candidate, said he plans to address the gun violence epidemic, advocate for women’s bodily autonomy and fight the effects of climate change.
Nguyen-Penaloza, who ran for the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 2022, has focused her campaign on reproductive rights, affordable housing and healthcare.
If early results hold, Steel could face either Tran or Nguyen-Penaloza in November. That means CA-45 could feature a dichotomy between a Republican of Korean descent and a Democrat with Vietnamese roots — both Tran and Nguyen-Penaloza are children of Vietnamese refugees — and who must appeal to voters in the largest Vietnamese enclave outside of Vietnam, who are expected to play an outsize role in determining who represents them in the House.
