About Trần

Trần’s Building Bridges, Belonging, and a Bold Future for Denver

Trần Nguyễn-Wills is more than a candidate for Denver City Council—she is a bridge-builder whose life has been defined by resilience, community, and the belief that everyone deserves to belong.

Born and raised in Denver to Vietnamese refugees, Trần grew up watching her parents stitch together a life from scratch—her father repairing meat-processing machines, her mother sewing clothes, both leaning on a tight-knit immigrant and refugee community that became their anchor. As a child, Trần translated government forms for her parents, navigating systems that didn’t speak their language. She knew what it felt like to be unseen, unheard, and unrepresented. But instead of letting those barriers harden her, she transformed them into a lifelong mission: to ensure that no one else is left out of the conversation.

Trần’s journey has been far from linear. As a teenager, she faced homelessness; as a young mother, she and her husband, Josh, built a family while navigating the struggles so many working families know—housing costs, childcare, healthcare, the feeling that systems weren’t built for them. Through perseverance and vision, Trần turned hardship into purpose. Over the next two decades, she built businesses across Denver—retail shops, art galleries, restaurants, and one of the first non-toxic nail salons in the nation. For her, those storefronts were never just about commerce—they were sanctuaries. They were places where immigrant women could work safely, where culture was celebrated, where neighbors gathered, and where justice was quietly, steadily built.

Her leadership didn’t stop at the doors of her businesses. When crisis struck during the pandemic, Trần didn’t wait for institutions to act—she mobilized her community. She organized food fridges for hungry families, coordinated vaccine clinics for essential workers, and rallied support for immigrant- and minority-owned businesses on the brink of collapse. These weren’t acts of charity—they were acts of connection, proof of her belief that survival and progress are always collective.

Today, Trần serves as Deputy Director of Outreach for the City of Denver, where she works at the intersection of policy and lived experience. She’s built multilingual, culturally fluent engagement strategies that bring historically excluded communities into City Hall. She also serves on the Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Board and the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs, championing reproductive justice, cultural equity, and inclusive policies that uplift Denver’s diversity.

Now, Trần is running for Denver City Council in District 2. If elected, she would make history as the first Asian American and first-generation Vietnamese American to ever hold a seat on Council. But for Trần, representation is just the beginning. Her vision is bigger: to remake the table of power itself, ensuring that working families, immigrants, youth, seniors, and every community long pushed to the margins are not just included—but centered—in shaping Denver’s future.

Her campaign is about building a city where no one feels invisible, where housing is secure, small businesses thrive, culture is honored, and every neighborhood—from Mar Lee to Harvey Park, from Bear Valley to Fort Logan—feels connected to the decisions made at City Hall.

Trần’s philosophy is simple yet radical: leadership is not about titles or seats. It is about building bridges. Between past and future. Between community and government. Between “us” and “them”—until there is only us.

For Trần, public service is not a career move. It is a calling. It is a continuation of the courage her parents carried across the ocean, the resilience she cultivated as a young mother, and the love she pours into her family, her neighbors, and her city.

Denver’s District 2 doesn’t just deserve a representative—it deserves a leader who knows firsthand what it means to struggle, to organize, to build, and to belong. Trần is ready to be that leader.

Rooted in community. Ready for change. Vote Trần Nguyễn-Wills for Denver City Council, District 2.