BREAKING: Corrupt MAGA Michelle Steel Makes Another $1M Loan as Campaign Teeters

Oct

2024

PRESS RELEASE

BREAKING: Corrupt MAGA Michelle Steel Makes Another $1M Loan as Campaign Teeters

Finance Disclosures Reveal MAGA Michelle Steel’s Second $1M Loan Used To Inflate Campaign Linked to Chinese Communist Party

Garden Grove, CA — In one of the most closely watched contests of the 2024 cycle, MAGA Michelle Steel attempted to mask her campaign's struggles with an additional $1 million last-minute personal loan. Rep. Steel made her fortune as a business partner to her husband, Shawn Steel, who the Wall Street Journal and Orange County Register caught peddling political access to the Chinese Communist Party. Now she is directing that money to her campaign that is behind in the polls in an attempt to hang on to her position, which provides valuable influence to the family business.

MAGA Michelle Steel’s supposed fundraising juggernaut is clearly not what it appears. Over the course of the campaign, Steel has loaned herself nearly $2 million, a desperate move to inflate her campaign numbers. She repeated this tactic on September 27, just days before the reporting deadline, so that she could compete with Derek Tran’s substantial fundraising numbers. If not for the personal loan, Derek Tran would have once again outraised Steel by nearly $500,000.

According to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Orange County Register, Shawn Steel facilitated access to Trump’s reelection campaign for donors with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The money Shawn Steel made peddling influence has now apparently found its way into Michelle Steel's campaign coffers through her massive loans – once again raising serious questions about her commitment to opposing communist governments.

“Our campaign is about genuine support from the people, not self-loans, special interest contributions, or deceptive tactics,” said Derek Tran. “Michelle Steel’s financial maneuvers are a clear sign of desperation and the fact that her campaign chest is buoyed by finances connected to her husband's dealings with Chinese Communist Party associates will only further alienate a district hungry for real, authentic representation."

The news of Steel’s shady fundraising tactics comes as an independent nonpartisan USC poll, found Tran leading the embattled MAGA incumbent Michelle Steel (45% to 43%), confirming his campaign's growing momentum as voters respond to his compelling story and vision for the district.

With Steel’s favorability ratings dropping due to concerns over her extreme efforts to ban abortion nationwide as reported by the New York Times, and four national political forecasters– Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, FOX News, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball– recently moving this race in Tran’s favor, it's clear that Tran has the momentum and is well-positioned to flip this critical seat in November.

During her time in Congress, MAGA Michelle Steel has consistently voted against the interests of her community while relying on funding from Big Oil, gun lobbyists, and anti-abortion extremists. Despite her claims of representing middle-class values, Steel has opposed measures to lower prescription drug costs, including voting against capping the price of insulin. She voted against common-sense gun safety legislation, such as raising the age to buy semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 and against enhanced background checks– a slap in the face to her constituents who have been devastated by the scourge of mass shootings. Further distancing herself from the needs of Orange County, she voted against a bill to strengthen U.S. competitiveness and bring jobs home and against the bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection. Steel’s fealty to the MAGA Right knows no bounds– even going so far as to apologize to GOP supporters for working on a bipartisan bill to condemn hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

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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.