# Garden Grove City Council, District 3 Compare records and positions simply between Amanda Nguyen, Thomas Quoc Thai Nguyen, and 1 more for Garden Grove City Council, District 3 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Garden Grove's six-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Garden Grove also has a citywide-elected Mayor. An appointed city manager runs daily operations. Not all six council districts are elected the same year. Only Districts 1, 3, and 4 have terms expiring in 2026. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Garden Grove - 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/garden-grove-council-3 - 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: October 7, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Amanda Nguyen** — Senior Paralegal - **Thomas Quoc Thai Nguyen** — Media Businessman - **Cindy Ngoc Tran** — Garden Grove Councilwoman/Engineer · Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent Cindy Ngoc Tran is running for a second term against Amanda Nguyen and Thomas Quoc Thai Nguyen. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff. This person holds District 3's seat on Garden Grove's 6-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected Mayor and an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Not all six council districts are elected the same year -- only Districts 1, 3, and 4 have terms expiring in 2026. The term is four years. Tran, a U.S. Navy veteran and Boeing engineer first elected in 2022, is seeking re-election on a record centered on neighborhood safety, parks, and small-business support. Amanda Nguyen, a senior paralegal in the Orange County public-defense system, campaigns on similar ground -- safety, crisis response, the local economy, and affordability -- and has picked up endorsements from Congressman Derek Tran and the Democratic Party of Orange County. No comparable platform information was found for Thomas Quoc Thai Nguyen despite a real search effort. ## Cindy Ngoc Tran Born in Vietnam and a Garden Grove resident since 2009, Tran served five years of active-duty U.S. Navy service before joining Boeing, where she worked on the Delta IV Heavy rocket program and was recognized as Young Engineer of the Year on Boeing's Young Engineering Team. She holds master's degrees in Software Engineering and System Architecture Engineering. She has held extensive volunteer leadership roles, including school principal at Our Lady of La Vang Church, vice chairman of the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California, and chairman of both the Overseas Vietnamese Women's Association and the Society of Women Engineers. Elected to the council in 2022, her stated priority is "enhancing the quality-of-life in the community by ensuring neighborhood safety, improving parks and recreation, and promoting support for local small businesses." **Strengths:** A technical engineering career (rocket-program work at Boeing) paired with military service and extensive nonprofit and cultural-community leadership roles. **Trade-offs:** Only one term (since 2022) of council experience by the time voters decide this race. **Keep in mind:** No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for her campaign in this pass -- see Financial info. ## Amanda Nguyen A Senior Paralegal with the Orange County Alternate Defender with nearly a decade of experience in the county's criminal justice system, working with attorneys, investigators, and clients on complex legal matters and post-conviction relief. She also mentors students interested in law and public service. In her Vote411 questionnaire she describes a career supporting the defense of people who could not otherwise afford counsel, union membership, and relationships with neighbors, small-business owners and civic leaders in the district. On her campaign site she says effective local government "starts with accountability." Her three stated priorities are safe and clean neighborhoods, with police staffing, training and accountability tools so residents can trust public safety; a thriving local economy, with investment in Little Saigon and Historic Main Street and tax revenue returned to visible services; and affordability, with expanded city services to offset living costs and housing growth that respects existing neighborhoods. On Flock cameras she supports use only with real safeguards. She cites what she says other California cities found about data shared with federal immigration agencies, and would require sharing off by default outside local law enforcement, a published retention policy, regular independent audits and a ban on sharing with federal immigration enforcement. **Strengths:** Nearly a decade inside the county's criminal-justice system as a paralegal, by her account, and a specific Flock-camera plan: audits, a retention policy, no federal immigration sharing. **Trade-offs:** No prior elected office; her public-defense lens on safety and crisis response may not translate evenly to budget or land-use questions. **Keep in mind:** Her background is self-described, and her statement that other California cities found Flock data shared with federal agencies is her account, not independently confirmed. ## Thomas Quoc Thai Nguyen Filed his candidacy under the ballot designation "Media Businessman." In his Vote411 questionnaire he describes being born in Saigon, arriving in the United States as a refugee in 1975, and studying biology at Cal State Fullerton. By his own account he has more than 40 years in media, including radio and television ventures serving the Vietnamese community and what he calls the first Vietnamese performing arts center, in Fountain Valley, and he now runs a marketplace and food court in Garden Grove. His three stated priorities are a safe Garden Grove, with more police and first responders, cleaner public spaces and less vandalism; a clean Garden Grove, meaning cared-for parks, practical and humane responses to homelessness, and support for seniors; and a green Garden Grove, with more trees and parks alongside local business support, jobs and more attainable housing. On Flock cameras he supports law-enforcement use with limits on access, documented purposes, retention rules and penalties for misuse. He cites city-reported theft and recovery figures while granting they do not prove the cameras caused the changes. **Strengths:** By his own account, more than 40 years founding media and entertainment ventures, plus a Garden Grove marketplace and food court he runs today. **Trade-offs:** A business and media record is the main thing to weigh, and his broad safe, clean, green list names few specific trade-offs. **Keep in mind:** His business history is self-reported, and the Flock figures he cites are city-reported numbers that he himself says do not prove the cameras caused the changes. ## Review notes - Amanda Nguyen's own campaign site ("Amanda Nguyen for Garden Grove City Council District 3"): her own framing of her candidacy (Senior Paralegal, OC Alternate Defender), platform, and endorsements -- including naming Thu-Ha Nguyen as a "former Mayor Pro Tem" may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [OC Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 -- City of Garden Grove section (pages 94-99 of 188): confirms Mayor (2 qualified candidates), City Council District 1 (3), District 3 (3), and District 4 (4) as the city's four November 2026 races, each Vote for 1, with incumbent flags and every candidate's filed ballot designation](https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2026/candlog.pdf) 2. [City of Garden Grove -- Election Information page: confirms the same four offices up in the November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election ("Mayor at Large; Council District 1; Council District 3; and Council District 4") and links the city's own candidate list and incumbency-information documents](https://ggcity.org/election-information) 3. [City of Garden Grove -- 2026 Official Candidate List (the city clerk's own spreadsheet-to-PDF): every candidate's name, filing dates, ballot designation, and contact email/phone for all 12 candidates across the four contests -- independently matches the county's Proof List exactly](https://ggcity.org/sites/default/files/official-candidate-list-2026.pdf) 4. [City of Garden Grove -- City Council page: the full sitting 7-member roster (Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein; George S. Brietigam III, Mayor Pro Tem/District 1; Phillip Nguyen, District 2; Cindy Ngoc Tran, District 3; Joe DoVinh, District 4; Yesenia Munoz-Munoz, District 5; Ariana Arestegui, District 6) -- confirms which three districts (1, 3, 4) have terms expiring in 2026 and that District 1's incumbent, Brietigam, is not among the three qualified 2026 candidates for his own seat](https://ggcity.org/city-council) 5. [City of Garden Grove -- official biography for Councilmember Cindy Ngoc Tran (District 3): born in Vietnam, Garden Grove resident since 2009, elected to the council in 2022, U.S. Navy veteran and Boeing rocket-program engineer, extensive Vietnamese-American community leadership roles](https://ggcity.org/city-council/cindy-tran) 6. [Amanda Nguyen's own campaign site ("Amanda Nguyen for Garden Grove City Council District 3"): her own framing of her candidacy (Senior Paralegal, OC Alternate Defender), platform, and endorsements -- including naming Thu-Ha Nguyen as a "former Mayor Pro Tem," the only independently-found biographical detail about the Mayor's-race challenger in this pass](https://vote4amandanguyen.com) 7. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Garden Grove City Council Member, District 3' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- If elected, what are your top 3 priorities?; What background, experience and/or education qualify you for this elected office?; What is your position on the use of Flock cameras or similar devices? Answers on file from Thomas Quoc Thai Nguyen, Amanda Nguyen. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/garden-grove-council-3.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote) ## The rest of the ballot Garden Grove City Council, District 3 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, "Garden Grove City Council, District 3 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/garden-grove-council-3 (sources last retrieved October 7, 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.