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Janet Nguyen | |
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| Member of the California Senate | |
| Assumed office December 7, 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Patricia Bates |
| Constituency | 36th district |
| In office December 1, 2014 – November 30, 2018 | |
| Constituency | 34th district |
| Preceded by | Lou Correa |
| Succeeded by | Tom Umberg |
| Member of the California State Assembly from the 72nd district | |
| In office December 7, 2020 – December 5, 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Tyler Diep |
| Succeeded by | Diane Dixon |
| Member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors from the 1st District | |
| In office March 27, 2007 – December 1, 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Lou Correa |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Do |
| Member of the Garden Grove City Council | |
| In office December 14, 2004 – March 27, 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Van Tran |
| Succeeded by | Steve Jones |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 1, 1976 Saigon, Republic of South Vietnam |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Tom Bonikowski, Jr. (m. 2005) |
| Children | Thomas III and Timothy |
Janet Q. Nguyen (born May 1, 1976) is an American politician who serves in the California State Senate. A Republican, she represents the 36th district, which includes coastal Orange County, Little Saigon, and parts of Los Angeles County. She previously was a member of the State Senate for the old 34th district from 2014 to 2018, before narrowly losing reelection to Tom Umberg.
Before her current Senate term, she was a member of the California State Assembly for the old 72nd district from 2020 to 2022, encompassing parts of northern coastal Orange County which includes the cities of Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, and the unincorporated areas of Midway City and Rossmoor.
She is the first Vietnamese-American state Senator in the United States and the country's first Vietnamese-American woman state legislator.
Prior to being elected to the state Senate, she was an Orange County Supervisor, representing the First District. At the age of 30, she was the youngest person to be elected to the board of supervisors, the first woman to be elected from the First District, and the first Vietnamese-American county supervisor in the United States.
She won her supervisor seat following a historic special election where two Vietnamese-American candidates received half of the total votes cast in a field of 10, separated from each other by only 7 votes. She was sworn in on March 27, 2007, after a lengthy court battle. She won a full, four-year term in 2008 in another historic election when all three major candidates were Vietnamese Americans. She was reelected to a third term in 2012 and left the Board in 2014 after winning her first State Senate term.
Prior to her election to the Board of Supervisors, she served as a Garden Grove City Council Member and at age 28, was the youngest person ever elected to that body, until Kim Nguyen (no relation) was elected at 25 in 2016.