Rep. Derek Tran. (Photo: tran.house.gov)
Rep Derek Tran Rakes In Corporate Cash Despite Campaign Pledge
Since early 2024, Tran has accepted at least $76,000 from 38 corporate PACs
By Megan Barth, October 31, 2025 2:02 pm
California Democrat Congressman Derek Tran (CA-45) built his campaign around rejecting corporate PAC money and “Big Oil” donations, even earning endorsements from End Citizens United and the League of Conservation Voters for those pledges, but his latest FEC filings tell a different story. Tran’s “no corporate money” campaign has quietly become bankrolled by corporate PACs he once condemned.
In October 2023, Tran posted on X, “As a consumer rights attorney, I’ve spent my career taking on big corporations to fight for working men and women. That’s why I’m not taking a dime from corporate PACs or special interest groups and why I’ll fight to ban stock trading by members of Congress.”
Despite running on this pledge and since assuming office, Tran has taken tens of thousands of dollars from corporate PACs, including “Big Oil” fossil fuel companies, and corporations with track records of union-busting actions and labor abuses–including Honeywell, UPS, Google, Raytheon and Cox Enterprises.
So proud to have this endorsement. I will fight for clean energy, clean water, clean air, and a safe and healthy environment for us and our children.
And I will never take a dime from the fossil fuel industry, unlike Michelle Steel. https://t.co/uPBkxUCma7
— Derek Tran (@derektranCA45) May 3, 2024
In a 2024 newspaper questionnaire, Tran said he was refusing donations from oil companies and the fossil fuel industry:
Q: “What is one environment or climate policy you’d champion if elected?”
Tran: “I am proud to refuse donations from oil companies and the fossil fuel industry, and if elected, I would work to lower gas prices by making corporate oil and gas companies pay their fair share. As a workers’ rights advocate, I’ve stood up to the abuse of corporations on their workforce and consumers. I will hold them accountable in Congress. I will work with our industry partners to promote sustainable energy production and consumption, bringing with it an influx in jobs, economic growth and a cleaner, healthier environment.”
In the same questionnaire, Tran was asked:
Q: “2023 was a year for labor in California. What is one policy you’d champion to support workers, if elected?”
Tran: “As a workers’ rights advocate, I have stood up for people in cases of sexual assault, discrimination and wrongful termination. I know the importance of holding corporations accountable to their workers, and I know the underhanded, unethical and often illegal methods they use to keep workers from unionizing and stop collective bargaining. I ended my law practice and am running for Congress so that I can enact change on a national level to improve the lives of workers instead of helping case by case. I am certainly not alone in my belief that all workers should be able to join a union. We also need to ensure federal support for the PRO Act. This is a major priority and the first step toward making unions more accessible and giving workers a chance to negotiate for better wages, benefits and working conditions.”
Yet, since early 2024, Tran has accepted at least $76,000 from 38 corporate PACs, including major contributions from Amazon, Google, Boeing, UPS, Walmart, Home Depot, and Centene—many of which have been accused of anti-union practices, labor abuses, or environmental misconduct. Tran also took $2,000 from Sempra Energy, the parent company of Southern California Gas Company, a state-sanctioned monopoly accused by California regulators of misusing ratepayer funds to fight climate policy.
In 2020, SoCal Gas was criticized by a California watchdog for allegedly using customer money to “Fight Climate Change Policies.”
“California’s Public Advocates Office said that Southern California Gas Co. should be fined millions of dollars for failing to comply with a subpoena. It’s only the latest skirmish between SoCal Gas and the consumer watchdog, which is investigating what it describes as the gas company’s inappropriate use of customer money to fight climate change policies. SoCal Gas serves nearly 22 million people from the Central Valley to the U.S.-Mexico border. The company faces a diminished future as a growing number of cities ban gas hookups in new buildings, and as climate activists call for a total phaseout of fossil fuels — a prospect SoCalGas and its parent company, Sempra Energy of San Diego, are determined to avoid,” the Los Angeles Time reported.
In May 2024, End Citizens United (ECU) endorsed Tran citing “His commitment to standing up to corporate special interests, rooting out corruption, and protecting our democracy.” In October, ECU filed an ethics complaint against his Republican opponent, Michelle Steel, for illegally engaging in partisan political activities at an official event.
Assisting Tran is his chief of staff Dao Nguyen, who previously served as a principle at Cornerstone Government Affairs from 2021-2024.
From 2021-24, Nguyen was named as a lobbyist on at least 28 of Cornerstone’s lobbying reports which disclosed lobbying on behalf of corporations that later contributed to Derek Tran. Those corporations include General Dynamics, Google, RTX (Raytheon), and Boeing. The total paid out to Cornerstone between all 28 disclosures comes out to: $3.21 million.
His campaign site still declares support for “limiting the influence and power of lobbyists and special interests,” even as filings show money flowing from large corporations tied to union-busting, worker surveillance, anti-labor campaigns and fossil fuels.
The Globe reached out to Congressman Tran’s office for comment. At the time of publishing, we had not received a response.
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A Democrat lying? Say it ain’t so.
“That’s why I’m not taking a dime from corporate PACs or special interest groups”
His defense is, he didn’t take a dime. He took $76,000.
Democrat Congressman Derek Tran has accepted at least $76,000 since early 2024, but it sounds like his chief of staff Dao Nguyen, who previously served as a principle at Cornerstone Government Affairs from 2021-2024, funneled a good portion of the $3.21 million corporate contributions that were reported by Cornerstone during that time to Derek Tran? Who knows how much Tran accepted that wasn’t reported?
Before getting into Democrat politics in 2023, Derek Tran had previously worked as what some described as a sleazy trial attorney who enriched himself through frivolous lawsuits. At the end of 2023, Tran announced that he would enter the 2024 primary in California’s 45th congressional district despite having no previous political experience. Tran was a significant fundraiser according to FEC data and he was able to tap into a network of fellow trial attorneys while also serving on the board of the Consumer Attorneys of California. In March 2024, 23 days after the primary, it was determined that Republican incumbent Michelle Steel had finished first while Tran had placed second.
The 45th congressional district general election race drew national attention due to its competitiveness, ultimately becoming the most expensive House campaign in the country with at least $46 million spent. The vote counting for the general election in November 2024 continued on for almost a month. Tran barely defeated Steel in the general election by just 653 votes out of the nearly 316,000 cast, making the race one of the closest in the 2024 election cycle. No doubt Democrat voter fraud helped install Tran into office?
It’s a ironic that Derek Tran, the son of Vietnamese immigrants who fled the communist takeover of Vietnam, would become a member of the Marxist Democrat party and be involved in sleazy fund raising tactics and voter fraud?