Two county supervisor seats, currently held by First District Supervisor Andrew Do and Third District Supervisor Don Wagner, will be on ballots in 2024.
With Do termed out and unable to seek reelection, the OC Board of Supervisors is guaranteed at least one new face. Meanwhile, Wagner, who first joined as a supervisor in 2019, will face one challenger in his bid for re-election. County supervisors can serve a maximum of two full, four-year terms.
The five-member Board of Supervisors oversees management of the county’s many departments including animal care, landfills, public works, social services and public health, managing a $9.3 billion budget. The county employs about 18,000 people.
The window to file as a candidate for the two supervisor seats closed Friday. The races will appear on the March 5 presidential primary ballot; if none of the candidates gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two proceed to a November runoff.
Five candidates with past experience in civic leadership are vying for the First District seat that represents Huntington Beach, Westminster, Fountain Valley and parts of Garden Grove on the board.
Qualifying for the ballot are Westminster Councilmember Kimberly Ho; Van Tran, who is currently serving as Do’s chief of staff; Cypress Councilmember Frances Marquez; state Sen. Janet Nguyen; and business owner Michael Vo.
Ho has served on the Westminster City Council since 2016. She earned her bachelor’s degree from UCLA, and doctorate degree in pharmacy from the University of Pacific. She went on to a post doctorate fellowship in research at USC, and later attended UC Irvine where she received an executive masters in business administration. With several years working in the healthcare industry under her belt, Ho said she hopes to better address affordable health care needs in Orange County, particularly for low-income residents. Another one of her priorities as supervisor, she has said, is fostering economic growth within the county by creating an environment that companies want to invest in.
Marquez has said she wants to improve accountability and oversight in county government while delivering health, housing and safety resources to the communities that need them the most. Marquez, who was elected to the Cypress City Council in 2020, is an associate professor of government at Gallaudet University, where she teaches deaf and hard-of-hearing students, helping them pursue careers in public service. She is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, and her father is a veteran who served during the Korean War, she said. She attended OC schools and earned her bachelor’s degree from UCLA and then her master’s and doctorate degrees from Claremont Graduate University.
Nguyen is looking to return to the Board of Supervisors. Following a stint as a Garden Grove councilmember, she represented the First District as a county supervisor and then won a state assembly seat before joining the California Senate. Born in Saigon, Nguyen and her family escaped communist Vietnam and lived in several refugee camps before arriving in California in 1981. She earned her degree from UC Irvine. She says the Board of Supervisors make a direct impact on quality of life, including crime, homelessness, cost of living and health care and she wants to return to help do more.
Currently serving as Do’s chief of staff and as a director at the Orange County Water District, Tran said he wants to prioritize public safety, transportation, public health and economic development. There are a number of issues Tran says he wants to address as supervisor, including maintaining affordable health care and addressing homelessness. He has also said he wants to bring “transparency and accountability” to local government. He previously served as a state assemblymember, and before that was elected to the Garden Grove council.
In his candidate statement, Vo said he is an “independent thinker,” straying away from the two-party system that he says has failed county residents. He previously served on the Fountain Valley City Council and ran for the Board of Supervisors in 2021. His priorities as supervisor include adequate funding going toward law enforcement and emergency response, improving assistance programs for senior citizens and veterans, and constructing affordable housing to address homelessness, he said.
The board’s District 3 includes parts of Anaheim, Irvine, Orange and Tustin and the unincorporated canyon communities. Wagner will go head-to-head with Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan.
Khan says the top issues in the county that need attention are homelessness, mental health, the fentanyl crises and veterans’ needs. Khan became the first woman of color and Muslim woman to lead a large American city when she was elected as Irvine’s mayor in 2020. One of her initiatives that she is most proud of bringing to life during her time as mayor is banning smoking in public places, creating a healthier environment for Irvine residents, she said. She was first elected to the Irvine City Council in 2018, and then as mayor in 2022.
When Wagner announced he’d be running for re-election, he touted his successes in the role, such as collaborating with county officials to build a new mental health facility, funding a veteran’s cemetery in Anaheim Hills and improve public safety. He says he wants to keep that momentum going with another term in office. Wagner previously served as mayor of Irvine, as well as in the state Assembly.
Ballots for the March primary election will start going out to registered voters on Feb. 5.
