SACRAMENTO — State Sen. Janet Nguyen instantly became a GOP hero after she was forcibly removed from the Senate floor this week while attempting to make a statement about the Vietnam War that was critical of the late Sen. Tom Hayden’s anti-war activism.
By Saturday, stickers saying “I stand with Janet” adorned jacket lapels everywhere at the California GOP convention, which screened a short video chronicling Nguyen’s ordeal. The Republican, who represents a diverse, working-class district in Orange County with more registered Democrats than Republicans, was given a last-minute speaking invitation, addressing hundreds of delegates on Saturday before leading them in the Pledge of Allegiance.
What makes Nguyen’s story so poignant is that she fled communist Vietnam with her family decades ago, as did many of her constituents, and settled in the United States — “the very place that should represent freedom of democracy,” she said, “the place where we can express our views.”
Nguyen said Saturday that she had wanted to thank Vietnam War veterans for their service:
“It was an opportunity for me to stand strong and thank all of the American soldiers who fought in Vietnam, because without you this person standing in front of you would never have an opportunity to be in this great country and be able to even be alive. I know you suffered when you came back here and had the backlash and were treated wrong — and it was wrong. So from the bottom of my heart and all of the Vietnamese people and all of the refugees who died seeking democracy and freedom and those of us who were lucky enough to come to this great country, let’s give a big thank you to all of the American soldiers of the Vietnam War and all those who fight all the wars and really are the symbol of our First Amendment rights.”
Hayden, who died in October, was memorialized in the state Assembly on Tuesday. But the activism of Hayden and ex-wife Jane Fonda — dubbed “Hanoi Jane” after a controversial photo shoot with North Vietnamese soldiers — still evokes strong negative sentiments in the Vietnamese-American community. Nguyen said she wanted to share a different perspective on Hayden’s legacy.
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On the Senate floor Thursday morning, Nguyen started with remarks in Vietnamese. But soon after she switched to English, Senate Majority Leader Bill Monning, D-Monterey, objected, and presiding Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, agreed, telling the senator that she was out of order.
After asking her to sit down numerous times, Lara asked a sergeant-at-arms to remove her from the floor, a move that left GOP leaders stunned and outraged. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León said he would investigate the incident, which he called “unsettling.”
“What happened 48 hours ago was as shocking to me as it was for everybody,” Nguyen said on Saturday. “I was doing my duty to represent my constituency” — which, she noted, includes the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam.
“If we can’t allow my constituency, a million of them, to be heard” in the state Senate, she asked, “where can that be protected?”
Shawn Steel, a Republican National Committeeman from Orange County, said he and other GOP leaders came up with the idea for the stickers on Friday. Political consultant Matt Shupe, a delegate for Contra Costa County, designed the stickers on his laptop over dinner.
“I’ve never seen in the history of California politics a sitting legislator removed from their own chamber,” Steel said. “It’s a low mark for the one-party Democrats.”
