Derek Tran Crushes MAGA Steel in Final Fundraising

Oct

2024

PRESS RELEASE

Derek Tran Crushes MAGA Steel in Final Fundraising

Tran outraises Steel by a whopping 32% in critical CA-45 House race

Garden Grove, CA — In one of the most closely watched contests of the 2024 cycle, U.S. Army Veteran, Consumer Rights Attorney, Small Business Owner, and Candidate for California’s 45th Congressional District, Derek Tran, raised an outstanding $620,487 between October 1st and 16th — $150K more than Corrupt MAGA Michelle Steel’s meager $470,443. This follows Tran outraising Steel by $500,000 in Quarter 3 if not for corrupt Michelle Steel’s last-minute $1 million personal loan to mask her campaign’s continued floundering.

“Our campaign is about genuine support from the people, not self-loans, special interest contributions, or deceptive tactics,” said Derek Tran. “The fact that Michelle Steel’s 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."

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, which is behind in the polls, to hang on to her position, which provides valuable influence to the family business.

In a desperate move to inflate her campaign’s warchest, MAGA Michelle Steel has loaned herself a total of nearly $2 million throughout the campaign. On September 27, just days before the Q3 reporting deadline, she loaned herself a seven-figure sum so she could compete with Derek Tran’s substantial fundraising numbers. Derek Tran would have again outraised Steel by nearly $500,000 if not for the personal loan.

In the past month, polls from the DCCC, Tulchin Research, and USC found Tran up by 2-3%, 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, her connection to indicted former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, and five major political forecasters– Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, ABC/538, FOX News, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball– 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.