Hengameh “Henny” Abraham is running for Assembly District 73 in the 2024 Primary Election to represent Irvine, Costa Mesa, and Tustin.
Abraham, 36, was the campaign manager for former Republican Assemblyman Steven Choi, who lost the seat last year to Democrat incumbent Cottie Petrie-Norris.
The group—made up mostly of Democrats, Abraham said—began organizing following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last September, who was allegedly detained by the so-called Islamic morality police in Tehran for showing a few strands of her hair—a dress code violation in the country—and died in police custody.
“It’s extremely heartbreaking,” Abraham told The Epoch Times. “Here we are in 2023 and women are still being treated like second-class citizens [in Iran].”
Since then, hundreds have protested on several occasions and 16 of 34 city councils in Orange County have passed resolutions condemning the regime, including the three cities in Assembly District 73, she said.
“We’ve been getting very positive feedback from that,” she said. “It’s just going to be me representing them on a larger scale once I get to Sacramento.”
Abraham was born and raised in Iran and moved to Orange County with her family at age 14. She attended Mission Viejo High School and earned her bachelor’s from California State University—Fullerton. In 2018, she moved to Costa Mesa with her husband.
She co-owns a holistic health and wellness business, is the co-founder and chairwoman of the Greater Costa Mesa Republicans, and is the Iranian American Engagement Director for the Orange County Republican Party.
Abraham, who is an advocate for school choice—which allows parents to send their children to a charter, private, or home school unbound by their zip code—teaches 2nd grade at the Costa Mesa charter homeschool Free Society Academy, where one of her two sons attends.
She ran unsuccessfully for Costa Mesa City Council in 2020, losing to Jeffrey Harlan by 20 percentage points.
If elected to the Assembly, Abraham said she would work to reduce taxes, starting with the gas tax, of which California has the highest in the country.
“We need to stop taxing our constituents and the citizens of California to the point that most of their income or earnings … is going to taxes,” she said.
She would also focus on reforming the K–12 education system, of which she said is too heavily influenced by the teachers’ unions.
“Out of the 50 states, we are number 40 as far as quality of education goes and we’re number 48 as far as safety in our schools,” she said.
Also, if elected, Abraham said she would work to rebuild small businesses that have suffered financial hardship during the pandemic.
“They’re the backbone of the economy of our state and our country and a lot of them have left since COVID,” she said. “Building our small businesses and making sure that they are able to preserve themselves instead of just leaving the state [is my priority].”
She also stressed the lack of Republican representation in Sacramento, citing the 62 Democrats and 18 Republicans in the state Assembly.
“They can’t get anything done because they never have the vote and the supermajority gets whatever they want through the Assembly,” she said.
Abraham said being a Republican, to her, means a small government, lower taxes, and above all else—freedom.
“As a woman, I know what it means for me to live in a free country where I get to do what I want,” she said. “You have a system that allows you to vote. There’s democracy. And I grew up the first 14 years of my life seeing [the opposite].”
