Anh Cao, known by the first name “Joseph”, is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Louisiana’s second congressional district. The single-term Republican was elected to Congress in November of 2008 after having unsuccessfully ran for the Louisiana House of Representatives in 2007. Democrat Cedric Richmond defeated Cao in the 2010 midterm elections. He left office on January 3, 2011.http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C001079 

The first Vietnamese-American to join the House, Cao was the only member of the GOP to vote “yes” for the Democratic healthcare bill. He stated that though the decision would unpopular to his party, he believed it to be the right decision for his district. Cao reportedly spoke to Obama about supporting the bill, as well as about continued support for his district in recovering from Hurricane Katrina.http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/08/cao-says-he-put-his-districts-needs-over-his-partys-wishes/ 

Anh “Joseph” Cao was born in what was then Saigon in 1967. He moved with his family to Guam when he was eight years old. Cao bounced around the United States as a young man, earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from Baylor University, a master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University, and finally a law degree from Loyola University in New Orleans. After law school, he acted as a lobbyist for organizations that assisted Vietnamese immigrants and helped rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Cao was elected to the House in 2008.http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Joseph_Cao 

Cao was a moderate Republican Congressman who voted with his party about 80 percent of the time. He was the only Republican to support the healthcare reform plan in November of 2009. Cao was an active supporter of legislation that provided funds to help relieve post-Katrina New Orleans. He wrote President Obama a letter in 2009 asking for $490 million dollars to replace New Orleans’s Charity Hospital, which was shut down after the hurricane. He was a member of the committees on Homeland Security and Transportation & Infrastructure.http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Joseph_Cao