Cao, Joseph, 1967-

Ánh Quang "Joseph" Cao (born March 13, 1967) is a Vietnamese-American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district from 2009 to 2011.

Born in Saigon, South Vietnam (now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), he was eight years old when his uncle and siblings arrived as refugees in the United States. Cao lived for the first several years in the United States with an uncle in Goshen, Indiana before reuniting with his family in Houston, Texas. After graduating from Jersey Village High School in Jersey Village, Texas, he earned a B.S. degree in physics from Baylor University before earning a M.A. from Fordham University and a J.D. from Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana. While in law school, Cao also taught undergraduate courses in philosophy at Loyola. After graduating,Cao first worked for the Waltzer & Associates firm before opening his own law practice in New Orleans specializing in immigration law.

In 2008 Cao challenged nine-term Democratic incumbent William Jefferson. Hobbled by scandals that eventually led to an indictment, Jefferson narrowly lost to Cao in the December 2008 election. Though fiscally conservative, voting against President Obama's proposed stimulus package in 2009 and the Democratic-backed Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Cao supported immigration reform, gay rights, and government services for the poor as a member of Congress. He broke with his party by voting with Democrats in favor of the Affordable Health Care for America Act which included a public option for health care. Cao was one of five House Republicans who voted with Democrats to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell in May 2010 and was one of 15 Republicans who joined Democrats and voted in favor of the final repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell in December, 2010. Cao lost in a landslide to State Representative Cedric Richmond in the 2010 election.

After he left the House in January 2011, Cao returned to New Orleans, where he currently practices law. In 2016 he ran as an unsuccessful Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat from Louisiana.