Diedre Thu-Ha Nguyen is Mayor Pro Tem of Garden Grove, a laboratory cancer scientist, wife and mother of three active sons.
As a Council Member for the City of Garden Grove, she has worked closely to build coalitions with the Garden Grove Unified School District, nonprofits, labor, and first-responders to collaboratively promote education, public safety, and enhance business growth and career opportunities in the City of Garden Grove.
Diedre was first elected to serve on the Garden Grove City Council in 2016 and re-elected in 2018. During the pandemic, she has championed financial relief for renters who desperately need it, assistance to small businesses, and funding for non-profits providing direct help to local residents.
As a cancer researcher, Diedre Thu-Ha Nguyen is an advocate for patients’ dignity and privacy. On women’s reproductive health, she believes the doctor-patient relationship is sacred. There’s no room for judges, politicians, or government bureaucrats in the conversation. As your Assembly Member, Diedre will always protect women’s privacy rights, especially a woman’s control over her own body.
California must take the necessary steps to get COVID-19 under control. That means people wearing masks. It means the state implementing truly universal contact tracing to track and isolate the virus. This is the single most important thing government can do to get the pandemic under control, help people feel safe enough to go into public again, and get our businesses, schools, and community life going again.
If we don’t follow the facts and science our economy will continue to drag. Our children and families will be disrupted as schools open, then close based on outbreaks. Entire industries will remain shuttered and and the jobs they produce will disappear. Advocating for the right, fact-based policies, I will help lead California out of this pandemic.
Working at the first lab in California approved for testing for the novel coronavirus, I’ve seen how the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the shortcomings of our healthcare system. As a cancer scientist, I will use my experience to help us expand coverage and quality within our system to serve those who struggle to get care. We need a rational, fact-based approach to meeting the challenge of solving the pandemic and planning for a future where everyone receives the care they need.
We also need to protect our kids and serve our elderly. I will support banning tobacco products that target our kids and lead to lifetime addictions that strain our healthcare resources.
And our population is getting older with the “silver tsunami” of an aging population set to hit California in the next decade. COVID has shown the weaknesses of our nursing homes and other facilities responsible for serving the elderly. We need a rational plan with adequate resources behind it.
I have three sons in local public schools. My husband and I feel just like everyone else: We want schools to safely re-open and for our children to go back to school. The key word: safely. Irresponsible or careless policies that ignore science will lead to schools becoming super-spreader machines with kids taking the virus home to become sick themselves and ultimately infecting their families. I am also struck by the vulnerability of our teachers, support staff, and administrative personnel and how stressful each school day will be for them until the epidemic is under control.
The state, with help and leadership from the federal government, must come provide testing and contact-tracing programs that work so kids can go back to school in safety.
Aside from COVID, we need greater investment in our schools. Universal pre-school, full-day kindergarten, and increased technology for students. For higher education, we have to make sure that UC and CSU remain accessible for every qualified child in California. I owe so much to my UC Irvine and CSU Dominguez Hills opportunities. They were really a cornerstone for my own advancement in life.
We must lead on climate change if there’s any hope of stopping its effects on our planet, our country, and our state. Drought, famine, and species decline or extinction are imminent problems. In California, destructive conditions, such as wildfires and sea level rise are here. It’s also an issue of national security that is already impacting military readiness, increasing threats to troops, and jeopardizing military installations at home and around the world.
I will support policies that harness the power of our unequaled science and technology sectors to overcome climate change’s threats and expand our renewable energy sources and speed battery technologies that are key to our clean energy future.
So many Californians depend on stable property tax payment levels in order to make ends meet. That’s why Prop 13 was passed in the first place. I will always defend Prop 13’s protections for homeowners and seniors. Period.
We’re stronger together. We’re better when we support one another, listen to divergent viewpoints and have respect for people who are different from us.
Our public policy goals need to reflect those ideals.
That means supporting our LGBTQ+ community, the immigrants who help make this country great, people of all races and ethnicities, and policies that increase opportunities for the American Dream for any American willing to work hard.
That requires us to better fund programs that help give people a hand up like quality, affordable childcare and transportation options that promote a vibrant economy that works for everyone.