Vietnamese American in runoff for Georgia Secretary of State

TWITTER / BEE NGUYEN

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.

WSJ: U.S. Attorney resigns under after refusing to do Trump's bidding

SCREEN CAPTURE / FOX

United States Attorney Byung J. Pak suddenly resigned his post earlier than expected.

White House officials pressured U.S. Attorney Byung J. "BJay" Pak to resign Jan. 4 because Donald Trump was upset about Georgias election results, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Pak's resignation, sources told the WSJ, came after White House officials allegedly told him he needed to step down because he wasn't "pursuing vote-fraud allegations to Trump's satisfaction." 

Trump wanted Georgia officials to "find" enough votes to overturn the Nov. 3 election that saw Georgia's electoral college vote go to Democrat Joe Biden.

Pak resigned abruptly on Jan. 4, a day before the runoffs, saying in an email that he was resigning due to “unforeseen circumstances.”

It’s not unusual for U.S. attorneys to leave their posts as presidential administrations change. Pak’s announcement Monday, however, was notable because it came a day after recordings of a telephone call became public in which Trump, who nominated Pak for the position, appeared to suggest that Pak was a “never-Trumper” — a derisive erm often used for conservative and Republican critics of Trump.

“You have your never-Trumper U.S. attorney there,” Trump is heard saying during the call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump suggested during the call that Raffensperger might find enough votes to reverse the outcome of the presidential race in the state — an idea rejected by fellow Republican Raffensperger. 

No signs of irregularities were found in Georgia in the Nov. 3 Presidential election or the Jan. 5 runoff elections won by the two Democratic challengers, Jon Ossof and Rafael Warnock. The GOP lost control of the U.S. Senate because of their victories. With the Senate equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, the tie-breaking vote would fall to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

In his resignation letter, Pak stated:

"For the past three years, I have had the great fortune to work with the highly skilled attorneys and staff in the Northern District of Georgia,” Pak said.  “This office is blessed with experienced leaders, and fearless colleagues who truly understand the importance of working together for the benefit of their fellow citizens and for justice.  Likewise, the staff that supports the attorneys in the office – administrative personnel, legal assistants, paralegals and investigators, those responsible for outreach to law enforcement, victims, community partners, the media, and to those assigned to security and intelligence – are some of the most dedicated people I have seen.  Their roles in fulfilling the mission of the office of pursuing justice cannot be underestimated. I have strived to serve these employees of the U.S. Attorney’s Office as their leader during these past three years, the last of which was one of the most trying the office has ever endured.  I have greatly enjoyed working with each and every one of them. Throughout the past three years, I have endeavored to serve them and to tell the story of the great accomplishments of the office. While the public words are mine, the accomplishments belong to them.”