Big Pharma Shill Michelle Steel Lies About Derek Tran, Again

Oct

2024

PRESS RELEASE

Big Pharma Shill Michelle Steel Lies About Derek Tran, Again

And again, and again, and again, and again…

Garden Grove, CA - Today, MAGA Michelle Steel launched a new, utterly false, attack against Democratic candidate Derek Tran, a U.S. Army Veteran, Consumer Rights Attorney, and owner of a small independent community pharmacy. In her latest campaign smear, the self-dealing Steel claims Derek Tran has profited from Big Pharma, when in reality his small business provides low-cost drugs, sometimes at a loss, to the local community.

The truth is Steel has taken nearly $200,000 from the pharmaceutical industry to date, while Derek Tran takes no corporate PAC money whatsoever. In exchange for all the Big Pharma money Michelle Steel has accepted, she votes against legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act that capped the cost of insulin for seniors at $35/month and lowers drug costs. In Congress, Derek Tran will stand up to Big Pharma and fight to further lower drug costs for everyday Americans.

“Michelle Steel consistently stands with corporate interests over the American people — just look at her voting record against the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act,” said Derek Tran. “MAGA Michelle knows she will lose her seat and the corrupt influence she has garnered with it. She is desperately throwing everything but the kitchen sink in her last ditch effort because the people see through her lies and are ready for change.”

Steel’s dishonest ad bizarrely appropriated Democratic talking points against “price-gouging” and used Vice President Kamala Harris’s image and quotes as validation for their lies. It is clear going into the home stretch that Derek Tran has the momentum and winning message, and there is nothing Michelle Steel can do but try to copy them. Steel even went so far as to claim she was more Vietnamese than Derek Tran this past weekend, in another example of her desperate and disgusting attempts to pilfer Tran’s identity and message for political gain.

A reminder of the benefits Michelle Steel voted against in the Inflation Reduction Act:

Capping the cost of insulin to $35/month for seniors
Allowing Medicare for the first time ever to negotiate drug prices
Capping out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors to $2,000
Lowering healthcare premiums for millions of Americans
Making big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share

###

Army Veteran Derek Tran is a DCCC Red To Blue candidate running in California’s 45th Congressional District which encompasses portions of Orange and Los Angeles Counties in Southern California. A majority-minority district, the District has the second largest AAPI population (36.97%) of any Congressional District, and the largest Vietnamese community in the country. President Biden won the current district lines by +6 points and it has a +6 point Democratic registration advantage. It includes all or part of the Cities of Garden Grove, Westminster, Cerritos, Buena Park, Placentia, Hawaiian Gardens, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Artesia, Los Alamitos, La Palma, Brea, Lakewood, and Fullerton, as well as the unincorporated community of Rossmoor.

Use of Derek Tran's military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Dept. of Defense or U.S. Army.