Wife of Fresno Council candidate speaks out against attack ad. ‘This is not right’
The wife of District 5 Fresno City Council candidate Brandon Vang says a negative campaign mailer attacking her husband is “false” and has unsettled their family on the eve of Tuesday’s special election.
The mailer, sent to hundreds of homes in southeast Fresno, includes allegations of statutory rape of a 15-year-old and includes confidential Fresno County records related to Vang’s paternity and child support.
Vang and his wife, May Lee, told The Bee in an interview Wednesday that the mailer contained “false accusations.” Vang, his wife of over 30 years and son were those referenced in the child support case, he said.
“I’m very angry. I’m very upset. This not only affects me, as his wife, but it affects our kids and I’m just really, really upset that this has happened,” Lee said.
Vang, 52, and Lee, 47, an OB-GYN nurse, have five children. Their oldest son was born in 1993, confirmed Vang’s campaign manager Pedro Ramirez. This means Lee would have been 15-years-old and Vang 20-years-old when they had their first child.
“No matter what age they are, we are their parents and we are supposed to be there to protect them,” Lee said. “And by this mailer coming out — this is not right. And I’m very, very upset, very angry at this.”
The couple was united in calling the mailers a false attack on their entire family.
“We deny it (the allegations) 100% and we could not believe that our opponents would stoop this low to go after my family, to go after my wife, to go after our five children,” Vang said.
“All of our five kids still live with us under the same roof, and we have cared for all of them from day one. We provide for them like any parents would.”
Vang has no known criminal history or charges related to the allegations.
Vang is a Sanger Unified School District Trustee and stay-at-home father. A Hmong-American, Vang and his family fled the war-torn Laos when he was a child.
He’s one of four candidates in a crowded race for the District 5 seat, which encompasses large swaths of Fresno southeast of downtown including neighborhoods along Cesar Chavez Avenue, bordering Calwa to the southwest and surrounding the Sunnyside county island to the east.
Other candidates include Jose Leon Barraza, a longtime community advocate and city parks commissioner with decades working for Fresno County on economic development; Fresno resident Paul Condon; and Fresno Unified trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, who has experience in nonprofits, water, planning as well as several major endorsements.
Barraza, Condon and Jonasson Rosas all denied having any involvement with the negative mailer..
On Monday, Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz announced an investigation into the mailer, saying it likely violated state and local campaign finance laws. Any group that spends more than $1,000 on a campaign is required to register with the City Clerk’s office as an independent expenditure.
The two-day investigation resulted in a $1,000 fine against Fresno Future Forward. The group had since filed as a political action committee with the City Clerk’s Office as of Tuesday, Janz said in a letter. Records show the group spent more than $4,000 in independent expenditures.
It’s still unclear who is behind the mailer or how they obtained a confidential document featured in the negative mailer.
Riley Moore, the representative listed for the group, couldn’t be reached for comment.
When asked whether he was considering further legal action, Vang said “everything is on the table.”
“We believe that there’s still a lot of open ended questions that needs to be asked and answered,” he said.
Special election on March 18
On March 18, District 5 voters will choose between four candidates vying for the seat that has been vacant after Luis Chavez left the seat in January to assume his position as District 2 Fresno County supervisor.
According to Vang’s latest campaign finance filing, he’s raised more than $120,000 as of March 1 — more than any other candidate.
“I have no special interest groups. I have no millionaires who’ve contributed to my campaign,” Vang said. “And given that, the voters realized that I can be independent, and I will be independent.”
Jonasson Rosas, a Fresno Unified School District trustee, has raised more than $97,000 as of March 1.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 3:29 PM.
