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2006 United States Senate election in Washington#Democratic primary

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+#REDIRECT [[2006 United States Senate election in Washington#Democratic primary]]
-{{short description|American lawyer}}
+{{Rcat shell|
-{{Infobox person
+{{R to related topic}}
-| name   = Hong Thi Tran
-| image     =
-| image_size     =
-| caption  =
-| birth_date  = {{Birth date and age|1966|5|5|mf=y}}
-| birth_place = [[Saigon]], [[South Vietnam]]
-| death_date  =
-| death_place =
-| occupation     = [[Lawyer|Attorney]]
-| spouse         = Jon
 }}
-'''Hong Thi Tran''' (born May 5, 1966) was a candidate in the [[Washington (U.S. state)|Washington]] [[Democratic Party (US)|Democratic Party]] [[primary election]] for the [[United States Senate]] in 2006, challenging incumbent [[Maria Cantwell]].  Tran received more than five percent of the Democratic vote,<ref name=primaryresults>{{cite web|url=http://vote.wa.gov/elections/PrimaryResults/Results.aspx?o=8f43af96-81c1-47c6-8b5f-3ad9dee0e6ad|title=2006 Primary Election Results - U.S. Senator|publisher=Washington Secretary of State|accessdate=2006-09-22|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923205848/http://vote.wa.gov/elections/PrimaryResults/Results.aspx?o=8f43af96-81c1-47c6-8b5f-3ad9dee0e6ad|archivedate=2006-09-23}}</ref> and her differing views from those of Maria Cantwell (on the [[Iraq War]] in particular) drew the attention of the [[news media]] and local [[progressives]].<ref name="dems unhappy">{{cite web | url=http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/08/dems_unhappy_with_sen_cantwell.html | title=Dems Unhappy With Sen. Cantwell Have an Option in Tran | publisher=CQPolitics.com | author=Jean Chemnick | date=2006-08-17 | accessdate=2006-09-22 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061027154919/http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/08/dems_unhappy_with_sen_cantwell.html | archivedate=2006-10-27 }}</ref><ref name="The Others">{{cite news | url=http://www.seattlepi.com/local/285379_theothers16.html | title=Senate race has national echoes | publisher=Seattle Post-Intelligencer | author=Neil Modie | date=2006-09-16 | accessdate=2006-09-22}}</ref><ref name="deserves to lose">{{cite news | url=http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060918-105742-6654r.htm | title=Party rival says Cantwell deserves to lose over war | publisher=The Washington Times | author=Christina Bellantoni | date=2006-09-19 | accessdate=2006-09-22}}</ref>  Tran is the first [[Vietnamese American]] in the state to run for U.S. Senate, and possibly the first in the country to do so, according to Carol Vu of the Northwest Asian Weekly, who considered Tran's campaign to be "historic."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nwasianweekly.com/20062439/tran20062439.htm | title=Hong Tran's historic campaign ends | publisher=Northwest Asian Weekly | date=2006-09-23 | accessdate=2006-09-29 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014060457/http://nwasianweekly.com/20062439/tran20062439.htm |archivedate=2007-10-14}}</ref>
-==Biography==
-Tran's family lived in [[Ho Chi Minh City]], [[Vietnam]] from her birth until they fled the country during the [[fall of Saigon]] to the Viet Cong forces in the spring of 1975, when she was almost eight years old.  They escaped [[boat people|on a boat]], then were picked up by a [[United States Navy|US Navy]] vessel.  They were moved through various refugee camps, eventually making it to the [[United States]], and settling in [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]], [[Florida]].<ref name="The Others"/><ref name="campaign site">{{cite web|url=http://hongtran.com/about.php |title=About Hong |publisher=Hong Tran for U.S. Senate |accessdate=2006-09-22 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060816012019/http://www.hongtran.com/about.php |archivedate=2006-08-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
-Tran earned a [[Bachelor of Arts]] from [[Agnes Scott College]] in [[Decatur, Georgia|Decatur]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], in 1988. After taking a year off to earn money for tuition, she attended [[law school]] at the [[University of Utah]] College of Law, receiving her [[Juris Doctor]] in 1992.  Tran's start in the [[non-profit]] legal services field started during law school, when she began volunteering at Utah Legal Services, a nonprofit agency providing free civil legal services to low-income families. There she specialized in [[payday loan]]s, [[fair debt collection]], [[unemployment compensation]], [[child custody]], and [[domestic violence]] issues.
-After graduation, she decided to continue providing legal services to the [[underprivileged]] and received a [[scholarship|fellowship]] to work at Legal Services of North Carolina.  After her fellowship, she moved to [[Spokane, Washington|Spokane]] Legal Services where she specialized in child custody cases involving abusive relationships for a year. In 1996, she began working at the Northwest Justice Project in [[Seattle]].  The next 10 years were at the Northwest Justice Project; the first eight were as a Staff Attorney working on advocacy for [[affordable housing]] and individuals facing housing discrimination or eviction, including co-authoring briefs submitted to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]].  Between 2004 and 2006, when she resigned her position to campaign, she was an Advocacy Coordinator, mentoring new attorneys and supporting other advocates at her organization.<ref name="campaign site"/>
-==2006 election==
-{{main|2006 Washington United States Senate 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 [[Military of the United States|US troops]] in [[Iraq]], [[free trade]] agreements [[North American Free Trade Agreement|NAFTA]] and [[Central American Free Trade Agreement|CAFTA]], and the [[USA PATRIOT Act]], all of which incumbent Senator Maria Cantwell had voted in favor of.<ref name=KUOW>{{cite web | url=http://www.kuow.org/defaultProgram.asp?ID=11050 | title=Hong Tran, Democrat for U.S. Senate | publisher=KUOW | date=2006-07-11 | accessdate=2006-09-22 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928004809/http://www.kuow.org/defaultProgram.asp?ID=11050 | archivedate=2007-09-28 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/08/the_cqpolitics_interview_hong.html | title=The CQPolitics Interview: Hong Tran (Wash. Senate) | publisher=CQPolitics.com | author=Jean Chemnick | date=2006-08-17 | accessdate=2006-09-22 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061027155843/http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/08/the_cqpolitics_interview_hong.html | archivedate=2006-10-27 }}</ref>  Tran had previously considered entering the Democratic primary to challenge Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Seattle), who she considered insufficiently strong on poverty issues.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003178707_hong06m.html | title=Cantwell challenger adds quixotic flavor to campaign | date=2006-08-06 | work=The Seattle Times | first=Alex | last=Fryer | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930013150/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003178707_hong06m.html | archivedate=2007-09-30 }}</ref>  After Mark Wilson, a fellow anti-Iraq War candidate, dropped out of the [[primary election|primary]], endorsed Cantwell, and accepted a position on her campaign staff as "outreach coordinator" with a salary of $8,000 per month, Tran's campaign began receiving more attention, as she was the only anti-war Democratic candidate left in the primary at that time.<ref name=Postman>{{cite news | url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2003115000_postman09m.html | title=Cantwell's primary foe turns friend | publisher=Seattle Times | author=David Postman | date=2006-07-09 | accessdate=2006-09-22 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202233414/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2003115000_postman09m.html | archivedate=2008-12-02 }}</ref> One day later, Tran was contacted by Dal LaMagna (a progressive activist and organizer who himself had been hired by the Cantwell campaign the day before Wilson) about joining the Cantwell campaign. Based on the context of the call, Tran interpreted this to be a job offer, which she declined.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.seattlepi.com/local/277260_senate12.html | title=Last Cantwell rival believes campaign offered job to end all opposition | publisher=Seattle P-I | author=Neil Modie | date=2006-07-12 | accessdate=2006-09-22}}</ref> These events caused political commentators, like those in 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060723-093644-5778r.htm | title=Washington Senatorial Cliffhanger | publisher=The Washington Times | author=Donald Lambro | date=2006-07-24 | accessdate=2006-09-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.seattlepi.com/jamieson/277134_robert11.html | title=Do hires make her Maria, Queen of Smarts? | publisher=Seattle P-I | author=Robert L. Jamieson Jr. | date=2006-07-11 | accessdate=2006-09-22}}</ref>
-In an interview with [[KUOW-FM|KUOW]], a Seattle [[National Public Radio|NPR]] affiliate, Tran noted Cantwell's avoidance of debates and challenged Cantwell to debate with her. Tran criticized Cantwell for not being the most electable Democratic candidate because she believed Cantwell had divided the party.  Tran speculated that Cantwell had alienated the progressive portion of the state to the extent that many would either stay home or vote for a third party candidate during the general election. Despite Tran's harsh criticism of Senator Cantwell, Tran said that if she lost, she would vote for the Democratic nominee in the general election because she wanted her "vote to count".<ref name=KUOW/> In the September 19 edition of ''The Washington Times'', Tran was quoted as saying that if she lost in the primary she would "certainly not" endorse Cantwell.<ref name="deserves to lose"/>
-Both media reports and Tran's campaign press releases highlighted the lack of support provided to Tran by the state Democratic party leadership, such as restricting her access to the party's voter database and refusing to let her bring campaign signs into a Coordinated Campaign event at Whittier Elementary.  Tran claimed that the party leadership was preventing the distribution of information about her campaign to Democratic voters and PCOs 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.fsrn.org/news/20060821_news.html |title=Monday, August 21, 2006 |publisher=Free Speech Radio News |date=2006-08-21 |accessdate=2006-09-29 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061002044250/http://www.fsrn.org/news/20060821_news.html |archivedate=2006-10-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://hongtran.com/press.php?id=2 | title=Democratic Party Blocking Voters' Access To Information About U.S. Senate Candidate Hong Tran | publisher=Hong Tran for U.S. Senate | date=2006-07-21 | accessdate=2006-09-29}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=37188 | title=Crashing the Party | publisher=The Stranger | author=Josh Feit | date=2006-06-07 | accessdate=2006-09-22}}</ref> Despite these differences with the party leadership, Tran was able to win the sole endorsement of Cantwell's home district, the 32nd Legislative District, and shared endorsements with Cantwell in three other legislative districts, the 40th, 25th, and 26th LDs.<ref name="The Others"/>
-Tran also stated the following positions on her campaign website:<ref name="campaign site"/>
-# Health care: Tran supports [[single-payer universal health care]] for the U.S.
-# Social security: Tran opposes increasing retirement age past the current age of 67. She also opposes benefit reductions and privatization of Social security.
-# Education: Tran opposes taxpayer-funded [[school voucher]] programs. She is in favor of increased funding for education and reduction in class size.
-# Immigration: Tran is opposed to criminalization of illegal immigrants and is opposed to guest-worker programs.
-# Environment: Tran supports toughening environmental laws.
-# Gay marriage: Tran supports marriage equality.
-# Abortion: Tran is [[pro-choice]].
-==2012 Judicial Election==
-In 2012, Tran became a candidate for King County Superior Court Judge, Department 29, running against senior deputy prosecutor  Sean O'Donnell.<ref name="Johnson">{{cite web | last = Johnson| first = Gene| title = Candidate's 'not qualified' rating baffles judges| publisher = Seattle Times| date = 27 June 2012| url = http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2018545463_apwajudicialcandidaterating1stldwritethru.html| doi = | accessdate = 23 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Hong Tran for Superior Court |url=http://www.hongtranforjudge.com/ |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120809231206/http://www.hongtranforjudge.com/ |archivedate=2012-08-09 }}</ref> A controversy arose over the King County Bar Association's rating of Tran as "not qualified" despite her experience in legal work; several state and local judges questioned the accuracy of the rating. In the August 7th primary election, Tran lost with 23.11% of the vote against O'Donnell's share of 76.89% of the vote.<ref>{{cite web | last = | first = | title = King Superior Court - Judge Position 29| work = August 07, 2012 Primary Results| publisher = Washington Secretary of State| date = 28 August 2012| url = http://vote.wa.gov/results/20120807/King-Superior-Court-Judge-Position-29.html| doi = | accessdate = 23 November 2012}}</ref>
-==References==
-{{Reflist}}
-{{DEFAULTSORT:Tran, Hong}}
-[[Category:American women of Vietnamese descent in politics]]
-[[Category:1966 births]]
-[[Category:Living people]]
-[[Category:Washington (state) lawyers]]
-[[Category:Washington (state) Democrats]]
-[[Category:American anti–Iraq War activists]]
-[[Category:Vietnamese emigrants to the United States]]
-[[Category:Agnes Scott College alumni]]
-[[Category:University of Utah alumni]]
-[[Category:21st-century American women]]