Donald P. Wagner

Donald P. Wagner (born December 3, 1960) is an American politician, currently serving as a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors for the 3rd district and chair. He previously served as mayor of Irvine, California and as a Republican member of the California State Assembly, representing the 68th district, which includes portions of Orange County. In 2019, Wagner won a seat as a nonpartisan representative on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, representing District 3.

Don Wagner
Member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors from the 3rd district
Incumbent
Assumed office March 27, 2019
Preceded by	Todd Spitzer
Chair of the Orange County Board of Supervisors
In office January 10, 2023 – January 14, 2025
Preceded by	Doug Chaffee
Succeeded by	Doug Chaffee
Vice Chair of the Orange County Board of Supervisors
In office January 11, 2022 – January 10, 2023
Preceded by	Doug Chaffee
Succeeded by	Andrew Do
Mayor of Irvine
In office December 13, 2016 – March 26, 2019
Preceded by	Steven Choi
Succeeded by	Christina L. Shea
Member of the California State Assembly
In office December 6, 2010 – November 30, 2016
Preceded by	Chuck DeVore
Succeeded by	Steven Choi
Constituency	70th district (2010–2012) 68th district (2012–2016)
Personal details
Born	(1960-12-03) December 3, 1960 (age 64) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Megan Wagner
Children	3
Residence	Irvine, California
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles (BA) University of California, Hastings College of the Law (JD)
Occupation	Attorney
Website	Donald P. Wagner

Education and family

Wagner received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Juris Doctor in 1987 from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and was admitted to the California Bar in the same year.^[1]

Wagner is married to Orange County Superior Court Judge Megan Wagner, and he and his family resides in Irvine, California.

Legal and political career

Wagner was an attorney for Kindel and Anderson from 1987 to 1993, and for Wagner and Associates from 1993 to 1998. He has been an attorney for Wagner Lautsch Limited Liability Partnership since 1998.^[1]

Wagner served on several committees or advisory boards for the Orange County Bar Association and as a Judge Pro Tempore in the Superior Court of Orange County. Other previous positions include three active terms as a member of the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees. He founded and served as the first president of the Orange County Chapter of the Federalist Society.

In 2004, he sought election to the California State Assembly, but lost the primary to Chuck DeVore.^[2] In 2013, he sought election to the California State Senate to succeed Mimi Walters, who was elected to the United States House of Representatives the prior year. He lost the special election to Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach.

He won the 2016 Irvine mayoral election, and won reelection in the 2018 Irvine mayoral election. He won the Orange County Third District Supervisorial seat in 2019, and currently holds the seat.

2016 Irvine mayoral election^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Donald P. Wagner	30,002	37.7
	Republican	Mary Ann Gaido	26,278	33.0
	Republican	Gang Chen	11,816	14.8
	Republican	Katherine Daigle	8,299	10.4
	Republican	David Chey	3,206	4.0
Total votes			79,601	100.00
	Republican hold

2018 Irvine mayoral election^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Donald P. Wagner (incumbent)	35,592	45.3%
	Democratic	Ed Pope	24,682	31.4%
	Republican	Katherine Daigle	13,018	16.6%
	Republican	Ing Tiong	5,341	6.8%
Total votes			78,633	100%
	Republican hold

California State Assemblyman

Assemblyman Wagner speaking at a town coffee meet at Lake Forest, CA.

In 2010, Wagner narrowly won the Republican primary election for the 70th Assembly District over Irvine City Councilman Steven Choi.^[4] He then won the general election with 58.2% of the votes.^[5]

For the 2011–2012 legislative session, Wagner was appointed to these committees:

• Aging and Long-Term Care Committee
• Appropriations Committee
• Budget Committee
• Education Committee
• Judiciary Committee – Vice Chair

2004 California State Assembly

Republican primary results, March 2, 2004^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Chuck DeVore	25,248	46.3
	Republican	Cristi Cristich	14,363	26.3
	Republican	Donald P. Wagner	8,146	14.9
	Republican	Marianne Zippi	4,501	8.3
	Republican	Long K. Pham	1,709	3.1
	Republican	Chonchol D. Gupta	544	1.0

2014 California State Assembly

See also: California State Assembly elections, 2014

California's 68th State Assembly district election, 2014

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Donald P. Wagner (incumbent)	35,223	69.7
	Democratic	Anne Cameron	15,297	30.3
Total votes			50,520	100.0
General election
	Republican	Donald P. Wagner (incumbent)	66,445	68.4
	Democratic	Anne Cameron	30,749	31.6
Total votes			97,194	100.0
	Republican hold

Orange County Board of Supervisors

Shortly after taking office in 2019, Supervisor Wagner successfully brought together four large entities to negotiate the reopening of a public resource known as Irvine Lake for shoreline fishing.^[7] The Orange County Register named him one of OC's Most Influential People in 2019 in recognition for his leadership at the Board.^[8] Wagner stated public safety is also a top priority of his. In 2020, he identified and allocated funding to process a 30-year sexual assault kit backlog at the County of Orange, which led to the prosecution of a longtime sex offender and several individuals placed on national sex offender registries. The County had over 1,500 unprocessed rape kits and is set to complete testing by the fall of 2021.^[9]

Orange County Board of Supervisors 3rd district special election, 2019^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Donald P. Wagner	30,240	42.0
	Democratic	Loretta Sanchez	26,708	37.1
	Republican	Kristine "Kris" Murray	5,338	7.4
	Republican	Larry Bales	3,912	5.4
	Republican	Deborah Pauly	3,847	5.3
	Republican	Kim-Thy "Katie" Hoang Bayliss	1,366	1.9
	Republican	Katherine Daigle	597	0.8
Total votes			72,008	100.0
	Republican hold

Orange County Board of Supervisors 3rd district, 2020^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Donald P. Wagner (incumbent)	80,544	52.3
	Democratic	Ashleigh Aitken	73,334	47.7
Total votes			153,878	100.0
	Republican hold

Orange County Board of Supervisors 3rd district, 2024^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Donald P. Wagner (incumbent)	97,706	63.5
	Democratic	Farrah Khan	56,207	36.5
Total votes			153,913	100.0
	Republican hold

Political ratings

• Project Vote Smart provides the following results from legislative scorecards.^[13]
• NRA Political Victory Fund – "A-" in 2014^[14]

COVID-19 vaccine comments

In April 2021, Wagner inquired about whether COVID-19 vaccines contained "tracking devices" in response to constituents and public commentators making claims falsely asserting so. This led to public controversy with people accusing Wagner of promoting these claims. In response, Wagner has denied that this was the case and stated that he does not believe in "vaccine conspiracies," while demanding retractions from various media outlets and individuals for publishing what he asserted was "misinformation." Several media outlets later updated their stories by verifying sources, including a quote from Dr. Chau, who made a clarifying statement that his reaction was at the public commentators and not at Wagner.^{[15][16][17][18]}