Bee Nguyen sought to become Georgia's Secretary of State.
Overshadowed by races that garnered national attention, Bee Nguyen, running against the incumbent Secretary of State, conceded late Tuesday night.
In a tweet, Democratic candidate Nguyen said about 11:30 p.m. that she had conceded to Republican Brad Raffensperger, who was in the national spotlight in 2020 when he refused Donald Trump's arm-twisting to "find" enough votes to deliver the state's electoral votes to the Republican after then-candidate Joe Biden turned Georgia blue.
Raffensperger, who gained national attention in the wake of the 2020 presidential election controversy, was leading in his bid towin re-electionTuesday in the state’s 2022 midterms.
At presstime Wednesday morning, Raffensperger was leading Vietnamese American Nguyen, a former state lawmaker with 53% of the vote to Nguyen’s 43%.
Nguyen, who worked closely with gubernatorial challenger Stacey Abrams, said, "I'm grateful to be in a race where we can have a phone call and wish each other well."
Elsewhere in Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was successful in staving off Democrat Stacey Abrams' bid to unseat him by gaining 54% of the vote vs. 46% for Abrams.
The other high-profile race in the state was for Democratic US Senator Raphael Warnock's seat who was being challenged by football legend Herschel Walker., a Republican. With each candidate failing to win over 50% of the votes, the contest may be headed for a run-off in four weeks.
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Bee Nguyen, candidate for Georgia Secretary of State, thanks her supporters on election night.
An Asian American rising star in Georgia politics won a runoff position after winning 44% of the primary vote last May 24.
Bee Nguyen won less than the 50% needed for an outright victory, but she garnered the most votes among Democrats running for Secretary of State. She will run off against the second-runner up, former state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler who won 19% of the Democrats' votes.
The winner of the Democrats' run-off on June 21 will face Republican incumbent Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Libertarian Ted Metz in the November general election.
A day after the primary, Nguyen garnered a key endorsement that pretty much wraps up the support of the Democratic mainstream.
“When Bee was elected to my former House seat, I knew my constituents would be well represented. Now, her record of advocacy and public service for Georgia voters speaks for itself,” said Stacey Abrams, who won her own primary election for governor. She will face off against incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
Nguyen,40, is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees. She grew up in Augusta, Georgia and graduated from a Georgia public high school.
After she moved to Atlanta to attend Georgia State University, she started a local nonprofit to educate and empower young women. She spent a decade in Georgia public high schools, where she learned how to organize with her community and demand change for her students.
Nguyen made history when she was elected as the first Asian American Democratic woman to the Georgia General Assembly in House District 89, the seat formerly held by Abrams. At the Georgia State Capitol, Nguyen is a leading advocate for voting rights, public education, and criminal justice reform.
Nguyen's victory for Abram's seat in a runoff made her the first Asian American woman in the Georgia General Assembly. But Nguyen grabbed the national spotlight in December 2020 when a video of her methodical and public takedown of election fraud claims by Trump allies went viral.
In its endorsement of Nguen, the AAPI Victory Fund stated:
"At a time when democracy itself is under attack, there can be no more important priority than to ensure that every vote counts and that the people in charge of counting the votes do so with integrity. In this year’s midterm elections, our focus must be on critical Secretary of State races, especially in Georgia where a Republican governor has made clear his intention to limit access to the ballot as part of a craven attempt to win his own re-election.
“Representative Nguyen gained invaluable mentorship experience through a local non-profit she founded to educate and empower young women and, over the decade she spent in the Georgia public school system, knows firsthand the best practices to organize and spark change for her community. Throughout her career, Representative Nguyen has been a leading advocate for voting rights, public education and criminal justice reform. By the end of her first term on the Georgia General Assembly, Representative Nguyen successfully overturned the “exact match” voter registration law, which subsequently restored the right to vote for over 53,000 voters impacted by the restrictive voting policy. Georgia deserves a champion for democracy and ... will position the state of Georgia as a leader in our country for voting rights."
As Secretary of State, the winner will oversee Georgia's elections in the 2024 Presidential race. Georgia's votes were embroiled in controversy as Donald Trump tried to get Raffensperger to overturn the state's votes, which went to eventual winner Joe Biden, the first time the state voted for a Democrat in 30 years.
In the aftermath of Democratic victory, the Republican-controlled legislature passed sweeping changes to voting rules — actions that Nguyen and other critics say are aimed at dampening the record turnout from 2020 that helped turn Georgia blue.
"This race is about defending the freedom to vote," Nguyen said during a campaign stop. "It is about protecting the future of our democracy."
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.
Bee Nguyen wants Georgia to lead the country in voting rights.
A Vietnamese American wants to become Secretary of State of Georgia, which recently passed laws making it harder to vote.
“Republicans have done everything in their power to silence the voices of voters who chose an America that works for all of us and not just some of us,” said State Rep. Bee Nguyen, who is challenging incumbent Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “But we will not allow anyone to stand in the way of our right to a fair and free democracy.”
On May 3, Tuesday, Georgia Democrat Bee Nguyen, 39, announced her campaign to become the Georgia Secretary of State, running on a promise to expand voting rights in the state that has been a central battleground in the fight over voter suppression in recent years.
If she wins the election, Nguyen, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, would be the first Asian American elected to statewide political office in Georgia history.
Georgia Supreme Court Justice Carla Wong McMillian became the first Asian American to win statewide in 2014 when she was elected to the appellate bench
However, Bee made history in 2017 when she was elected as the first Asian American Democratic woman to the Georgia General Assembly in House District 89, the seat formerly held by Stacey Abrams.
At the Georgia State Capitol, Bee is a leading advocate for voting rights, public education, and criminal justice reform. She successfully overturned the “exact match” voter registration law and restored the right to vote for the 53,000 Georgians impacted by the policy.
With Nguyen's entry into the race, Raffensperger finds himself caught between the progressive Nguyen and U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who is supported by Donald Trump.
Trump vowed to campaign against Raffensperger when the current Secretary of State after he refused to commit election fraud to help Trump win Georgia during the ballot recount in the state.
On the now-infamous phone call during the ballot counting, Trump urged Raffensperger to “find” more votes for him, suggesting that the Secretary, who was in charge of the election count, say that he’s “recalculated.”
“Well, Mr. President," responded Raffensperger, "the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”
The recording is potentially incriminating evidence in the Secretary of State's ongoing investigation against Trump for trying to alter the voting results.
Republican's are worried that Georgia, long considered a sure Republican bulwark against the Democrats, is showing signs of leaning towards Democrats in recent elections. In 2020, Georgia voted for Biden and in the 2021 special election for the state's senators, voters opted for the two Democratic challengers.
The 2020 elections saw an unprecedented increase in voting by the AAPI electorate, which was part of the strategy of the Democrats, led by Stacey Abrams. Nguyen, an Abrams ally, was instrumental in encouraging Asian Americans to vote.
The voting restrictions passed in March by the state legislature, still controlled by the Republicans, are an attempt to restrict voting. Opponents have likened the law to the Jim Crow laws that made it more difficult for Blacks to vote. The law's passage was one of the reasons Nguyen decided to challenge Raffensperger's re-election bid.
Democrats and civil-rights groups panned the voting bill, which includes requiring voter I.D., made it a violation to offer water or food to people waiting in line to vote, and put more limits on early voting.
Nguyen said she would “ensure that all Georgians have the right to participate in our democracy and for Georgia to lead the country on voting rights — not on voter suppression,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Under her watch, Nguyen added, the office would “prioritize accessibility, efficiency and equity.”
