DR. ROBERT GARCIA, born on this date, is an educator and the 28th Mayor of Long Beach. He was re-elected to a second term by almost 80% of the vote in 2018.

Garcia immigrated to the United States at age 5 and was raised in Southern California. He is a college and university educator, holds an M.A. from the University of Southern California and an Ed.D. in Higher Education from Cal State Long Beach, where he also earned his B.A. in Communication.

Mayor Garcia has focused on making the City of Long Beach a leader in education, economic development, and climate protection. As Mayor, he has championed progressive education policy, launched an aggressive climate plan, supported workers by increasing the minimum wage and fought to expand and protect rights for women, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community.

He proposed and passed ten ballot initiatives since 2014. They include measures to support safety and infrastructure, a cannabis tax, and reforms to strengthen the city auditor, set term limits, and create ethics and redistricting commissions. His signature initiative, Measure A, has launched the largest infrastructure repair program in a generation.

Mayor Garcia served as a Board Member on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) representing much of South East Los Angeles County.

Garcia was the California Youth Coordinator for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign. 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. Garcia also worked as an aide to Republican former vice mayor Frank Colonna when he was on the City Council and ran Colonna’s unsuccessful bid in the 2006 Long Beach, California mayoral election.

Garcia changed his party registration to Democratic in 2007, the year before launching a campaign for city council in Long Beach’s heavily Democratic District 1. He and his family originally registered as Republicans, Garcia has said, when they became citizens, in admiration of President Ronald Reagan signing the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

In the past, Garcia has been accused of lying about his time as a Young Republican activist, dismissing it as merely a previous party registration, during a time when he was “apolitical”.

In December 2021, Garcia announced his candidacy for California’s 42nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in 2022. The district had previously been the 47th, represented by Alan Lowenthal. Lowenthal and his colleague Lucille Roybal-Allard both announced that they were not running for reelection as California lost a congressional seat for the first time in its history. Garcia chose to swear his oath of office using the U.S. Constitution, a picture of his parents and an original Action Comics #1 the first appearance of Superman which is considered the start of the golden age of comics.

Garcia was one of the leading figures in the expulsion of George Santos as one of the representatives who filed motions to remove Santos from the House, including the one which ultimately led to the successful expulsion of Santos. Prior to the passage of the ultimately successful resolution, Garcia predicted that the motion would pass “overwhelmingly”; the final vote of the resolution was 311–114.

In November 2025, Garcia co-sponsored a bill called The Stop Ballroom Bribery Act. It prevents future and present Presidents of the United States from accepting private donations and spending tax payer dollars to construct ballrooms or expand the interior of the White House in an effort to combat bribery of any United States President. Contributors would be unable to lobby the government for 2 years after donating.. The President and Vice-President would be unable to keep any leftover funds. It would ban donations from people who have conflicts of interest. The legislation would prohibit the President, Vice-President and their staff and families from soliciting funds. It would require members of Congress to approve any foreign governmental donors. Elizabeth Warren is sponsoring this legislation in the United States Senate.

In November 2025, Garcia sponsored a bill that would create a United States envoy to fight for the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer and Intersex (LGBTQ+) people who are not American citizens living outside of the United States. It would be the State Department of the US responsibility to strategize on how to end discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ people worldwide. Ed Markey is sponsoring the bill in the United States Senate.

In January 2026, Garcia called for abolishing ICE after the killing of Alex Pretti, and said that he would support Kristi Noem’s impeachment.

Representative Garcia is married to Matthew Mendez Garcia, a professor of political science at California State University, Long Beach