A key success? Van Tran, a California assemblyman running against Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Tran, an immigrant whose parents left Vietnam on a military plane in the days before Saigon fell, lives in California's 47th District, which has the highest concentration of Vietnamese-Americans in the country. When McCarthy sat down to find someone to challenge Sanchez in a district that gave 60 percent of its vote to Obama in 2008 but voted for Bush in 2004, Tran was a natural fit: a popular elected official with a natural base beyond the party itself.

"You have to encourage the right people in the right districts," McCarthy says. He recalls a top House Democrat approaching him after Tran announced he would run, acknowledging the seat would become more difficult for Democrats to hold: "Van Tran - now that one hurt," the Democrat said."

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