One of the most competitive U.S. House races in the country is being fought in the heart of Orange County, California. 

Many of the attacks have not been about policy, but about ethnic identity.

The incumbent, Republican Rep. Michelle Steel, was born in South Korea and lived in Japan before emigrating to the United States. With Reps. Young Kim, R-Calif. and Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., she made history in 2021 as being part of the first group of Korean-Americans to serve in Congress.

Trial lawyer and small business owner Derek Tran, her Democratic challenger, is a political newcomer whose parents arrived in America as refugees from war-torn Vietnam.

Tran is making his Vietnamese heritage a cornerstone of his candidacy.

“This district, California's 45th District, was carved out for a Vietnamese American to represent. Michelle still is not Vietnamese American. The largest population outside of Vietnam resides in California's 45th District. This district deserves someone who's going to selfly serve them. That's a Vietnamese American,” argued Tran in a conversation with Spectrum News.

Tran has criticized Steel’s immigration story throughout his campaign, telling Punchbowl News that “​​Michelle still tries to run on, that she’s a refugee or she tried to flee communism. No, that’s not true at all.”

“She came to this country for economic gain. That’s not the same as losing one’s country after the fall of Saigon in ‘75 and having no home,” Tran said in the interview. 

Steel hit back with a letter signed by nearly four dozen Asian American community leaders and organizations in the district, most of them her supporters. The letter demands he apologize for his comments or “get out of the race.” She has also accused Tran of using a translator and lying about being fluent in Vietnamese.

Natalie Masuoka, an associate professor of political science and Asian American studies at UCLA, says such attacks on ethnicity and origin are often unproductive.

“I think candidates of color really should feel a responsibility to really think about what they're doing and what they're modeling for other people, because sometimes — a lot of times — going dirty in those kinds of ways, in many ways, are really just activating racial attitudes and racism, rather than…really doing anything supportive for the campaign.”

Bias incidents against Asian Americans surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hate crimes reported to the FBI rose from more than 8,000 in 2020 to nearly 11,000 the following year, according to data released by the agency. Some analysts blame then-President Donald Trump’s rhetoric during the pandemic for some of that increase. Trump referred to the virus as “the China virus” or the “Kung Flu.”

“Asian Americans voters were very offended by that, and in many ways, some data supports that were more willing to support Biden [in 2020] because they were very turned off by a lot of the anti-Asian rhetoric that Trump was promoting, which then led to a lot of rise of anti-Asian violence in 2020 and 2021,” Masuoka pointed out.

Steel herself has not distanced herself from Trump, and says she believes that Asian Americans in her district will back the Republican nominee for president in November.

“I have 41% first-generation [Americans] in my district, and … 16.7% are Vietnamese Americans. They are [a] very patriotic community. They actually fled from Communism, and they believe that we really have to have a strong defense, and then the United States have to stand strong,” Steel said.

“I think [the] Vietnamese American community right now, they are really standing with Trump. And, you know, I got almost 70% of their votes two years ago. I know I'm going to get that too, because I know what they want.”

Orange County was once a conservative stronghold, but has shifted in recent years. Joe Biden carried the district by six points over Trump four years ago — but at the same time, Steel was elected to be its congressional representative. About 39% of voters identify as Asian American, 31% as Hispanic and 24% white; the growth of the AAPI voting block, which some assume lean conservative, has actually broken more liberal.

“What we're finding in the research is that over time, especially as Vietnamese American — those that are born in the United States, or have a longer time in the United States — they do tend to support Democratic candidates,” Masuoka explained.

Tran is hoping to capitalize on the district’s liberal tilt, making abortion rights the focal point of his campaign.

“She signed on to the Life [at] Conception Act. She has not been a proponent of women's health care rights, and that's something that I focus on as a candidate,” Tran said of Steel. “It's a top, top issue. Even though I'm from California, a lot of people understand that a national ban would affect them.”

The Life at Conception Act would give rights to fetuses at the moment of conception and would heavily restrict access to abortion. The act has not passed. Some have suggested it could threaten the use of in vitro fertilization for pregnancy, because embryos not used for IVF are often discarded. 

Steel removed her name as a co-sponsor of the bill earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos created through IVF are “extrauterine children,” effectively banning the practice under the state’s total abortion ban. Steel said she decided to end her support for the bill because IVF was integral to her family.

“I kept it a secret for a long time because it's my private matter, but I had my second baby through IVF, and I couldn't get pregnant, and that was very important to me. But when the Alabama decision came out… I really support IVF, because without that, there's no way I can have a second baby — who just had, actually — her second baby,” Steel said. 

But Steel said her position on abortion has not changed.

“I was very clear pro life, and, you know, three exceptions, and that’s where I’m staying,” she said. “[The constituents] know where I'm standing, right from the beginning. Never changed it.”

Steel, who is seeking a third term, said she has grown in her first four years in office, and she’s hoping her constituents can see that.

“2020 Michelle knew local issues — 2024 Michelle knows…this is a partnership, working with the federal government, state government and local government,” said Steel. “I understand what we really need and how we're going to work with our own community and our own local governments. So you know what? I grew up a lot the last three-and-a-half years, and I'm very proud of it.”

As Tran tries to unseat Steel, he said what’s getting him through this race is “hope.”

“I think what I have taken away from this whole process is the fact that you have to have hope,” he explained. “The hope is that you know you're going to leave this country better, and you're going to do the right thing by bringing opportunities to your community and to your country. So I think as long as you have that hope you're going to be OK.”