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.
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.
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.
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]
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]
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