Republican Van Tran announced Wednesday he is forming a 2010 exploratory committee to run against Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez in California's 47th District.
"I'm deeply concerned about our economy. California's unemployment is up 33 percent in the past five months, but we're not seeing solutions in Washington," Tran, a California assemblyman, said in a statement. "If I run for Congress, my first priority will be passing meaningful economic reforms to create more jobs and get Californians working."
Republicans in Washington have been working to recruit Tran for a congressional bid. Tran's election to the state assembly in 2004 made him the first Vietnamese-American in the country elected to a state legislature.
Sanchez is serving her 7th term in Congress and has faced easy re-election contests since 2000 redistricting. The district, located south of Los Angeles, is home to more blue collar jobs than its mostly affluent Republican neighbors in Orange County. According to the 2000 census, 65 percent of district residents were Hispanic, 14 percent were Asian and 17 percent were white.
Tran's release posits that Tran will appeal to the district's Vietnamese residents, some of whom are conservative Christians. Sanchez is Hispanic and has been a vocal advocate for the Latino community.
Sanchez has said she is considering running for the open 2010 governor's race, though she has not taken serious steps towards running and is not included in most major statewide polls of the race.
George W. Bush narrowly carried the 47th in 2004, but Barack Obama received 60 percent there in 2008 and John McCain received 38 percent.
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