Anh “Joseph” Cao is the First Vietnamese-American elected to US Congress

By John | Wednesday, December 10, 2008 | 20 Comments

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The state of Louisiana has been making history lately by electing their latest congressman this past weekend, Republican attorney Anh “Joseph” Cao. Cao becomes the first Vietnamese American to be elected into Congress, ousting indicted ten-term Democratic U.S. Rep. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson from his 2nd Congressional District seat, which includes most of New Orleans. Cao won 50 percent of the vote to Jefferson’s 47 percent:

“The victory for a 41-year-old immigration attorney who is the child of Vietnam War refugees was greeted with amazement and drew parallels to last year’s election of Gov. Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American Republican … Cao was buoyed by low turnout, a lackluster campaign by Jefferson, strong third-party candidates and the election being postponed a month by Hurricane Gustav. State and national Republicans seized on the race with a well-funded and effective campaign … Jefferson faced some of the most direct attacks since 2005, when a wide-reaching corruption probe against him was made public and FBI agents found $90,000 in alleged bribe payments in his freezer. He currently faces trial on charges of money laundering, racketeering and bribery, but no date has been set.”

I’m a Democrat, but Cao seems to be a moderate Republican, and I’m certainly not for indicted Congressmen or Senators to be re-elected — Democrat, Republican or independent (and amazed that the Begich-Stevens Senate election in Alaska was so close.) Many Vietnamese refugees relocated to the New Orleans area after the Vietnam War, but given the fact that San Jose and ~~Los Angeles~~ ~~Garden Grove~~ Orange County, California have the largest Vietnamese American communities in the United States, it’s very surprising to see Louisiana elect the first Vietnamese American into Congress. Maybe America is becoming more of a color blind society than I had expected.

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CaliStunna

“but given the fact that San Jose and Los Angeles have the largest Vietnamese American communities in the United State ”

Well John….is Orange County considered as Los Angeles? lol….like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim?

anyways the largest population of Vietnamese is in Westminster, CA which is the Orange County, CA area. The two Little Saigons are found in Westminster, CA and San Jose…not sure if there is any in Los Angeles unless you were counting all the Pho Restaurants in Koreatown.
EK

That’s wrong because there are quite large communities in the San Gabriel Valley and Chinatown of LA. Other large Viet ethnic enclaves are in San Diego, Sacremento, Oakland, and in Houstin, Texas(the state with the second largest population of Viets).
http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com Ernie

Hey CaliStunna,

According to this page it’s San Jose and Garden Grove:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_large_Vietnamese_American_populations

But you’re right, LA != Westminister or Garden Grove.
http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com Ernie

Oh wait; 2000 Census, not 2008 Census. My bad. There a web page online that lists it out, EK or CaliStunna?
CaliStunna

Well Ernie,

Garden Grove, CA and Westminster, CA basically border each other and the Little Saigon area is right there in Orange County, CA. That is like Vietnamese central right there where a lot of the media stations and Vietnamese churches/organizations are at as well. If you ask any Viet in CA where the majority of Vietnamese are in Southern California, they will tell you…maybe mispronouncing the names, but it’s either going to be Westminster, Garden Grove, or Santa Ana.

And the Vietnamese in Chinatown of LA, a lot are actually ethnic Chinese from Vietnam. There’s actually quite a large number of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam who are now in CA. In fact, my roommate is one of them.

And when I said I wasn’t sure if there were any in LA, I didn’t refer to Vietnamese people in LA…I actually meant if there were any Little Saigons. I know there are many Vietnamese in the San Gabriel Valley area, but Vietnamese people hardly ever refer to that area as a “Little Saigon”.

Most people know SGV as a heavily populated Asian area which includes tons of Vietnamese and Koreans, but more specifically Taiwanese/Chinese (whatever term u want to refer to them as)…Monterey Park/Alhambra, CA.

Either way…Orange County, Ca and San Jose are Top 2.
CaliStunna

Here’s a mention of Vietnamese that are ethnically Chinese:

“Many Vietnamese of ethnic Chinese origin also tend to own countless businesses – especially supermarkets, restaurants, beauty parlors, and auto repair shops – in the main general mixed-Chinese commercial thoroughfares of Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park, California and Valley Boulevard in Alhambra, California, San Gabriel, California, and Rosemead. There are already several pho and banh mi eateries represented along Valley Boulevard.”

“In post-Vietnam War 1970s, some members of the Los Angeles lodge of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association headed to the Vietnamese refugee settlements in Camp Pendelton to talk and entice several refugees – especially ethnic Chinese from Vietnam – into settling into the once-diminishing Chinatown by sponsoring them. Thus, during the 1980s, Cantonese and especially Teochew (Pinyin: Chaozhou, Vietnamese: Trieu Chau) Chinese became more widely spoken as Chinatown experienced a rise in Vietnamese and Cambodians and Thais. ”

“There are numerous small, specialized grocery stores in Chinatown. The Chinese Vietnamese own many bazaars. The stores sell products such as soap, toys, clothes, music CDs at everyday low prices. Several restaurants in Chinatown serve mainly Cantonese cuisine but there are also various Asian cuisine restaurants such as Teochew Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Thai, which reflects the diverse character of Chinatown. Many Chinatown-area restaurants have been featured and reviewed extensively in the Food section of the Los Angeles Times. Few boba cafes have opened in Chinatown, but a large number are to be found in the “suburban Chinatowns” of the San Gabriel Valley. “
CaliStunna

So anyways…John! As a person of Vietnamese descent I am deeply offended that you say has Los Angeles, CA is Top 2 with significant population of Vietnamese! That is as offensive as someone saying Filipinos aren’t Asian! or that Koreans make better Pho than Vietnamese, or Koreans make better Sushi than Japanese…

All joking aside…

anyways…Orange County, CA is basically the epicenter of the Vietnamese population in CA (if not the United States).
CaliStunna

LOL anyways thanks for updating the info!

Technically…Orange County, CA would be a better way to describe it because like I said Westminster, CA….Garden Grove, Ca and Santa Ana, CA border each other. You can googlemap it too.

Anyways Wikipedia even refers to the area as Orange County:

“Orange County”

The oldest, largest, and most prominent Little Saigon is in Westminster and Garden Grove in Orange County, California, where Vietnamese Americans constitute 30.7% and 21.4% of the population, respectively, as of the 2000 Census. Whereas ethnic Vietnamese are predominant in this population, in many cases, the population also consists of some people of Chinese Vietnamese origin, many of whom arrived during the second refugee wave in 1980 and own a large share of businesses in Little Saigon today. ”

This is where the area whose County’s supervisor is of Vietnamese descent.

Janet Q. Nguyen is the County Supervisor from the First District of Orange County, California. She won her seat following a historic special election where two Vietnamese-American candidates received half of the total votes cast in a field of 10, separated from each other by only 7 votes. She was sworn in on March 27, 2007, after a lengthy court battle. She won a full, four-year term in 2008 in another historic election when all three major candidates were Vietnamese Americans.
EK

Texas also has Democrat State Assemblyman Hubert Vo, the first Vietnamese elected to the state legislature in Texas.
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