State Senate: OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen wins in 34th Senate District

Janet Nguyen, who won her seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors by seven votes, doesn’t have to worry about a lengthy recount this election.

The first generation Vietnamese-American immigrant, who withstood a barrage of negative attacks, has defeated former Assemblyman Jose Solorio by a twenty point margin for a seat in the California State Senate. With 99.1 percent of precincts reporting, as of 12:55 a.m., Nguyen had 70,438 votes in the race for the 34th Senate District, compared to 46,867 for Solorio, a trustee on the Rancho Santiago Community College District Board.

Nguyen, the youngest supervisor in Orange County’s history, is headed to Sacramento thanks to a strong turnout by Vietnamese-American voters. Asian turnout among absentee voters, according to data made available by Political Data, Inc., was up significantly in the district, where 80 percent of the district’s Asian voters are Vietnamese.

The race was considered to be one of the most competitive legislative races in the state. Surprisingly, Nguyen added to her vote total from the June 3rd primary, when she captured 52 percent of the vote in a three-way race.