Member of the State Assembly, District 70

Tri Ta is the Republican Assemblymember for District 70. His family immigrated from Saigon, Vietnam. He graduated from Cal State Los Angeles. He worked as an employment counselor before entering politics. He joined the Westminster City Council in 2006. In 2012 he became the first Vietnamese American elected mayor in the United States. In Sacramento he has authored bills on utility rate increases and the gas tax. He has also pushed for public safety funding.

Ta says the country has given him so much. He wants to make it better for everyone. In 2025 he introduced a bill to let licensed manicurists keep working as independent contractors. The bill did not get a hearing, and it died. He then stood with nail salon owners outside a federal courthouse. He backed their lawsuit. He said singling out manicurists, most of whom are Vietnamese American, is discrimination.

Ta promises a middle class tax cut. He wants fewer regulations that he says make housing too expensive. He wants police departments fully funded and opposes cutting their budgets. He also wants California to work with federal immigration agents rather than keep sanctuary city policies.

Paula Swift is a small business owner and consultant. She has spent more than twenty years working in nonprofit, public and private sector jobs. She used to work for a nonprofit that helped foster youth aging out of the system. Pandemic budget cuts eliminated her position. She has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress.

Swift had been running for a different, nearby congressional seat. New district lines moved that seat away from her home. In December 2025 she switched to this Assembly race instead. She says she wants to serve the community where she has lived for more than twenty years. Swift says she is herself a survivor of domestic violence. That experience shapes why she is running.

Swift promises to protect health coverage for children. She wants to expand access to community clinics. She wants to make homeownership more reachable for working families and single parents. She also promises to protect funding for foster youth, domestic violence survivors and mental health services.