California Gov. Gavin Newsom orders special election to fill vacant Senate, Assembly seats

Lia Russell, The Sacramento Bee on Dec 11, 2024

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom has called a special election next spring to fill two legislative seats in Central and Southern California after Assemblymember Vince Fong and Sen. Janet Nguyen stepped down from their respective positions.

The governor issued a special proclamation Wednesday ordering a special primary Feb. 25, 2025, election to elect successors for Senate District 36 and Assembly District 32. The general election will take place April 29.

The Senate district represents Kern and Tulare counties, and the Assembly district represents Orange County. Both Fong and Nguyen are Republicans.

Fong’s seat has been vacant since he resigned in May after winning a special Congressional election to replace U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Bakersfield Republican who resigned after he was ousted as Speaker of the House last year. Fong won another two-year term last month.

An appeals court sided with him in April after Secretary of State Shirley Weber previously said he was ineligible to run for Congress when he tried to withdraw from seeking reelection to his Assembly seat.

Nguyen stepped down earlier this month after she won election to the Orange County Board of Supervisors to replace Andrew Do, who resigned in October per a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to bribery charges.

Nguyen became a minor folk hero in 2017, when the sergeant-at-arms ejected her from the Senate floor after she criticized former legislator Tom Hayden, who had recently passed, for his anti-Vietnam War stance.

Then-Speaker Kevin de Leon criticized her for enjoying her “15 minutes of fame” after supporters held a rally for her.

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