The southeastern Los Angeles residents living in modest single-family homes bookended by industrial plants may seem like they have little in common with their neighbors just 15 miles away in multi-million dollar estates lining the coast.
But come January 2023, they are going to share a member of Congress thanks to newly drawn boundaries that brought together the cities of Bell Gardens, Downey, and Commerce with Long Beach.
And that member of Congress is probably going to have the last name Garcia.
Two Latino Democratic elected leaders have found themselves in one of the state’s most contested intraparty battles. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and state Assemblymember Cristina Garcia are among the top competitors in the race to represent the new 42nd Congressional District, a combination of the areas currently represented by retiring Reps. Alan Lowenthal (CA-47) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) as part of the decennial redistricting process.
From the candidates to the constituency, the 42nd District is forcing disparate elements of the party together. It’s one candidate in an established community along the coast where the average price of a home is nearly $1 million, according to Redfin brokerage, one in a community with nearly a third of its residents living in poverty — a microcosm of intraparty divisions and disparities running through the party nationally.
“When [Roybal-Allard] announced her retirement and I saw that this district was combined with this really affluent part of Long Beach, I had the same feelings I had 10 years ago when I uprooted my life and ran for assembly, which was that this community has been so marginalized, it needs a strong voice,” said Assemblymember Garcia.
Roybal-Allard’s former district was the most Latino in the nation. Under the new congressional maps, the 42nd is not even the most Latino district in the state but remains a leading majority-minority district with more than half of the constituency being Latino citizens of voting age.
While most state legislatures have primary control of the redistricting process, California is one of eight where map-drawing power is in the hands of an independent commission. After the state reported the first population decline in history in 2020, the 14-member commission had the painstaking task of dropping representation from 53 seats to 52, the first loss of a seat in the state’s 170-year history.
The pandemic not only affected the population but also delayed the Census count and extended the commissioners’ timeline to finalize maps. The California Citizens Redistricting Commission collected community testimony to determine which communities shared common interests and should share representation, without consideration of party affiliation.
The commission heard 46,201 community voices via submissions forms, phone calls, emails, and live meetings. Sara Sadhwani, a commissioner on the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, said she believes the vast array of community testimony is a key reason why there were no legal challenges against the commission or the maps. While 23 states as of April 1 faced lawsuits accusing mapmakers of drawing unfair boundaries that are racially discriminative and/or partisan gerrymanders, the California commission has managed to come out unscathed. The 45-day window to challenge the state’s new congressional maps has expired, which means these boundaries will be in place through 2032.
Amid the state population decline, the Latino population in California grew by 11%, or about 1.5 million people, from 2010 to 2020. That has resulted in six additional majority-Latino districts, bringing the total in the state to 16, elevating Latino voices and concerns in Congress.
According to a 2017 Public Policy Institute of California poll, Latinos disproportionately reside in communities with the highest pollution burdens and vulnerabilities and are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to say that air and water pollution in their area are very serious health threats to themselves and their families.
“I tell folks if you drive around or you see an empty lot in a place like Bell Gardens, it’s because it’s contaminated, otherwise we would have developed that place already,” said Assemblymember Garcia, adding the health of her community has sacrificed for everyone else’s progress. Living in one of the most polluted communities is a constant reminder of the environmental challenges facing the district, a key difference between her campaign and the mayor’s, she said.
Assemblymember Garcia and Mayor Garcia’s campaigns and backgrounds share a host of similarities — both are 44, the children of immigrants, and Latino voices for their community — but their ZIP codes reflect the divide in the constituency of the 42nd.
While inland constituents of low-income and minority communities are concerned about health hazards due to close proximity to toxic contamination, more affluent, coastal residents are worried about climate change and a crisis at the port.
Maria Blanco, a civil rights attorney and former redistricting commissioner, theorized when speaking to Annenberg Media in March that Long Beach will become the central hub of the 42nd because of the Harbor, and eclipse the southeast LA communities.
Although specific issues link southeast LA communities together, the Long Beach mayor said the district shares needs that are common across Southern California, including affordable housing, access to healthcare and quality jobs, infrastructure, and transportation.
Robert Garcia is the first openly gay mayor of Long Beach, and if elected, would be the first LGBTQ+ immigrant in Congress. The Peruvian-born mayor is a product of the 1986 amnesty bill signed by then-President Ronald Reagan. Garcia became a naturalized citizen at 21.
His experience allows him to understand the challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community and immigrants in the country, issues he wants to take on in Congress “not just because they’re important, but because [he’s] lived through them.”
The now-Democratic candidate has been criticized for registering as a Republican in 2002. He became a member of the GOP out of gratitude to Reagan, he said, but switched when he realized it wasn’t a place he felt welcomed.
The mayor says he is running for Congress to give kids the same shot his mother — and the country — gave him. Mayor Garcia, who lost both his mother and stepfather to COVID-19, says his mother’s legacy is at the center of not just his campaign, but also what he hopes to accomplish in Congress: “making sure that people like my mom have access to good health care and to access the unions and access to representation and to be protected in times of crisis like this pandemic we just had.”
The LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and LA Labor Federation have endorsed his campaign, as well other prominent leaders including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Under the new lines, the 42nd District is estimated to be 54% Democrat and 16% Republican. No prominent GOP candidate is in the race, and it is unlikely anyone but the two Garcias will prevail in the general election in this safely blue district.
With a host of big-name endorsements and sizable campaign cash, the Long Beach Garcia is widely considered the front runner. But Assemblymember Garcia believes she will be underestimated.
An activist at heart, Garcia said she was motivated to run for Congress to be a voice for her community that has “been victimized by the status quo.”
“When we’ve tried to engage, when we’ve tried to have a voice, we get told, ‘No.’ … We get told ‘You’re not a citizen, so there’s not a space for you,’ or ‘You have an accent and that’s not normal,” she said. “But we get told it’s our fault and that’s what we deserve. And at some point, I think people start to believe that.”
Assemblymember Garcia said she is also passionate about elevating women and has prioritized gender inequity as chair of California’s Legislative Women’s Caucus. She authored two anti-sexual assault bills signed into law in 2021 by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the first making it illegal to remove condoms without verbal consent and the second eliminating California’s spousal rape exemption. The assemblymember has been an outspoken advocate for #MeToo survivors, then was accused herself.
Although investigations found that she had violated the Assembly’s sexual harassment policy and was “overly familiar” with a male staff member while intoxicated, state Assembly officials cleared her name and concluded her behavior was not sexual.
The two will compete in a June 7 primary, with the top candidates, regardless of party affiliation, advancing to the November general election.