Dave Min is running for the seat being vacated by Rep. Katie Porter (D), who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. The district is largely a suburban Orange County-based district. Porter recruited and subsequently endorsed Min. He is running against Republican Scott Baugh, a longtime GOP official in the area who came within three points of beating Rep. Porter in 2022.
Min is a first generation Korean American in this district that is home to many first generation Americans. Before returning to California to work as a business law professor at UC Irvine School of Law, he served as an enforcement attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, economic and financial policy advisor to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and economic policy director at the Center for American Progress.
Min was elected in 2020 to represent Orange County’s 37th State Senate District and focused on gun violence prevention, climate action and economic development. The primary results point to an extremely closely divided district. Almost an equal number of Democrats and Republicans voted in the primary and the general election will be competitive as in previous years.
Min supports arms control negotiations even in times of conflict, opposes new types of nuclear weapons and describes himself as a climate change champion.
