26 Facts About Janet Nguyen

Janet Q Nguyen was born on May 1,1976 and is an American politician serving on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, representing the First District, since December 4,2024.

Janet Nguyen is the first Vietnamese-American state senator in the United States and the country's first Vietnamese-American woman state legislator.

Janet Nguyen was born in Saigon, South Vietnam, on May 1,1976, roughly one year after the Fall of Saigon on April 30,1975.

Janet Nguyen's family joined millions of others in becoming boat people when she was five, coming to California in 1981.

Janet Nguyen attended the University of California, Irvine, at first to become a doctor but later majored in political science after she was inspired by then-Supervisor Bill Steiner.

Janet Nguyen won her supervisor 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.

Janet Nguyen was sworn in on March 27,2007, after a lengthy court battle.

Janet Nguyen won a full, four-year term in 2008 in another historic election when all three major candidates were Vietnamese Americans.

Janet Nguyen was reelected to a third term in 2012 and left the Board in 2014 after winning her first State Senate term.

Trung Nguyen was insulted as a "fob" and his campaign photoshopped Trung Nguyen in a photo next to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger while Janet Nguyen was criticized for not being fluent in Vietnamese.

However, when all the votes were counted on the following day, Trung Janet Nguyen was leading by seven votes.

Janet Nguyen requested a recount, and the final result was 10,919 votes for Janet Nguyen and 10,912 votes for Trung Nguyen.

The Board of Supervisors postponed inaugurating Janet Nguyen pending the lawsuit.

Janet Nguyen was sworn into office on March 27,2007.

The Court of Appeal ruled against Trung Janet Nguyen and upheld the Superior Court's decision.

In light of her initial election's closeness in 2007, it was widely expected that Janet Nguyen would be forced into a November 2008 run-off election.

Janet Nguyen became the first State Senator of Vietnamese ancestry in American history.

On February 23,2017, Senator Janet Nguyen was forcibly removed from the Senate floor during an attempt to criticize the late California Sen.

Senator Janet Nguyen continued anyway, and Lara later ordered a sergeant-at-arms to escort her out of the room.

In 2018, Janet Nguyen was challenged for re-election by Democratic former state Assemblyman Tom Umberg.

Janet Nguyen was a member of the California State Assembly for the old 72nd district from 2020 to 2022, encompassing parts of northern coastal Orange County.

In 2020, Janet Nguyen ran for the seat in California State Assembly's 72nd district.

Janet Nguyen placed first in the primary, helping unseat incumbent Republican Tyler Diep, who placed third and thus could not advance to the general election.

On December 21,2021, Janet Nguyen announced that she would be a candidate for state Senate District 36, which is newly created.

In 2024, Janet Nguyen ran successfully for the Orange County Board of Supervisors in District 1.

Janet Nguyen took office on December 4,2024, filling the vacancy left by Andrew Do's resignation following pleading guilty to bribery.