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Hong Thi Tran was a candidate in the Washington Democratic Party primary election for the United States Senate in 2006, challenging incumbent Maria Cantwell. Tran received slightly less than 5.1% of the Democratic vote, and her differing views from those of Maria Cantwell (on the Iraq War in particular) drew the attention of at least one political commentator in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a commentator in the Congressional Quarterly's online web site.

Biography

Tran's family fled Saigon, Vietnam for the United States in the spring of 1975. Tran earned a Bachelor of Arts from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia in 1988, and a Juris Doctorate in 1992 from the University of Utah. Until 2004, Tran worked at the Northwest Justice Project in Seattle.

2006 Election

Tran, according to her campaign website and media interviews, entered the race for the Democratic nomination for US Senate due to her opposition to the presence of US troops in Iraq, free trade agreements NAFTA and CAFTA, and the USA PATRIOT Act, all of which incumbent Senator Maria Cantwell had voted in favor of.Tran was contacted by Del LaMagna (a progressive activist and organizer who works for the Cantwell campaign) about joining the Cantwell campaign. Based on the context of the call, Tran interpreted this to be a job offer, which she declined. These events caused political commentators, like one in each of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Washington Times, to surmise that this was an attempt by the Cantwell campaign to silence the anti-Iraq War opposition in her party.

Tran claimed that she herself, and not Cantwell, is not the most electable Democratic candidate because she (Tran) believes Cantwell has divided the party and alienated progressive voters (polling data from September 2006 does not support Tran's claims; Cantwell holds significant leads over her Republican opponent, Mike McGavick in these polls).. Despite Tran's harsh criticism of Senator Cantwell, Tran said that if she loses, she will vote for the Democratic nominee in the general election because she wanted her "vote to count".

Tran claimed that the party leadership was preventing the distribution of information about her campaign to Democratic voters and PCO's in an attempt to control the primary results; party chair Dwight Pelz and spokesman Kelly Steele claimed that her campaign didn't have enough resources to utilize the information in the voter database. Despite these differences with the party leadership, Cantwell's home district, the 32nd Legislative District, gave Tran its sole endorsement. Tran shared endorsements with Cantwell in three other legislative districts, the 40th, 25th, and 26th LDs.. As 25th District Vice Chairman Jim Morrell of Tacoma said in regards to his district's shared endorsement of Cantwell and Tran, "it wasn't a slap against Cantwell, but also it was kind of a feel-good vote, in that at least (people thought) 'I've said something about what's going on in Iraq' and stuff. It wasn't even about 'we shouldn't be there' but rather about how (the war) has been handled."

Notably, the overwhelming majority of Legislative Districts did not endorse Tran, and, in the Democratic primary, the voters in Legislative Districts across Washington overwhelmingly voted for Cantwell, who received approximately 90.9% of the vote, and not for Tran, who received slightly less than 5.1% of the vote.

See also

Washington United States Senate election, 2006

External links

• Campaign Web Site

References

1. "2006 Primary Election Results - U.S. Senator". Washington Secretary of State. Retrieved 2006-09-22.
2. Jean Chemnick (2006-08-17). "Dems Unhappy With Sen. Cantwell Have an Option in Tran". CQPolitics.com. Retrieved 2006-09-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. ^ Neil Modie (2006-09-16). "Senate race has national echoes". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2006-09-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. Cite error: The named reference campaign site was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ "Hong Tran, Democrat for U.S. Senate". KUOW. 2006-07-11. Retrieved 2006-09-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. Jean Chemnick (2006-08-17). "The CQPolitics Interview: Hong Tran (Wash. Senate)". CQPolitics.com. Retrieved 2006-09-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. Neil Modie (2006-07-12). "Last Cantwell rival believes campaign offered job to end all opposition". Seattle P-I. Retrieved 2006-09-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. Donald Lambro (2006-07-24). "Washington Senatorial Cliffhanger". The Washington Times. Retrieved 2006-09-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. Robert L. Jamieson Jr. (2006-07-11). "Do hires make her Maria, Queen of Smarts?". Seattle P-I. Retrieved 2006-09-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. Jerry Cornfield (2006-09-24). "Fight to attract voters begins". The Herald. Retrieved 2006-09-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
11. Aaron Blake (2006-09-19). "Cantwell polls higher as she adjusts war view". The Hill. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Campaign/091906_cantwell.html" ignored (help)
12. "Washington Senator: Cantwell's Lead Takes 11-Point Leap". Rasmussen Reports. 2006-09-12. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/State%20Polls/September%202006/WashingtonSenate.htm" ignored (help)
13. Josh Feit (2006-06-07). "Crashing the Party". The Stranger. Retrieved 2006-09-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

• Vietnamese Americans
• 2006 United States Congressional election candidates