A Sacramento councilwoman turned her back on the American flag at a Veterans Day ceremony last year.
Now she's polling neck-and-neck for a seat in the United States Congress.
Her name is Mai Vang – and what she did next will tell you everything about where the radical Left is headed.
Mai Vang Refuses the Pledge of Allegiance and Posts About It on Facebook
Mai Vang has turned her back on the flag at public meetings and ceremonies at least four documented times: a Sacramento City Council meeting in July 2025, a district meeting in January 2026, another in March 2026, and a Veterans Day ceremony in November 2025.
She posted about it on Facebook and called it resistance.
"We must not tune out," she wrote. "Instead, we resist."
She tagged the post #FreePalestine.
That's a woman running for Congress telling the families of veterans that standing for the Pledge of Allegiance is something she refuses to do – and that refusing it is an act of political courage.
Steve Maviglio, a Democratic consultant in Sacramento, called it "completely disrespectful to veterans and their families."
Even Democrats are embarrassed.
"You can't say the Pledge of Allegiance – that's how extreme you are?" Maviglio said. "Come on."
She never responded to a request for comment.
Mai Vang Wants to Replace a Congresswoman Born in a Japanese Internment Camp
Vang is challenging 81-year-old Rep. Doris Matsui in California's newly redrawn 7th congressional district, which now includes more conservative communities like Lodi, Placerville, and El Dorado Hills.
Matsui was born in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II.
The federal government locked her family up based on their ethnicity.
She built a career in American politics anyway – took the oath, served the country, earned 21 years in Congress.
Vang's family came to the United States with the direct assistance of the US military following the Vietnam War.
American soldiers bled for the region her family fled.
And she turns her back on the flag at Veterans Day.
Amy Gardner, a community organizer who founded Midtown-East Sac Advocates, called Vang's flag behavior "infuriating" – and pointed to a pattern. Vang voted against Sacramento city budgets multiple times between 2021 and 2025 over disagreements about police funding.
"She's actively trying to take money away from the police department," Gardner said.
Mai Vang Has the Squad's Endorsement and a Record of Voting to Defund the Police
Vang isn't a Sacramento curiosity. The Working Families Party endorsed her. Squad-aligned groups are backing her.
The same network pushing "defund the police" and the Green New Deal in cities across the country is now trying to install one of its own in a district that includes Gold Country communities and suburban families who voted for Donald Trump.
The National Republican Congressional Committee already knows what happens when Socialist Democrats run candidates like this in competitive territory. After radical Democrat Aftyn Behn lost a winnable Tennessee special election in December, the NRCC put it plainly: whichever Democrat moves far enough Left to win their messy primary will be rejected by voters in November.
Vang didn't get the memo.
Republican Zachariah Wooden is within striking distance of finishing top-two in the June 2 primary – which would send him to a November runoff.
David Cushman, chair of the San Joaquin Republican Party, said: "She's trying to be the AOC of the Central Valley, but this is not the same district as AOC's or even Nancy Pelosi's district."
Corrin Rankin, chairwoman of the California Republican Party, summed it up.
"Too much contempt for law enforcement, too little respect for our country, and no understanding of what Californians value," Rankin said. "When a candidate cannot meet that basic test, it tells voters everything they need to know."
Wooden called Vang's posture toward the country's most basic symbols not just disappointing – but malicious.
"A lot of her rhetoric is a rejection of our basic American values," he said.
The Pledge of Allegiance is 31 words long.
Veterans said all of them – and many gave more with their lives.
Mai Vang can't manage the words. But she wants the office.
Sources:
- Josh Koehn, "Fury over California congressional candidate's outrageous anti-America protest," The California Post, May 23, 2026.
- Adam Pack, "Democrats Are Looking To Flip Control Of Congress In 2026. These Nasty Primary Battles Could Get In The Way," The Daily Caller, 2026.
- "NJ Councilwoman Refuses To Say The Pledge, Causes Dispute," Fox News Radio, March 2012.
- "No Pledge of Allegiance, no job, voters say," NBC News.
- Reilly Richardson, NRCC statement on PA-07 Democratic primary, 2026.
