The political career of Long Beach Congressmember Robert Garcia is on a rapid ascent thanks, in part, to his close association with California’s biggest political star Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris provided a game changing endorsement in Garcia’s underdog campaign for Long Beach Mayor in 2014. Now, he is returning the favor by serving as an co-chair of her presidential campaign.
“At the time (2014) there had only ever been one person of color elected mayor, surely not a Latino and surely not a gay person,” said Garcia. “So I was concerned because the city had never elected anyone like me before.”
“Her (Harris’s) support was very important and critical in rallying Democrats to my race,” he added.
In the runup to Election Day in November, Garcia will be traveling the country stumping for Harris with an emphasis on energizing the LGBTQ+ and Latino vote.
“Everything I can do to help her get elected, I’m going to do, because the stakes are so high and she is, my opinion, such an exceptional candidate,” said Garcia. “Beyond just being from our state, which is great for California, I think that she’s so well prepared and ready to do the job on Day One.”
As co-chair he will be responsible for communicating the campaign’s message to voters and provide feedback to the campaign based on what he’s hearing from voters on the ground. Other co-chairs include Reps. Jasmine Crockett and Veronica Escobar from Texas, Sen. Chris Coons from Delaware, and Rep. Steven Horsford from Nevada.
Much of Garcia’s work will be focused in the six key swing states: Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. Soon he will be taking a group of more than 100 Long Beach residents with him to Nevada for a two-day door knocking campaign in the suburbs of Las Vegas
Recently, the Harris campaign gave him a primetime slot on the DNC stage — an honor many of his California political superiors, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, did not receive.
Recalling the loss of his parents to COVID-19, Congressmember Robert Garcia used his address to paint a stark comparison between former president Donald Trump’s approach to the pandemic and that of the Biden-Harris administration.
“While schools closed and dead bodies filled morgues, Donald Trump downplayed the virus,” said Garcia at the DNC. “He told us to inject bleach into our bodies, he peddled conspiracy theories across the country.”
Garcia said Harris called him at the hospital when his mother passed away and did so again just a few weeks later when his stepdad also succumbed to COVID.
Garcia first heard about Harris in 2004 when she was making headlines as the San Francisco District Attorney who dared to marry same sex couples.
“I was still in my own process of coming out at the time and it made a big impact on me,” he said.
But it wasn’t until Harris ran for attorney general in 2010 that the pair crossed paths in person. Garcia had just been elected to his first term as Long Beach City Councilmember and volunteered to support Harris’s AG campaign.
The duo quickly clicked discovering they had much in common: immigrant parents, a fierce loyalty to their friends, a dedication to uplifting the working class and a keen sense of humor, Garcia said.
Garcia was deeply honored to receive Harris’s endorsement for Long Beach Mayor in the primary as then-Governor Jerry Brown and multiple members of the State Legislature had already endorsed his competitor State Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal.
“She didn’t have to do that,” he said. “It was maybe politically risky for her, but she has always supported young people and remained focused on the future.”
When Garcia went on to succeed in a run-off election in November 2014, Harris came to Long Beach to swear him in at a massive ceremony at the Terrace Theater. Garcia also supported her presidential campaign in 2019.
Since then pair have appeared frequently together at campaign events be it at Lola’s Mexican restaurant in Long Beach, the iconic gay bar The Abbey in West Hollywood or the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) headquarters in Westlake. Harris organized the CHIRLA immediately after Trump won election in 2016 to reassure immigrant and undocumented community members that she would protect their rights as Senator.
“That solidified her character to me as a fighter and showed that she knew the dangers of Donald Trump early on,” said Garcia.
Protecting the immigrant community is important to Garcia. His mom brought him to Long Beach from Peru as a child and he didn’t become an American citizen until his early twenties — a day he recalls as the proudest moment of his life.
“I believe that immigrants who have earned citizenship are incredibly patriotic people,” he said. “When I became a US citizen, I made a pledge to this country that meant something to me and is a large reason why I’m doing the work I’m doing.”
Integrating into school as working class English language learner was not always easy for Garcia.
“I got bullied and that was part of my experience growing up, especially being a gay kid who didn’t know exactly who he was,” said Garcia. “So those moments were hard, but as you get older, you find your own voice, and you learn to stand up to those guys
Garcia said he has made it is personal mission to stand up to bullies in Congress.
He was the first member of Congress to call on George Santos to be expelled and has strongly pushed back on Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s misinformation about the pandemic — including her comparison of COVID vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany.
Garcia said one of the other core goals of his job on Capitol Hill is to bring back as many resources as possible for his constituents. In his first congressional term he has brought home over $500 million in funding through earmarks and federal grants.
“That’s the approach that I’ve taken in Congress,” he said, “which is to deliver for the district, to stand up for the community and to push back on these folks that are attacking the people and the values that I represent.”
