Robert Garcia (California politician)

Garcia was born in Lima. He immigrated to the United States with his mother at age 5. His mother and aunt worked in many jobs, such as housekeepers, to support the family. Garcia attended California State University, Long Beach, where he became President of the Associated Students, was an active member of the Delta Chi fraternity, and graduated with a degree in Communication Studies.

He continued his education at the University of Southern California where he received a Master's Degree, and later became a public information officer at Long Beach City College. Garcia received his Doctor of Education degree in Educational Policy from California State University, Long Beach, in June 2010. He has taught courses in Communication and Public Policy at the University of Southern California, California State University, Long Beach, and Long Beach City College.

In 2007, Garcia founded the Long Beach Post, a website devoted to local news and sports reporting. The site soon became popular with local political figures and community leaders and gave Garcia increased local prominence.[3] He sold the local website before being elected Mayor.[4]

Garcia was the California Youth Coordinator for the George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign.[5][6][7] He also founded the Long Beach Young Republicans in 2005. Describing himself as socially liberal and fiscally conservative, Garcia guided and organized the Young Republicans, which developed a charter that was recognized as an official club by the Los Angeles County Republicans.[8] Garcia also worked as an aide to Republican former vice mayor Frank Colonna when he was on City Council and ran Colonna's unsuccessful bid in the 2006 Long Beach, California mayoral election.[9]

Garcia changed his party registration to Democratic in 2007 prior to being elected to office. He and his family were originally Republicans when they first became citizens due to President Ronald Reagan signing an amnesty bill.[10]

Garcia has frequently sought to downplay his past as a young Republican activist, including lying about it. While running for mayor of Long Beach in 2014, The Orange County Register published a profile entitled "In a liberal city, candidates don’t want to be a Republican":

In an interview Wednesday, Garcia said he didn’t think about politics while in college and that rumors that he worked for the George W. Bush administration or campaign are untrue.

"To be honest, I was very apolitical," he said.

But it turns out Garcia was much more involved than he claimed, and he didn’t initially tell the truth in an interview.

A November 2000 article in The Daily Bruin, the student newspaper at UCLA, reported that Garcia, then a Cal State Long Beach student, was the California youth coalition coordinator for the Bush campaign, a position he received after walking into Republican offices and writing to the campaign’s national headquarters. [11]

Prior to, and during, his election to the Long Beach City Council, Garcia was a member of the public policy and communications faculty at the University of Southern California, and taught Communication Studies at both California State University, Long Beach and Long Beach City College.

In 2009, Garcia defeated six other candidates, including a former First District Councilmember, to win the seat vacated when Bonnie Lowenthal was elected to the California State Assembly in 2008. He was reelected in April 2010 by a margin of more than 40 percentage points.

In July 2012, he was unanimously elected to a two-year term as Vice Mayor by the City Council, becoming the first Latino Vice Mayor in Long Beach and the youngest in the City's history.

During his time as a councilmember, Garcia authored or cosponsored more than 20 pieces of legislation, including the City's first Equal Benefits Ordinance, a ban on smoking at bus stops and at farmers' markets, a proposal to extend increased preferences to veterans in civil service hiring, and a broad-ranging arts initiative that eliminated restrictions on street performances, and reduced the business license tax for artists and other home-based businesses.[12] He also showed support for both the business community and labor unions, voting to support Project Labor Agreements at the Long Beach Airport, Port of Long Beach and for the Gerald Desmond Bridge,[13] supporting the expansion of the Middle Harbor Terminal,[14] and working to improve infrastructure in commercial corridors.[15] He has shown interest in government reform and fiscal accountability, and supported the City Manager's efforts to consolidate departments.[16]

Garcia's support of the 2010 Long Beach Downtown Community Plan was criticized by some affordable housing advocates, who argued that the plan should be delayed to perform an economic study on affordable housing incentives. In response, Garcia argued that delaying the plan would be costly to the city, and that the economic study could be done separately. The plan passed the City Council, 7-2.[17]

In 2011, Garcia spearheaded the effort to name a planned park in Long Beach's 1st District after murdered San Francisco Supervisor and LGBT civil rights icon, Harvey Milk. The park, since named Harvey Milk Promenade Park, was opened in 2013. Garcia has received national attention for his socially progressive views and the culturally diverse communities he represents, being young, Latino, and gay. Garcia was featured in CNN's 2009 special "Latino in America," and was named to the "40 under 40 list" by the national gay news magazine The Advocate.[18]

In January 2013, Garcia was appointed to the California Coastal Commission.[19]

In December 2017, Garcia endorsed Gavin Newsom for Governor making him the first elected Latino to do so.[47]

In May of 2019, Garcia joined California Governor, Gavin Newsom, Representative Barbara Lee and others in becoming a California state co-chair for Kamala Harris's 2020 Presidential campaign. He was the only Mayor to join state leaders as a co-chair.[48] In July of 2020, after Harris bowed out of the Democratic primary and she and Garcia had endorsed Joe Biden, he went on to join the Latino Leadership Committee for the Biden campaign.[49]

In July 2020 and inspired by the George Floyd protests, a petition to recall Mayor Garcia was approved by the Long Beach City Clerk. Activists cited Garcia’s "immoral leadership" and financial support from the Long Beach Police Officers Association, the union that represents local police.[50] On November 9, 2020, the mayoral recall was canceled in the wake of the national election. Activist Franklin Sims claimed he and his supporters were being intimidated.[51]

In August of 2020, Garcia was selected as one of seventeen speakers to jointly deliver the keynote address at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.[52] This made him, Sam Park, and Malcolm Kenyatta the first openly gay speakers in a keynote slot at a Democratic National Convention.[53]

On December 22, 2018, he married his longtime boyfriend and California State University, Long Beach Professor, Matthew Mendez.[54]

In July of 2020 Garcia lost his mother, Gaby O'Donnell to COVID-19. Shortly after, he lost his stepfather, Greg O'Donnell to the same disease.[55]

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