DOWNEY – Robert Garcia, the Long Beach mayor who is running for Congress with hopes of representing Downey in Washington, D.C., has a message for Downey residents.

“My goal is to be the best Congressperson that Downey has ever had. And I want to be the best Congressperson that Southeast L.A. has ever had.”

Garcia, 44, is the leading candidate in the 42nd Congressional District race. Garcia dedicated his congressional campaign to his late mother, who brought him to the United States when he was 5 and died from COVID-related complications early in the pandemic.

“My mom brought me to this country and risked everything so that I could become an American,” Garcia said in a YouTube video announcing his candidacy. “She came here never doubting that America was a place where her immigrant son could succeed. That’s why today, I am fighting for every kid to get the same shot that this country gave me.”

Garcia’s mother, a healthcare worker, and his stepfather died from COVID complications. Garcia said he would work as hard as he could to ensure other families would not experience the same pain as he did. He was instrumental in expanding Long Beach’s mobile testing and vaccination efforts, which drew national recognition from health experts and praise from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Long Beach was the first city in California to vaccinate educators, which led to Long Beach Unified reopening schools before most other districts in the state. Long Beach was also the first city in California to vaccinate 99 percent of its senior population.

“We pushed back when we disagreed with the state,” Garcia told the Downey Patriot. “When the state said, ‘Don’t vaccinate teachers yet,’ we said, ‘We want to reopen our schools. We gotta get teachers vaccinated.’ So we were the first in the state to vaccinate teachers and we were the first in the state to vaccinate food workers so they could go back to work safely.”

Upon his election as mayor of Long Beach, Garcia became the first Latino, immigrant, and LGBTQ elected mayor in the city’s history. He grew up in Southern California, including Norwalk and Whittier, and is married to Matthew Mendez Garcia, a professor of political science at California State University, Long Beach.

Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, was the first group to endorse Garcia for Congress.

“Mayor Garcia has shown throughout his nearly 13 years in elected office that he has the skill, tenacity and compassion to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people and the diverse communities to which we belong,” Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang said in a statement. “From creating one of the country’s most comprehensive responses to the COVID-19 pandemic to establishing transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage in the City of Long Beach, he has been there for our LGBTQ+ community and for all Californians. We need a leader like him in Congress, and we’re prepared to do everything in our power to ensure he is elected in 2022.”

If elected, Garcia promised to advocate for Downey in Washington, D.C.

“The whole district is going to be viewed equally and all the cities represented, whether that is Downey or Signal Hill or Lakewood or Bell or Cudahy, they’re all going to be represented well,” Garcia said.

“Like many folks in Downey I come from an immigrant family, worked hard, was able to go to college and now am giving back to the community. I think the strength of Downey is its strong middle class – you have great homes, great homeownership, you have people who have roots here – and I think it’s very similar to a lot of Long Beach as well.

“I’m a person of high integrity, I’m honest, I’m a hard worker, and my goal is to be the best Congress person that Downey has ever had.”

Longtime Downey Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard announced in December that she would not seek re-election this year.

The primary election will be June 7 and the top two finishers will advance to the general election on Nov. 8.

City News Service contributed to this story.