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Man of the House
A Baylor grad breaks barriers in the U.S. Congress
By Jeff Huett '00
Anh "Joseph" Cao '90 isn’t an accidental congressman, but that doesn't
change the fact that his election last year to represent Louisiana's
Second Congressional District was a bit unlikely. The first Vietnamese
American to be elected to Congress, Cao ran as a Republican in a year
in which the Democratic Party enjoyed a double-digit increase in
Congressional seats. His home district, which includes New Orleans,
typically votes Democratic.
Cao's improbable victory seems even more so after he admits that he is shy and doesn't like crowds. "The worst grade I
 ever made was a D in speech class," he said. "I would absolutely forget what I had to say when I got in front of people."
Apparently, a lot has changed since middle school.
Born in Vietnam during the most turbulent years of the Vietnam War, Cao
was just eight years old when he and two of his seven siblings fled the
1975 fall of Saigon for the safety of the United States. He was reared
in a devout Roman-Catholic family and was certain at a young age that
he wanted to be a Catholic priest. His existence was focused on faith
and education.
During high school, Cao moved from Indiana to the Houston area, where
he graduated from Jersey Village High School. When his dreams of the
priesthood began to dim, Cao enrolled in the pre-med program at Baylor
University.
As in his younger years, Cao's life was filled with faith and
education, but his stay at Baylor wasn't all serious. He shared a room
on the fourth floor of a dorm—the name of which he doesn't
remember—with two outgoing, party-hungry Vietnamese Americans. Before
launching into the details of his room's illegal electric wok and
other, let's say, college-kid antics, Cao said that "living with them
exposed me to the more wild side of life. I would go to clubs because
we couldn't dance on campus."
Midway through his time at Baylor, Cao remembers meeting with a
Roman-Catholic priest who ministered to Baylor students. "I would spend
a lot of time at the Catholic Student Center there being involved with
the Catholic student group" he said. "It brought back to me, again, the
desire to be a Catholic priest."
After graduating from Baylor, he joined the Society of Jesus (The
Jesuits) and began his religious training at Grand Coteau in Louisiana.
During his first two years there, he was sent to minister to the poor
and indigent. He eventually spent six years in the Society—a time that
Cao believes was an essential period of refinement for his life and a
time when his "life took a detour." In those years, Cao earned a master
of arts degree in philosophy from Fordham University.
"It was a formative time, not necessarily for the priesthood, but for
what I am doing now," he said. "Being exposed to poverty, being exposed
to suffering motivated me to try to seek social change."
It was at that point that he came to the realization that "the best way
to do that was to involve myself in the political process." So, he left
the Society of Jesus in 1996 and immediately drew "a roadmap that would
eventually lead to political life—not knowing that I would be here so
quickly."
His journey took him to Virginia, where he taught at a parochial
school. While there, he also volunteered with Boat People SOS, Inc., an
organization that would become a passion of his and help lead him to
Washington, D.C. The agency assists poor Vietnamese in their quest for
social justice and lobbies Congress on their behalf.
He returned to Louisiana to earn his juris doctor degree at Loyola
School of Law, and, after several years of working for a law firm, Cao
became in-house counsel for Boat People SOS, opening a New Orleans
office to serve the many Vietnamese refugees. He opened his private law
practice in 2002, which he continues to operate.
In 2007, Cao ran as an independent in an unsuccessful campaign for
District 103 of the Louisiana House of Representatives. His successful
race in the 2008 general election was against incumbent Rep. William
Jefferson, who was involved in a well-publicized ethics scandal. Cao
defeated the nine-term Democratic congressman by less than three
percent of the vote.
Cao said that his highest legislative priorities include the importance
of the Stafford Act and its provisions for helping municipalities
rebuild after major disasters. Not surprisingly, a lot of people back
home in the district have an opinion about that issue, he said.
But Cao said his most pressing issue is being a husband to his wife,
Hieu Hoang, and a father to his daughters, six-year-old Sophia and
four-year-old Betsy.
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