Oregon Journalism Project: State Rep. Hòa Nguyễn Dies at 41

Nguyễn first ran for the Oregon Legislature in 2022. That year, three other first-time Vietnamese American candidates won House seats, joining then-state Rep. Khanh Pham (D-Portland) to make up the largest group of Vietnamese American lawmakers in the country.

“This is meaningful not only for Vietnamese Oregonians, but all Oregonians because when we have diverse representation, we do a better job of solving problems for our whole community,” Nguyễn said at the time. The group would come to be called the “Phab Five” within the House BIPOC caucus. 

Nguyễn spent her early life in Louisiana, moving to Portland during her high school years. She graduated from St. Mary’s Academy and Portland State University. 

Prior to entering the Legislature, Nguyễn spent most of her career working with students and families to improve school attendance, first at Portland Public Schools and later for the Clackamas Education Service District. Nguyễn also served as an elected member of the David Douglas School Board, and in Salem, she represented one of the more diverse House districts in the metro area, which she liked to describe as spanning “from Kelly Butte to Powell Butte, Barton to Carver.” She served on the House Education Committee. 

Although she was too ill to attend all but a few days of the 2025 session, Nguyễn was a chief sponsor of two bills she hoped would help raise Oregon’s abysmally low school attendance rates, House Bills 3199 and 3218. Both bills emerged from a chronic absenteeism work group to which she lent her professional experience. 

“Rep. Hoa Nguyễn was a passionate, dedicated legislator and a fierce champion for students, schools, and the diverse communities she represented,” now-Sen. Khanh Phạm said. “She will be so dearly missed.” 

Tributes to Nguyễn poured in from legislative leaders, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and Gov. Tina Kotek. 

“My heart is with Rep. Nguyễn’s family, friends, colleagues, and the constituents she represented. It was an honor to work with her,” Kotek said. “She dedicated her life to public education with passion and purpose.”

But perhaps no tribute was more heartfelt than a remembrance from Deian Salazar, a former student who encountered Nguyễn at Robert Gray Middle School in Portland.

“Hoa Nguyễn was many things,” Salazar said. “She was a woman of great courage who pushed herself to serve others above all else, and a giant with an enormous track record of accomplishment in the Asian American Pacific Islander community. I considered her a friend and am deeply saddened that she has left us all too soon.”

House Democrats will share memorial service details when they become available. 

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This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project (oregonjournalismproject.org), a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon.