Madison Nguyen

Madison Nguyen is an American politician from California.[1][2] She served on the San Jose, California, City Council from 2005 to 2014, representing District 7, and she additionally served as Vice Mayor from 2011 to 2014. She was the first Vietnamese American elected to the city council.[3] Currently, Madison is the Executive Vice President(EVP) of The Silicon Valley Organization, also known as the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. As EVP, she is responsible for driving the organization’s public policy, advocacy, political action, economic and community development strategies and implementation.

Madison Nguyen
City of San Jose City Councilwoman
Term 2005 - 2014
District 7
Vice Mayor San Jose City
2011 - 2014
In office
2005 – December 31, 2014
Personal details
BornVietnam
Political partyDemocratic
ResidenceSan Jose, California
Alma materUndergraduate University of California, Santa Cruz,
Master Degree University of Chicago
OccupationExecutive Vice President, the silicon valley organization (SVO)

Early life

Madison and her family escaped Vietnam on a small fishing boat when she was four years old. Her family then settled in various refugee camps in the Philippines until a Lutheran church sponsored them to Scottsdale, Arizona. Her father worked as a janitor, receiving a stipend of only $500 a month to support his wife and children. Eventually, he moved his family to Modesto, California, in search of employment for his family in the Central Valley. Madison worked in the fields alongside her parents as a teenager.[1] She is one of nine siblings.[4]

Madison received her Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She received a master's degree from the University of Chicago. She returned to California in 2000 to pursue a Ph.D. in sociology at UC Santa Cruz.

Political career

School board

Nguyen began to become more involved in politics in 2001, while working as a sociology instructor at De Anza College;[4] inspired by MTV's "Rock the Vote" campaign, she and members of the Vietnamese community organized a voter drive in which nearly 5,000 new voters registered to vote for the first time.[1][5] She followed that up with a run for a position on the Franklin-McKinley School District Board of Education, hoping that her election would encourage Vietnamese Americans to get more involved in local politics.[6] Her win made her one of the first two school board officials of Vietnamese descent in the United States. The other, elected around the same time, was Lan Nguyen of Garden Grove, a city in southern California's Orange County.[7] However, it was Nguyen's organization of protests in support of Bich Cau Thi Tran, a Vietnamese woman shot to death by a San Jose police officer that brought her to the forefront of people's minds in the Vietnamese American community. Nguyen, who felt the incident was being ignored by the public and the media, organized a rally to which nearly 300 people showed up.[2]

City Council

In September 2005, she ran for city council in a special election to replace Terry Gregory in District 7.[3] Vietnamese Americans, who formed less than 10% of San Jose's population at the time, turned out in record numbers during the primary election in June to support Madison Nguyen and Linda Nguyen, pushing them ahead of seven other candidates.[8] Madison Nguyen won 44% of the primary vote, while Linda Nguyen, a real estate attorney, received 27%.[9] In the run-off, Madison Nguyen received 62% of the votes cast, beating out Linda Nguyen to become the first Vietnamese American to serve on the San Jose's City Council.[3]e

District naming controversy and recall attempt

Nguyen's support from the Vietnamese American community suffered a sharp reversal in early January 2008, in a controversy over whether an area of a Story Road in her council district with a large percentage of Vietnamese retailers should be named as "Little Saigon" or "Saigon Business District". Little Saigon is a common name used for various other Vietnamese-American commercial enclaves, particularly known in Orange County, California. Nguyen suggested the name "Saigon Business District" after she heard from different groups in her council district who wanted the word "New" to be included in the name, indicating a new life in America after they left their homeland. She thought Saigon Business District was a good compromise between Little Saigon and New Saigon so she recommended Saigon Business District as the name for the designation. Supporters of the Little Saigon denounced Nguyen as a traitor to the community because she did not support what they deemed as the "majority" of the Vietnamese community supported, which was "Little Saigon." The City Council voted to name the business district as Saigon Business District.

After recurring protests in front of City Hall for several months, on March 4, 2008, the city council voted to rescind the "Saigon Business District" name, but stopped short of renaming it "Little Saigon". Instead, they proposed setting up a process by which business owners could choose district names. However, anger against Nguyen remained. On April 22, 2008, the issue was reopened with the submission of recall papers against Nguyen by the Recall Madison Nguyen committee. On October 9, the petition qualified for the March 3, 2009 ballot, having garnered more than 150% of the needed valid signatures. On March 3, 2009, voters rejected the recall attempt with a 55-45% vote. A year later, Nguyen won re-election and in 2011, she was nominated by Mayor Chuck Reed and was approved unanimously by the city council to be Vice Mayor. She is also the first Vietnamese Vice Mayor in the history of San Jose.

2016 State Assembly campaign

In April 2015, Madison Nguyen announced her intention to run for California State Assembly District 27, an open seat being vacated by term-limited Nora Campos.[circular reference] The Primary election was in June 2016, followed by a November general election, which coincided with the next presidential contest. Nguyen began rolling out her campaign platform soon after her announcement. Her first significant proposal was to support a new University of California campus, and to locate it in San Jose. Her first notable endorsement came from San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. Other declared candidates included San Jose City Councilmember Ash Kalra, Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Darcie Green, activist Cong Do, and Republican Van Le.

Madison won a decisive victory in the primary, with more than 11,000 more votes than her closest competitor.

2016 California State Assembly candidacy
California's 27th State Assembly district election, 2016
Primary election
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Madison Nguyen 27,453 34.3
Democratic Ash Kalra 15,843 19.8
Republican Van Le 11,726 14.7
Democratic Andres Quintero 10,922 13.7
Democratic Cong Thanh Do 4,869 6.1
Democratic Darcie Green 4,769 6.0
Democratic Esau Herrera 4,342 5.4
Total votes 79,924 100.0
General election
Democratic Ash Kalra 69,934 53.2
Democratic Madison Nguyen 61,436 46.8
Total votes 131,370 100.0
Democratic hold
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gollark: I don't watch videos, except those which I watch.
gollark: The Messiah
gollark: The Messiah
gollark: The Messiah

References
  1. Molina, Joshua (2008-01-14), "The rise, troubles of San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen", San Jose Mercury News, retrieved 2008-02-28
  2. Gottlieb, Allie (2003-08-28), "Madison Nguyen: The Visible Woman", Metro Active, Silicon Valley, retrieved 2008-02-28
  3. Fulbright, Leslie (2005-09-15), "Council win is first for a Viet American", San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved 2008-02-28
  4. Biography of Madison Nguyen, Madison Nguyen, City of San José Councilmember, official website, 2009, archived from the original on April 15, 2009, retrieved 2009-06-25
  5. Alicia Gaura, Maria (2003-09-30), "The Vietnamese Recall reveals newfound independence", The San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved 2008-02-28
  6. Kang, Cecilia (2002-11-01), "Asians promote political power", San Jose Mercury News, retrieved 2008-02-28
  7. Yi, Daniel (2002-11-29), "Beating the Odds in Garden Grove Race", San Jose Mercury News, retrieved 2008-02-28
  8. "Nguyen Vs. Nguyen; Race to become San Jose's first Vietnamese-American councilmember ends", The Sacramento Union, 2005-09-14, archived from the original on September 26, 2007, retrieved 2008-02-28
  9. "Madison Nguyen Wins San Jose City Council Seat", KTVU News, 2005-09-13, archived from the original on 2008-03-11, retrieved 2008-02-28
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