Newsom Announces California Special Elections Dates

Orange County election stands await voters inside the Honda Center, which has been converted into a polling place, in Anaheim, Calif., on Sept. 16, 2020. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for two special elections to take place in early 2025 to replace two Republican state lawmakers who have vacated their seats.

The elections will fill vacancies in California’s Assembly District 32 left by former Assemblyman Vince Fong and Senate District 36 by former state Sen. Janet Nguyen, according to a proclamation by Newsom on Dec. 10.

The special election will be held April 29 in the two districts, with the primary scheduled for Feb. 25.

Fong’s seat was left empty after he ended up on the ballot for two different races in the Nov. 5 general election and won both—one each for the state Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, Nguyen left the state Senate to join the Orange County board of supervisors.

Senate District 36 consists of parts of coastal Orange and Los Angeles counties, while Assembly District 32 covers Kern and Tulare counties.

Assembly District 32

Vince Fong resigned as the representative of Assembly District 32 in May after winning a special congressional election to fill the seat left open by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. In the race, Fong received an endorsement from Donald Trump.

Despite his resignation, Fong’s name still appeared on the November ballot for the Assembly seat, and he received 59 percent of the vote over Republican Ken Weir.

Businessman and farmer Stan Ellis from Bakersfield, also a Republican, has thrown his hat in the ring for the Assembly seat in the special election.

McCarthy resigned from his congressional seat in December 2023 after being ousted in October 2023 as speaker of the House in a historic vote. Fong was once a McCarthy aide.

McCarthy was booted in a 216–210 vote, marking the first time the House removed a speaker during a legislative session. The vote saw eight Republicans join with 208 Democrats to remove McCarthy.

Senate District 36

Nguyen, who was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and first elected to the state Senate in 2014, resigned after winning a seat on the Orange County board of supervisors in the general election. She defeated Cypress City Councilwoman Frances Marquez in the campaign for a seat vacated by former Supervisor Andrew Do, who resigned amid a bribery scandal.

Republican Tony Strickland, former mayor and current city councilman of Huntington Beach, is in the running for the empty state Senate seat. Strickland is also a former state legislator.

Before serving in the state Senate, Nguyen was an Orange County supervisor from 2007 to 2014. Do, who was also born in Vietnam, served as Nguyen’s chief of staff before he ran for office.

Do agreed to resign in October as part of a deal in which he admitted to accepting more than $550,000 in bribes for voting to send $10 million in COVID-19 relief funds to Viet America Society, a charity affiliated with his daughter. The funds were meant to provide meals for seniors but instead went to “insiders, himself and his loved ones,” said District Attorney Todd Spitzer.

Do served in the position since February 2015 and was once a candidate for state treasurer. He was a member of the Garden Grove City Council before serving as a county supervisor.

The Orange County board consists of five supervisors who oversee the county’s $9 billion annual budget.