# United States Representative, District 45 Compare records and positions simply between Chuong V. Vo or Derek Tran for United States Representative, District 45 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: Federal - 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/us-rep-45 - 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: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Chuong V. Vo** — Retired Police Officer · Republican - **Derek Tran** — Representative/Business Owner · Democratic Representative Derek Tran took 53.8% of the June 2 vote and Republican Chuong V. Vo took 15.3% to claim the second slot. The district covers part of central Orange County. The winner holds one of 435 seats in the U.S. House for a two-year term. A member introduces bills, sits on committees that shape federal legislation, votes on the federal budget and on war powers, and handles casework between constituents and federal agencies. A first-term member is at the bottom of the seniority ladder that governs committee assignments. The incumbent raised nearly $5 million in his first term — among the largest congressional campaigns on this ballot — with 72% of it from named individuals. His challenger raised about a tenth as much, almost entirely from individuals too. Weigh a first federal term against a modestly funded challenge. ## Derek Tran Derek Tran enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve at 18 and served eight years, including an activation for Operation Noble Eagle and Enduring Freedom, before practicing as a workers' rights and consumer attorney and serving on the board of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles and California (tran.house.gov). He and his wife Michelle co-own an independent pharmacy in Orange County. He now serves on the House Armed Services and Small Business committees, where his stated focus is "national security, economic issues, consumer protections, and access to capital for small business owners" (tran.house.gov). Tran says he is running "to put people ahead of politics, protect our democracy" and give everyone the chance to succeed (campaign site); his parents fled Vietnam as refugees, and he says he "joined the Army to give back to the Country that has given me so much" (campaign site). In July 2026 the House passed that year's defense policy bill 216 to 212 with Tran voting no; his office said he could not support it "in this form" after Republicans blocked his amendments on delayed Taiwan arms sales and on transparency after a hazmat incident in Garden Grove, and added the SAVE America Act's voter-ID provisions to the final text (per his office's statement, via Quiver Quantitative). He promises to defend "women's reproductive rights and healthcare access," raise teacher pay, and make health care "affordable and accessible" (campaign site). He also lists small business growth, gun safety, and opposing "Chinese communist aggression" among his priorities, and says he wants to end "political corruption and special interest influence." **Strengths:** Already holds the seat, sits on Armed Services and Small Business, and has a documented voting record from his first term. **Trade-offs:** His introduced bills have not become law, and he broke from a bipartisan defense deal over provisions he opposed. **Keep in mind:** One term is a short record, and both parties are treating this district as competitive this fall. ## Chuong V. Vo Chuong V. Vo is a Republican and a retired police officer who advanced to the general election from a five-candidate primary field in California's 45th District. Public coverage of his campaign is thin: no campaign website or local news coverage of him could be located. He has not published a platform that could be located. What is available is limited to his name, party, and ballot designation of retired police officer. **Strengths:** He built a campaign that reached the general election in a five-candidate Republican field. **Trade-offs:** No record in office, no published platform, and almost no independent coverage to judge him on. **Keep in mind:** What is missing here is a gap in what is public, not a comment on his candidacy. ## Record in office Chuong V. Vo has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Derek Tran (Democratic) has served in the U.S. House since 2025 and has sponsored 16 bills in the 119th Congress; none of their bills have become law so far. Per Congress.gov and the public-domain congress-legislators roster, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Tran — Committees: Armed Services; Small Business Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Chuong V. Vo** — $495,763 raised (Individuals: $468,763; PACs & committees: $17,000) - **Derek Tran** — $4,981,277 raised (Individuals: $3,582,678; PACs & committees: $1,103,260; Party: $4,179) Total raised is all receipts for the 2026 cycle; the breakdown lists direct contributions, so the pieces can sum below the total. Figures are FEC filings through June 30, 2026, per the FEC bulk campaign-finance summaries, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Review notes - Derek Tran for Congress may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide 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. [Rep. Derek Tran — official biography (career history, committees)](https://tran.house.gov/about) 4. [Derek Tran for Congress — campaign site (his stated motivation and priorities)](https://www.derektranforcongress.com/) 5. [Quiver Quantitative — Derek Tran statement on 2027 NDAA vote (used for his vote and reasoning)](https://www.quiverquant.com/news/Press+Release%3A+Derek+Tran+Issues+Statement+on+House+Vote+for+2027+NDAA) 6. [congress-legislators — current members of Congress (unitedstates project)](https://unitedstates.github.io/congress-legislators/legislators-current.json) 7. [Congress.gov — member sponsored legislation (Library of Congress)](https://api.congress.gov/) 8. [FEC — 2026 House & Senate current-campaign financial summaries (bulk data)](https://www.fec.gov/files/bulk-downloads/2026/webl26.zip) ## The rest of the ballot United States Representative, District 45 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, "United States Representative, District 45 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/us-rep-45 (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.