Betty Duong

Betty Duong was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors representing District Two in November 2024. She represents more than 400,000 residents of San Jose in the Downtown, East Side, Southside and surrounding neighborhoods. District Two is also home to the historic and iconic Japantown, Little Saigon, Little Italy, and Little Portugal neighborhoods.

The proud daughter of immigrants, Betty is the first Vietnamese American and the first Asian American woman to serve on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and a lifelong resident of District Two. Her family arrived in San Jose after the Viet Nam War. As clients of the County’s Refugee Resettlement Program, the family lived in downtown San Jose Section 8 housing before moving to the Eastside to rebuild their lives and create new roots in America. She spent her childhood translating for her parents, family members and neighbors, helping them navigate government agencies, social services and safety net resources. These experiences helped shape her commitment to public service.

Betty is a proud graduate of California’s public schools including the East Side Union High School District, De Anza College, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis King Hall School of Law.

Throughout law school, Betty clerked at the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office, learning firsthand the importance of helping those in need with behavioral health services, employment opportunities, and housing before they become part of the criminal justice system. As an attorney, Betty practiced employment law, serving as special counsel to the Vietnamese American Workers’ Rights Project with Legal Aid at Work and supervising attorney with the Katharine and George Alexander Law Center Workers’ Rights Clinic.

Prior to her election, Betty spent more than a decade working in multiple capacities for the County of Santa Clara, including serving as the original manager of both the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement and the Vietnamese American Service Center, as well as guiding the creation of the County’s language access policy and Language Access Unit. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as one of the County’s lead public information officers.

In 2016, Betty took a leave of absence from the County to manage the successful Measure A campaign, which secured passage of a $950 million bond issue dedicated to affordable housing. In the eight years since Measure A passed, the bond funds have been used to help finance approximately 5,000 units of affordable housing in 10 cities throughout Santa Clara County, representing the majority of affordable housing construction in the county during the last decade.

Betty and her husband Khai have two children and live in San Jose’s Backesto Park neighborhood.