Former Rep. Michelle Steel, who lost her reelection bid for California’s 45th Congressional District last year by about 650 votes, will not run for a House seat again in 2026.
The Seal Beach Republican said she wants to “pursue other goals” and help advance President Donald Trump’s agenda outside of Congress, particularly when it comes to “fighting for Asian countries for their freedom against China.” She said she can better do that if she’s not running for office again — and all that comes with that.
“I’m just so proud of my service in Congress, and I was very honored to serve and grateful that people elected me,” Steel said.
“I want to work on the frontlines helping to advance President Trump’s tough-on-China trade agenda,” Steel said. “I think I can do more outside (of Congress) than in there.”
Steel, earlier this year, was appointed by House Speaker Mike Johnson to a group studying the possibility of a national Asian Pacific American History and Culture museum, and she said work is already underway on it.
“It’s good to teach our future generations how we came, how much first generations sacrificed for second and third generations,” Steel, 70, said. And her work on the bipartisan coalition has also given her an opportunity to take stock of how much she’s achieved as a first-generation American, she said.
Steel, a former Orange County supervisor, was born in South Korea to parents who fled North Korea and was raised in Japan. In Congress, she served on a commission that opposed human rights violations in China and sponsored legislation in support of Taiwanese democracy as well as an effort to restrict federal funding from colleges affiliated with China.
Since leaving Congress, Steel said she’s been doing a lot of writing and speaking, joined the board of directors of the Lincoln Club and has spent more time with her children and grandchildren.
California’s 45th Congressional District is already one of several key House races in 2026. Rep. Derek Tran, D-Orange, only narrowly flipped the seat blue in 2024, but midterm elections generally do not favor the party in charge of the White House.
And at this stage in the 2026 cycle, the 45th Congressional District is considered a “Democrat toss-up” by the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election analysis.
Still, Republicans might have more of an uphill battle for it since they’ll lose Steel’s name ID and fundraising capability, said Dan Schnur, who teaches political messaging at USC and UC Berkeley.
“A Republican could certainly win this seat as it’s currently configured, but it will be a greater challenge for someone who hasn’t held it before,” he said.
And that’s all to say if the district boundaries look the same come 2026.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has floated the possibility of a special election this year to redraw California’s congressional boundaries to counter redistricting efforts in Texas, a red state.
“For all we know, this district might not even exist by 2026, or it could be so dramatically different that no Republican could win it,” said Schnur.
The latest voter registration data from the California secretary of state showed Democrats have a slight advantage: 36.66% of registered voters in the 45th Congressional District are Democrats compared to 33.45% who are Republicans. Another 24.27% are no party preference voters, according to that data from February.
Steel served two terms in Congress, representing California’s 45th Congressional District in Orange and Los Angeles counties. The curved district includes Artesia and Cerritos as well as Brea, Buena Park, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Westminster.
Tran narrowly defeated Steel in the 2024 general election, becoming the first Vietnamese American to represent the country’s largest Vietnamese community in Congress.
Steel had made history, as well, when she was first elected in 2020. Then, she — along with Rep. Young Kim, a Republican who represents communities in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and Rep. Marilyn Strickland, a Democrat who represents a district centered on Olympia in Washington — was one of the first Korean American women elected to Congress.