I’d be worried too if I were U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, the Democratic congresswoman from the Lowell-based 3rd Congressional District.

She has a serious Republican opponent as she seeks her third term to the U.S House in 2022.

He is Republican Dean Tran, 46, of Fitchburg, a former Fitchburg city councilor and state senator, the first Vietnamese American elected to both positions.

Tran was 4 years old when his family fled Vietnam after the Communist North Vietnamese Army captured Saigon in 1975.

Last week, he announced his candidacy for Congress in Fitchburg. He also opened a branch campaign office in Westford, where Trahan lives, to be shared with fellow Republican conservative Geoff Diehl, who is running for governor.

Tran sees an opening in that Trahan, 48, remains solidly tied to President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and their failed policies, such as inflation, soaring gas prices, and rising crime.

Biden has become so unpopular that even Democrats are shunning him as they skip his appearances in Georgia and Pennsylvania. Lowell could be next.

Also, the 3rd Congressional District, which runs from Lowell and Lawrence out to Fitchburg and Leominster, and borders New Hampshire, is changing with an influx of Asian migrants.

The population of Lowell is now 25% Asian American. It has its first Asian American mayor, Sokhary Chau, a Cambodian American whose family came to the U.S. after his mother escaped from the murderous Communist Khmer Rouge who had executed his father.

It also has two members of the Massachusetts House who are Cambodian Americans — state Reps. Rady Mom and Vanna Howard.

Tran is a conservative, an unabashed American patriot.

He has a compelling story of living the American dream, like Mayor Chau. He was born in Saigon and came to the U.S as a child when his parents fled Vietnam upon the communist takeover of Saigon.

They became “boat people” who were rescued at sea and taken to a refugee camp in Thailand. In 1980 the family arrived in Massachusetts sponsored by a Catholic priest.

Tran is a graduate of Fitchburg High School and Brandeis University and has a career in high-tech management. He is married with four children. In 2005 he was the first person of color elected to the Fitchburg City Council.

In 2017 he became the first Republican to wrest the state Senate seat from the Democrats in decades. He was re-elected in 2018.

Even the few RINO Republicans in the Democrat-dominated 40-member Senate were taken aback by Tran. He was the first real Republican these closet Democrats had met.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.

Original source can be found here