# Member of the State Assembly, District 70 Compare records and positions simply between Paula Swift or Tri Ta for Member of the State Assembly, District 70 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: California Legislature - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-70 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 24, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 89 out of 100 (Strong), across 11 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Paula Swift** — Small Business Owner · Democratic - **Tri Ta** — California Assemblyman/Businessman · Republican · Incumbent Assemblymember Tri Ta took 53.8% of the June 2 vote and Democrat Paula Swift took 46.2%, a 7.6-point gap in a district where the sitting member cleared a majority only narrowly. The district covers Westminster, Garden Grove and part of central Orange County. The winner holds one of 80 Assembly seats for a two-year term, inside a 12-year lifetime cap on service in Sacramento. An Assemblymember authors bills, sits on the policy committees that decide which bills advance, and argues for the district's share of the annual state budget. Which party wins here determines whether this district's representative works inside the majority or the minority. The incumbent raised nearly $1.6 million — the largest Assembly total on this ballot outside the Speaker's — including $465,375 from individuals, and still took only 53.8% against a challenger running on about six percent of that. Weigh a minority-caucus record and a very large war chest against a challenger the district evidently found credible. ## Tri Ta Tri Ta, a Republican, represents California's 70th Assembly District, covering Westminster, Garden Grove and part of central Orange County. His family immigrated from Saigon, Vietnam. He earned a degree from Cal State Los Angeles. He then worked as an employment counselor, helping people find jobs, housing and childcare, before entering politics (campaign site). He was elected to the Westminster City Council in 2006. In 2012, he became "the first Vietnamese-American elected mayor in the United States" (campaign site). In the Assembly he has authored bills to limit utility rate increases to inflation and to suspend the gas tax (Orange County Register questionnaire). Ta's campaign site says California and the United States "have given Tri so much." It says he believes "it's only right that in return he does his best to make them better for everyone" (campaign site). In February 2025 he introduced legislation to let licensed manicurists keep working as independent contractors. The bill was referred to the Labor and Employment Committee. It never received a hearing before the deadline passed (Orange County Register). That June, Ta joined manicurists and salon owners outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building in Santa Ana. He backed their federal lawsuit, which argues the law is discriminatory, since more than 82% of the state's manicurists are Vietnamese American, according to a UCLA study cited in the coverage. "It is not just unfair," Ta said. "It is discrimination" (Orange County Register). Ta promises "a middle-class tax cut and the reduction of unfair and costly regulations that make housing unaffordable" (campaign site). He opposes defunding the police and wants law enforcement fully funded. He says the state should cooperate with federal immigration enforcement rather than maintain sanctuary city policies (Orange County Register questionnaire). **Strengths:** A concrete record of acting on a policy affecting his district's Vietnamese American business community, including a bill and a federal lawsuit. **Trade-offs:** His manicurist bill died in committee without a hearing, leaving the independent-contractor question unresolved. **Keep in mind:** The state has not commented on the pending discrimination lawsuit. Weighing a legislator who joined a suit against his own state is left to you. ## Paula Swift Paula Swift, of Rossmoor, owns a Los Angeles-based consulting firm. She has spent more than two decades working across the nonprofit, public and private sectors (campaign site, Orange County Register). She previously worked for a nonprofit that advocated for foster youth aging out of the system. Pandemic-era budget cuts eliminated her position (Orange County Register). She has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress. Swift had been running for a nearby congressional seat. After 2025's Proposition 50 redistricting moved that district's boundaries away from her home, she switched in December 2025 to run for this Assembly seat instead. "The people in the new [district], they need someone who is there," she said (Orange County Register). On her campaign site, Swift writes that her advocacy "became deeply personal when gun violence shattered my world, leaving me to rebuild as a widowed single mother." She adds, "that's when I learned that resilience isn't just about surviving, it's about transforming pain into purpose" (campaign site). Swift promises to "always protect the programs that are critical to the health and stability of our communities," including healthcare, childcare and mental health services (Orange County Register questionnaire). She says she would champion expanded down-payment assistance and stronger rental protections to make homeownership reachable. She would also extend Medi-Cal coverage for foster youth and cap out-of-pocket costs for maternal care (Orange County Register questionnaire). **Strengths:** A documented history of nonprofit work for foster youth and domestic violence survivors, and her own account of surviving domestic violence. **Trade-offs:** No record in elected office to judge, and her campaign switched races only months before the primary. **Keep in mind:** Coverage of her platform comes mainly from her own campaign material and a candidate questionnaire, not independent reporting on a record in office. ## Record in office Paula Swift has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Tri Ta (Republican) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 35 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 4 of them signed into law. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Ta — AB 1587 (2026): Prescription drug refills: prescriber notifications. Ta — AB 88 (2025): Student financial aid: Cal Grants: Middle Class Scholarship Program: eligibility: dependents of members of the armed services stationed outside of California. Ta — AB 951 (2025): Health care coverage: behavioral diagnoses. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Paula Swift** - Primary: $95,905 raised (Small donors: $1,622; Individuals: $12,982; PACs & committees: $80,100; Self-funding: $1,200) - November: $18,202 raised (Individuals: $2,902; PACs & committees: $15,300) - **Tri Ta** - Primary: $1,597,859 raised (Small donors: $1,609; Individuals: $465,375; PACs & committees: $525,900; Businesses & other orgs: $595,679) - November: $78,100 raised (Individuals: $18,900; PACs & committees: $30,300; Businesses & other orgs: $28,900) Figures are CA Form 460 filings through July 27, 2026 by committees controlled by each candidate, and can include transfers from a candidate's earlier committees. Semi-annual reports covering January–June 2026 were due July 31, 2026, so some totals lag a period behind. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-09-21. Total is itemized (Schedule A) contributions and self-funding loans dated after the June 2, 2026 primary, through June 30, 2026 — small-dollar unitemized (under $100) contributions aren't independently dated in Cal-Access's raw export, so they aren't reflected here and this may undercount true small-donor activity since the primary. This also doesn't include money reported only on 24-hour late-contribution reports (Form 497) that haven't yet appeared in a periodic Form 460 filing. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-08-30. ## Review notes - Vote Paula Swift and Tri Ta for Assembly may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)](https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results/primary-election-june-2-2026/statement-vote) 2. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [Assemblyman Tri Ta — Biography (official Assembly Republican Caucus site)](https://ad70.asmrc.org/biography/) 4. [Orange County Register — Tri Ta, AD-70 candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/05/06/tri-ta-ad-70-candidate-2026-primary-election-questionnaire/) 5. [Tri Ta for Assembly — About Tri / Issues (campaign site)](https://www.trita4assembly.com/about-tri) 6. [Orange County Register — Southern California nail salons sue the state, alleging labor law is racially discriminatory](https://www.ocregister.com/2025/06/06/southern-california-nail-salons-sue-the-state-alleging-labor-law-is-racially-discriminatory/) 7. [Orange County Register — Paula Swift, AD-70 candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/05/06/paula-swift-ad-70-candidate-2026-primary-election-questionnaire/) 8. [Vote Paula Swift — biography and priorities (campaign site)](https://votepaulaswift.com) 9. [Orange County Register — Because of redistricting, Paula Swift is now running for a California Legislature seat](https://www.ocregister.com/2025/12/12/because-of-redistricting-paula-swift-is-now-running-for-a-california-legislature-seat/) 10. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 11. [Cal-Access raw data export — California Secretary of State](https://www.sos.ca.gov/campaign-lobbying/helpful-resources/raw-data-campaign-finance-and-lobbying-activity) ## The rest of the ballot Member of the State Assembly, District 70 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Member of the State Assembly, District 70 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-70 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.