A Few Minutes With Jean-Huy Tran

As the president of Viet Vote, Jean-Huy Tran has devoted himself to helping improve the lives of his fellow Vietnamese immigrants.
He first came to the U.S. in 1990, settling in Orange County with his parents and siblings. Despite knowing limited English, he later earned a psychology and sociology degree from UCLA, becoming the first in his family to graduate from college.
In 2004, he moved to San Diego and made the city his adopted home. Then, some five years ago, he branched out into activism while still working full-time in the accounting field, his career for more than two decades. 
Since then, he has been deeply engaged in local politics while leading several social and economic justice causes, including his current presidency of Viet Vote.
Viet Vote provides voter education and encourages civic engagement for San Diego’s Vietnamese diaspora in Little Saigon. With support from LISC San Diego, the group is a part of a working coalition dedicated to bringing more resources to the businesses of City Heights.
Late in 2020, Jean-Huy left the private sector and joined the CPI (Center on Policy Initiatives) staff, a San Diego-based nonprofit research and action institute, as a full-time community organizer. 

What are the main goals of Viet Vote? 

Our mission is to empower the Vietnamese community and our people through civic engagement and getting more of us involved in the political process. We provide information, resources, and programs with the goal of bringing positive change to their everyday lives. 

What compels you to be so involved with politics?

I ask myself all the time, what can I do to bring more power and recognition to my people? For one thing, we need to have more seats at the table where decisions are made because we deserve more than what we’re getting. Everyone deserves a life with livable wages, a stable income, shelter, and a healthy environment. Right now, that’s not the case.

What causes do you most believe in?

I believe in the power of economic justice, not just for the Vietnamese community but for all diverse communities. I see how so many of our people live modestly in tiny apartments, with plants and herbs growing in tiny buckets and streets not repaired. They have so little.

How do you measure your success?

It’s not about more power or influence for myself, not at all. For me, it’s about how many relationships have I built and connecting people together to find ways to collaborate and do the work for our community. It’s about helping to create more opportunities and better lives.

What inspires you to keep going?

I feel like I’m just beginning. I don’t know whether my work will add up to something that changes many lives. But I’m hoping that ten years down the road, I’ll be able to look back and see that we did make a difference.