Nguyen Wins Race For Andrew Do's Orange County Board of Supervisors Seat
Sen. Janet Nguyen will be returning to the Orange County Board of Supervisors after defeating Cypress City Councilwoman Frances Marquez in the race to succeed Andrew Do, according to figures released Wednesday by the Orange County Registrar of Voters.
Nguyen led 62.81%-37.19% as of early Wednesday evening, with additional ballots remaining to be counted.
Do was Nguyen's chief of staff when she served on the Board of Supervisors, before he was elected to the Garden Grove City Council, then won a special election for Orange County supervisor when Nguyen became a state lawmaker.
The nonpartisan Board of Supervisors currently includes three Democrats: Katrina Foley, Vicente Sarmiento and Doug Chaffee. If Marquez had won the race for Do's former seat, Chairman Don Wagner would have been the only Republican remaining. Wagner was reelected in the March primary.
Do was already set to be termed out of office at the end of the year, but he agreed to resign last week as part of a plea deal with federal and local prosecutors over an investigation into county COVID-19 relief funds awarded to a nonprofit organization that employed Do's daughter.
In another closely watched Orange County race, 74th District Assemblywoman Laurie Davies, R-Laguna Niguel, was defeating Democrat Chris Duncan, a San Clemente city councilman and former federal prosecutor, in her bid for a third term. The district covers portions of southern Orange County and northern San Diego County.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, Davies had 52.5% of the vote, while Duncan had 47.5%, according to the Secretary of State's office.
In the 37th Senate District race, Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, was trailing Republican former Irvine Mayor Steven Choi by 12,872 votes, with Choi receiving 51.88%.
"We're going to win that," Orange County Republican Party Chairman Fred Whitaker said. "I think (Choi) was better known and that overcame all the money (Newman) had."
Whitaker added, "We had a very good night last time nationwide and locally. Up and down the ballot we had a very good night."
