SAVED IN A FOLDER BECAUSE DEAN TRAN VIOLATED ETHICS REGULATIONS. WHEN CAUGHT, ALL HE COULD DO WAS CLAIM RACISM FOR USING STAFF FOR CAMPAIGNING. HIS COMMENTS INDICATE THAT HE'S OUT OF TOUCH WITH ISSUES.
JUST ANOTHER REPUBLICAN WHO THINKS HE CAN DAZZLE HIS WAY INTO OFFICE!
DEAN TRAN HASN'T FIGURED OUT THAT MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS ARE A SAVVY LOT AND DON'T TAKE LIGHTLY TO ETHICS VIOLATIONS.
THIS IS WHY THE MASSGOP IS LOSING VOTERS.
Former state Sen. Dean Tran kicks off campaign for Congress, alleges racism in ethics report
FITCHBURG — Former Republican state Sen. Dean Tran kicked off his candidacy to challenge Rep. Lori Trahan in November Wednesday night.
Tran, 46, announced his run for the 3rd Congressional District in his hometown of Fitchburg. He previously served the city and the surrounding area as a state senator for the Worcester and Middlesex District.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam near the end of the Vietnam War, Tran fled the communist country with his family and immigrated to the U.S. when he was 4. His father served in the South Vietnamese Army that allied with the U.S. against Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnam. His mother was a businesswoman. He had five siblings.
Tran's family sold everything they owned to raise the funds to get on a wooden boat to flee Vietnam, Tran said. After several weeks at sea, Tran's family landed in Thailand and spent two years in a refugee camp before a Catholic priest sponsored them to come to Clinton in 1980.
Clinton was Tran's "first real home" after a very turbulent early life. The family moved to Fitchburg in 1986 and Tran attended Fitchburg schools.
Tran has a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in American studies with a minor in computer science that he earned in 1997. After college, Tran spent 24 years in the hardware/software development industry.
In order to raise a family, Tran and his wife moved back to Fitchburg in 2001. That same year, Tran got started in politics as a member of the city's Planning Board.
First person of color elected to Fitchburg City Council
In 2005, Tran became the first person of color to be elected to the Fitchburg City Council, serving 12 years as a city councilor at-large. During his campaign for City Council, Tran said he encountered many naysayers that a person of color could be elected.
"I wanted to pave a path for children with the same background that I have, that they can get into politics and make a change," Tran said. "I thought it was a shame that Fitchburg never had a minority elected to its council. I decided to run and I was told it could never be done."
First Vietnamese-American elected to Mass. Legislature
Tran was first elected to the state Senate in 2017 in a special election and for a regular term in 2018, becoming the first Vietnamese-American elected to the Massachusetts Legislature and the first person of color to serve the district.
In his multiple campaigns, Tran said that the numerous mistakes that he made have helped him develop as a candidate.
"I have made every mistake that you could possibly think of as a candidate. I tell people that because when you make mistakes, you're better off making those mistakes because you learn from those mistakes," Tran said.
As a senator, Tran said he brought back funding for projects in his district. Those projects include playground and school funding, bridge repair and other programs.
In 2020, Tran narrowly lost re-election to current Democratic state Sen. John Cronin of Lunenburg, a defeat for Republicans who were left with only three state senators after the 2020 election.
On his decision to run for Congress, Tran slammed Trahan as a loyal vote for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden's agenda. He added that he wants to serve his constituents with transparency.
"The incumbent is a rubber stamp for the Biden and Pelosi agenda," Tran said. "I believe that it's an agenda that has resulted in record inflation with people can't afford to provide for their families and pay their bills."
Inflation
Inflation was brought up in Tran's kickoff speech, where he mentioned the price of several common items that he saw on his drive over.
"On my way here this evening, I drove by a gas station with a gas price of $3.54 per gallon. Home heating oil is now at $3.44 per gallon. A few days ago, I went to the grocery store and paid $98 for six items in my cart," Tran said.
Masks
Tran also criticized Democrats for not allowing for choice in whether people could wear masks, saying freedoms have been limited by the government over the past two years.
Health officials have said that mask-wearing is a tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in public settings and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend mask wearing.
Infrastructure
As a member of Congress, Tran said he would pledge to work on infrastructure. He said Trahan has failed to bring infrastructure improvements to her district, pointing to bridges in Lowell and issues throughout Route 2 in Central Massachusetts.
"The bridges and roads across not just my district, but across the whole entire country is crumbling, and our representatives in Washington, D.C. have failed," Tran said. "I can tell you we have bridges in my district, especially in Lowell, that are falling apart."
Tran said he would have opposed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was signed into law in November, saying the bill includes too much "pork spending" and focuses too little on real infrastructure.
Immigration
On immigration, Tran said residents across the country are less safe with the release of undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Tran's platform calls for adding more border patrol agents, an increase in the number of green cards and H1B Visas available to vetted immigrants without criminal record, screening undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers for diseases and deporting any undocumented immigrants who have a criminal history in their country of origin.
Tran also brought up immigration in his kickoff speech.
"We also have a crisis on the southern border where tens of thousands of illegal crossings are occurring by unvetted individuals who could be carrying COVID and other contagious health risks or could be terrorists. We really have no idea who is crossing the border and coming into our communities," Tran said.
Tran said he opposes defunding any public safety agency, such as police, fire, EMTs and border patrol.
Senate Ethics Committee report
Tran's time in the Senate was marred by controversy when he was removed from his position as assistant minority whip in March of 2020 and banned from interacting with his staff except through official emails after a Senate Ethics Committee report found that office staff had been performing campaign work with public resources during business hours.
The report concluded that Tran did not heed advice that Senate staff should not be doing campaign work during business hours and should not be participating in most fundraising activities.
At the time, Tran denied the allegations and called the report an attempt to attack him through an internal Senate process and said the report was filled with lies and hearsay.
In an interview Wednesday, Tran reiterated that the report was politically motivated and accused Senate Democrats of racist targeting of Tran as a Vietnamese refugee, asking to look at the scenario from his perspective.
"In the last three elections, the Democratic Party has come at you vigorously using everything that they could to win the seat back," Tran said. "And then they couldn't find anybody to run against you, not even their most popular incumbents in the district. Everything was lining up in the election, then end of November, an anonymous letter came."
Tran insisted that he had not been accused of wrongdoing, only of knowing that his staff was working on his campaign during work hours.
Saying that the attorney who investigated him was a liberal, Tran said he never had due process to give his side of the story, see the report and know who the witnesses were.
Tran said he was targeted because he was Vietnamese, adding that he eventually lost to Cronin, who is white.
"I was very naive during my time in the state Senate, believing that place was free of racism and discrimination," Tran said. "My treatment there was nothing short of that. They used an internal process to get rid of the only Vietnamese refugee to be elected to the state Senate."
After redistricting, the 3rd Congressional District will include several northern Worcester County cities and towns including Fitchburg, Lunenburg, Gardner, Westminster, Clinton, Ashburnham, Lancaster and Winchendon. The district also includes several towns in Middlesex County that serve as the northwest suburbs of Boston as well as Lowell.
Trahan, a Westford Democrat, was first elected to Congress in 2018. and won re-election in 2020.
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