Home>Articles>O.C. Sup Michelle Steel Wants to Take Orange County Back for California’s Congressional Republicans

Michelle Steel. (Photo: Michelle Steel for Congress)

O.C. Sup Michelle Steel Wants to Take Orange County Back for California’s Congressional Republicans

75 prominent Republican endorsements says Steel has the backing and the chops

By Katy Grimes, February 25, 2020 3:27 pm

“After November 3rd I can sleep,” said Michelle Park Steel, discussing her current campaign for Congress. “It’s so busy, but we have raised $1.75 million since May!”

In a California Globe interview, Steel said she just held a fundraiser with U.S. Senator Rand Paul and made $75,000. “I am so grateful,” Steel said. “Yesterday an elderly couple — 93 and 87 – showed up, concerned about the future and the County. They maxed out their contributions. If I had a better word than ‘thank you’ I would use it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!”

“I can forget about being tired,” Steel added. She said there are many young high school and college student volunteers on her campaign. “High school Presidents and valedictorians, and college kids in Young Americans for Freedom. “I am so grateful!”

Michelle Park Steel is married to Shawn Steel, a former California Republican Party Chairman who currently serves as the California National Committeeman at the RNC.

Currently a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and a former member of the California State Board of Equalization (January 5, 2007 – January 5, 2015), Michelle Steel is running for Congress in California’s 48th Congressional District.

The 48th district runs along the Orange County coast from Long Beach to Dana Point. “It’s one of the richest Congressional districts in the state, with a median income sitting at about $90,000. And it’s also the most vulnerable Congressional district currently in California,” California Globe recently reported.

The Democrats flipped the district in 2018, carefully targeting Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who held the seat 1989-2019, with $4 million in campaign funding from former New York City Mayor and current Democratic candidate for President Michael Bloomberg.

Michelle Steel thinks she can win back the 48th for Republicans.

California’s 48th congressional district. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Steel was born in Seoul, South Korea. Her father, a diplomat, moved the family to Japan for his job. Steel was raised and educated in Japan until her father passed away. Following her father’s death, her mother, who did not speak any English, packed up her three daughters and moved to the United States. Steel’s education continued in the United States. She holds a degree in business from Pepperdine University and an MBA from the University of Southern California, and is fluent in Korean and Japanese.

Steel said in the U.S., her mother opened a mens clothing store. Michelle, who was in college at the time at Pepperdine, had to closely help her mother in the store because of her language barrier. “I never sat down to eat lunch – it was one bite, then work. Then another bite…” Steel said. She worked long hours with her mother while attending college, and doing her studying late into the night and early morning hours, saying she rarely slept.

Eventually Steel said her mother recognized that the long hours with the men’s clothing store had been hard on the family so she closed it and opened a sandwich shop. And that is when the inkling of Michelle’s political career began.

“My mother got hit by the BOE tax board, and ended up paying taxes she did not owe,” Steel explained. “As I watched my single working mother struggle to fight an unwarranted tax bill from the California State Board of Equalization,” Steel said she felt helpless to do anything. “As an immigrant who owned a small business, my mother got harassed because she lacked the resources she needed to appeal the tax. After watching my own mother struggle, I knew I needed to help those who couldn’t help themselves, so I decided to run for public office.”

Steel said her goal in running for Board of Equalization was to help all small business owners. “I was a housewife running against a prominent Senator and won.” Once inside the BOE as a board member, Michelle Steel said the system was so corrupt that companies which asked for refunds on a deposit tax, suddenly found themselves being audited by the BOE. Steel investigated and ended up making sure $400 million was returned to California taxpaying companies. “I stopped a lot of taxes! I did whatever I could,” she said.

Following two terms of tax fighting on the BOE, Michelle Steel ran for Orange County Supervisor in 2015 and won. She said after being a tax fighter on behalf of California businesses, “I think I can do a good job.” What surprised Steel, even after being on the BOE, was how much work is involved in representing the County. “There are 25 different agencies,” she said. “The first six months other county board members tried to see how I would bend,” Steel said. “They pushed and pushed. I raised two teenage girls in America… I knew what they were doing. I told them to stop pushing me. After six months they stopped.”

Steel currently serves as the Chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and continued with her pledge to “work tirelessly on behalf of all Orange County families fighting higher taxes, reducing traffic congestion in our communities, and ensuring our bays and coastlines are clean.”

“I think they were preparing me for my next race,” Steel added.

48th Congressional District

After Rep. Dana Rohrabacher lost his reelection in 2018 to Democrat Harley Rouda, Steel said she took serious notice. And then Rohrabacher contacted her and suggested she run for the 48th in the 2020 Election. And then Rep. Mimi Walters, who had also lost the 2018 election in the 45th District also contacted Steel, saying she should run in the 45th. Steel and her husband Shawn Steel closely examined both districts, and considered running. Michelle said 66% of her Orange County Second District is in the 48th Congressional, and the residents know her. And the issues in both the County district and Congressional District are the same: Mentally ill and drug addicted homeless, being foremost on everyone’s mind. “Housing first is not going to work,” Steel said. She saw why first hand in Orange County when a judge ordered the county provide housing for 99 homeless individuals rousted from the Santa Ana River when the county cleared the area and cleaned it up from homeless encampments. “The County spent $1.2 million in rent for six months on rooms in a building,”
Steel said. “After they were cleaned out, the owner of the building sued us for $2.7 million for the damage to the building. It was trashed.”

Steel said what is needed is a very large facility, for 90 days, where the addicts and mentally ill can get treatment, medications, get help with jobs, and help going back to family.

Steel is critical of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s homeless task force and the appointments of “statewide experts” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who currently advise his administration on “solutions to address the state’s homelessness epidemic.”

“The Governor decides to spend $1.4 billion, and then appoints Ridley-Thomas and Steinberg, from two of the worst cities,” Steel said.

“Because Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas have been so effective in eradicating the homeless in their cities?” California Globe reported.

Another hot button issue is SB 54, which turned California into a Sanctuary state. “We were the first county that came out saying that public safety comes first,” Steele said. “We are not talking about immigrants, but criminals.” Steele said more than 2,100 illegal criminals have been released in Orange County as a result of SB 54. And according to a report, more than 400 criminals have re-offended in Orange County since their release. Charges include rape, assault, domestic violence, and driving under the influence.

We also discussed health care extensively. Steel said when Obamacare was signed into law, the 500,000 low income people on Cal Optima jumped to 750,000. “Government required health care does not work,” Steel said. “Only with free markets do premiums go down. And Medicare for all – guess what? That will cost trillions of dollars, and only illegal aliens will get free coverage.” As California Globe has noted many times, health coverage does not mean health care.

“Both of my parents fled North Korea,” Steel said. “Why would the country move to Communism or Socialism?” She said when her grandfather was still living in North Korea, he owned a lumberyard. “He was given 24 hours to get out with what he could put on a carriage,” Steel said. “He was forced to give up his business. He couldn’t exactly put much lumber on a carriage.”

“I am dumbfounded and terrified of Socialism,” Steel said. “Bernie promising free tuition to college students is Socialism.”

“But I am so excited about my college and high school volunteers – they see something that these other kids don’t.”

“I just became a grandmother seven months ago,” Michelle Steel said. “I was ready to term out. But I prayed and prayed, and people kept telling me to run.”

And then in the middle of one night, Michelle said she found herself suddenly awake and had her answer. “My husband was asleep. So I texted my family ‘Mommy is running.'”

More than 75 local officials have endorsed Steel, including the key endorsement of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy in her bid for U.S. Congress.

Michelle Steel didn’t set out to become political or even a politician, which together with her perspective as an immigrant, and commitment to Orange County is what makes her so effective.

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18 thoughts on “O.C. Sup Michelle Steel Wants to Take Orange County Back for California’s Congressional Republicans

  1. Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel is a solid Patriot who is intimately familiar with the needs and wishes of the Orange County community and especially the voters in her Congressional District. She is experienced, knowledgeable and most of all sincere and committed top serve, and serve well she will, count on it.

    I enthusiastically endorse Michelle Steel as the best of the best in a great field of competitors.

  2. One school of thought is that Orange County flipped to blue because of Ballot Harvesting. As long as the State of California allows this practice to persist, a practice outlawed in several other states BTW, her conservative cred will be overwhelmed by the mail-in ballots of the manipulated and otherwise disinterested voters.

    Just a thought.

    VicB3

    P.S. How does she feel about guns? A pro-gun stance is to my way of thinking the litmus test of the conservative cred of any aspiring “Conservative” politician. Not a word about that in the article.

    1. Are you sure that’s it many of us who live here we’re getting kind of fed up our representative chumming it with Putin. Fine if you want us to have better relations with Moscow, but the guy was clearly bending over and taking it. Meanwhile he criticizes gays for doing just that.

      Seriously, I’ll entertain voting for Republican again if they would cut out this nonsense.

  3. Steel does NOT believe a woman has a right to make her own reproductive decisions for her own body!

    Steel does not believe in climate science and would support offshore drilling on our gorgeous coastline!

    Harley Rouda is a patriotic, ex-Republican family man, and a successful pro-business moderate who has already brought MAJOR federal money to our district and he supports women & a clean coastline.

    1. Are you saying Michelle Steele believes in protecting the rights of unborn babies?? If so, she has my full support. Harley Rouda is a typical Democrat. Votes to close our beaches, then is caught with his own family on the beach. DEMS – Liars, cheaters and thieves. Michelle Steele, Nov. 3 2020!!

      1. Rouda is not from OC. He’s from out of state and came here only to run for office. He has no vested interest; no history; no perspective. He’s a seat filler for DEMO National Party. Vote Steel. She’ll fight for us.

    2. Summer: I agree with you. All Michelle Steel does is lie – she says she raised $1.75 million BUT $1 million of the was her OWN money, NOT raised money from individuals. Harley Rouda was also cleared by the IRS stating Harley owes NO taxes – Michelle Steel constantly lies and says he owes back taxes (the letter is on Harley Rouda’s website. Harley has also lived in Southern California for years. He did not just come her to run. In fact, Michelle Steel moves here to OC to run. She never lived here BEFORE running. Michelle Steel is just constant lies because she has not platform. Look at her website. There are no planks or ideas supporting any issues she discusses. just generalizations. People need to look at the See the truth is woth Harley who has fought to LOWER taxes and protect the environment and Co-authored bills to help our local businesses. He also NEVER said to shut down due to Covid. Look at harleyrouda.com for the truth and specifics. Also, Summer, I support your comments and wanted to know if you have any newspaper articles or some quotes or in writing by Michelle Steel supporting oil rigs off our coast like off Laguna, Newport Beach, and Salt creek. I heard she made these comments and wanted to see something in writing. THANKS!!

    3. Dan. Please correct my email to below. I just sent a comment but made a mistake on the email. Thanks says:

      Go to HarleyForCongress.com for the Truth and not lies and made up comments that are all over these posts

  4. No thank you. I am delighted with Representative Harley Rouda’s strong, informed, effective leadership. He is an excellent Orange County leader, I will be voting for him to continue.

  5. Where are you? I heard you talk on the radio once a few months back. I liked what you had to say but, haven’t heard anything from you since. We have to get that Rat Rota out of office

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