Cao, Joseph, 1967-

<p>Ánh Quang "Joseph" Cao (/ˈɡaʊ/ GOW; Vietnamese: Cao Quang Ánh; born March 13, 1967) is a Vietnamese-American politician who was the U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district from 2009 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. In April 2011, Cao announced his candidacy for the office of Attorney General of Louisiana, but in September 2011 he pulled out of the race. The incumbent Buddy Caldwell ran unopposed for a second term.</p>

<p>He is the first Vietnamese American and first native of Vietnam to serve in Congress. He is the first Republican since 1890 to be elected from his New Orleans-based district. In December 2015, he announced that he would run for the open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring fellow Republican David Vitter in 2016. As Cao finished eleventh in the primary, he did not place high enough to advance to the general election.</p>

<p>Ánh Quang Cao was born in South Vietnam in 1967. His father, My Quang Cao (1930–2010), was a lieutenant in the South Vietnamese Army. He was captured by the North Vietnamese Army in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War. His mother, Khang Thi Tran (born 1935), did not immediately flee South Vietnam, but sent Anh Cao and two siblings to escape with their uncle. She stayed in the country with five of Cao's siblings. She was allowed to visit her husband only five times during the seven years he was imprisoned in a Communist "re-education camp".</p>

<p>Anh (Joseph) Cao, a refugee of the Vietnam War and one-time Jesuit seminarian, pulled off an improbable election victory to serve in the House of Representatives in the 111th Congress (2009–2011). Running as a Republican in a historically Democratic-leaning district, Cao (pronounced “gow”) dispatched a nine-term incumbent to represent much of the city of New Orleans. As the first Vietnamese American to serve in Congress, his win highlighted the new political activism of the Vietnamese community in post-Katrina New Orleans. Cao’s idealism, notion of service to the indigent, and willingness to cross party lines to support measures he felt best met the needs of his largely poor, minority constituency often put him at odds with his party’s leaders on health care and economic stimulus during the Great Recession. “I don’t want to conform to any ideology, to be put into a little corner,” Cao said shortly after his election. A longtime political associate observed, “It’s hard to categorize him as a Republican or Democrat. In his heart, Anh is a Jesuit.”</p>

<p>Anh (Joseph) Cao was born on March 13, 1967, in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam. Cao was the fifth of eight children. His father served as an officer in the South Vietnamese Army and was later imprisoned by North Vietnamese officials during the Vietnam War. At age eight, Cao immigrated to the United States with two siblings, older sister Thanh and younger brother Khanh. During the Fall of Saigon in 1975, as North Vietnamese troops overran South Vietnam’s capital, Cao’s mother took the three children to a nearby airfield and, while she remained behind, spirited them onto a military transport with their aunt. The younger brother lived in Guam with the aunt; the sister went to Florida to live with a foster family; and Anh lived for the first several years in the United States with an uncle in Goshen, Indiana, before they relocated to Texas. Cao learned English from his elementary school classmates in Goshen. He graduated from Jersey Village High School in Jersey Village, Texas, in the northwestern suburbs of Houston. He earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in 1990.</p>

<p>Cao’s Catholic faith had a profound influence on him as he came of age and later shaped his views on social policy. After college, he entered the seminary with the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuit order. His first assignment was at Grand Coteau, Louisiana, to begin training for the priesthood. For the next two years, the Jesuits sent Cao to Brownsville, Texas; Montgomery, Alabama; Tijuana, Mexico; and Hong Kong, China, to help the poor. To further his religious studies, he earned a master’s degree in philosophy from the Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York City in 1995. He was then sent to the Jesuit-founded Loyola University in New Orleans to study law.</p>

CAO, Anh (Joseph), a Representative from Louisiana; born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; March 13, 1967; graduated from Jersey Village High School; B.S., Baylor University, Waco, Tex., 1990; M.A. Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y., 1995; J.D., Loyola University, New Orleans, La., 2000; teacher; professional advocate; lawyer, private practice; unsuccessful candidate for election to the Louisiana state house of representatives in 2007; elected as a Republican to the One Hundred Eleventh Congress (January 3, 2009-January 3, 2011); unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Twelfth Congress in 2010; unsuccessful candidate for nomination to the United States Senate in 2016.