How Rep. Pete Aguilar became Congress’ highest-ranking Latino

Rep. Pete Aguilar felt the risk rising.

Because the Home ready to substantiate Joe Biden because the nation’s subsequent president on Jan. 6, 2021, and put an finish to Donald Trump’s false declare that the election was rigged, Aguilar had a terrific view of the doorways Capitol safety would barricade to push back the rioting insurrectionists.

Simply earlier than he left the chamber ground and fled for security with the remainder of Home management, Aguilar scratched in a bit purple pocket book he had picked up on a visit to Peru one thing that many members and congressional workers felt that day.

“I’m a bit scared.”

The Yucaipa native already was a rising star within the Democratic Social gathering and climbing up the management ranks. That notorious day supercharged his ascent, first with an appointment to the Home committee shaped to analyze the assault on the Capitol after which together with his election as chair of the Home Democratic Caucus. Aguilar is now the third-highest-ranking Democrat within the Home of Representatives.

How the previous Redlands mayor turned Congress’ highest-ranking Latino stems from why then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi selected him for the Jan. 6 committee, which led one of many highest-profile inquiries for the reason that Watergate scandal took down President Nixon. Mates and foes alike notice his tranquil demeanor, openness to differing viewpoints, and popularity for providing counsel to colleagues expressing complaints, considerations and compliments.

Partially due to his demeanor and the decidedly reasonable a part of the state he represents, Aguilar is way from an ideological warrior duking it out over culture-war points. As an alternative, he’s a part of a Home coalition recognized for its pro-business bent and just lately was the highest-ranking Democrat to hitch Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) for a gathering with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

When it got here to talking up for democracy and the peaceable transition of energy, Aguilar was firm. And on the Jan. 6 committee, which had been stocked with legal professionals and members schooled in previous oversight battles, he was an keen participant however a respectful listener.

Aguilar listens throughout a June 2022 assembly of the Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Occasions)

“There have been occasions when issues would begin to go off the rails and Pete was all the time somebody I may flip to, to get again on the rails. He was simply very pragmatic,” mentioned Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), a member of the choose committee on the Jan. 6 assault who has served for practically three a long time within the Home.

His tenure in Congress hasn’t essentially elicited landmark laws — although not for lack of attempting on topics reminiscent of immigration. Nonetheless, the Jan. 6 investigation led to a brand new degree of prominence and credibility, the form of discover that fellow committee members Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) are marshaling to run for or discover working for larger workplace.

Aguilar has his personal concepts on how one can use that newfound cachet, another attuned to the longest-serving Republican congressman in California historical past — Jerry Lewis. Generally known as the “grasp of the congressional earmark” throughout greater than three a long time within the Home that resulted in 2013, Lewis introduced tens of millions in federal cash to his Inland Empire district.

Lewis additionally was effectively favored by each his Republican and Democratic colleagues, even in a hyperpartisan local weather in Washington that rivaled the animosity seen as we speak. Whereas serving within the California Legislature within the Seventies, Lewis crafted laws that established the South Coast Air High quality Administration District to combat smog within the L.A. Basin and backed a defend regulation, an modification to the state Structure permitting reporters to take care of the confidentiality of stories sources.

Claremont McKenna political science professor Jack Pitney labored for Lewis and recalled, how at his funeral, Aguilar spoke glowingly of a person who rose to be the highly effective Home Appropriations Committee’s chair and head the Home Republican Caucus.

“He talked about their long-standing friendship going again to when he was mayor of Redlands,” Pitney mentioned of Aguilar. “It’s no coincidence they bought alongside so effectively, as a result of Jerry was just about like that too. He was not a cultural warrior. He had a conservative voting document, however he made some extent of befriending folks on the Democratic facet.”

Aguilar nominates Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for speaker of the Home on Jan. 3. Jeffries is now Home minority chief.

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Occasions)

Together with Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Aguilar is a part of a more recent, youthful vanguard of Democratic leaders who changed septuagenarian and octogenarian counterparts.

Aguilar mentioned he’s content material together with his station in Congress. He mentioned statewide workplace doesn’t enchantment to him and, at 43, he’s virtually a decade youthful than Jeffries and about 15 years youthful than Clark.

“It might be nice in some unspecified time in the future for him to turn out to be speaker,” mentioned former Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Democrat from Downey. “He’s precisely the form of particular person we’d like as speaker — somebody who’s revered, trusted and has core values that I feel all of us may assist.”

Aguilar pats Jeffries on the again after a information convention final yr. Aguilar mentioned he’s excited to finally serve a “Speaker Jeffries.”

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Occasions)

Usually agile in answering questions, Aguilar responded cautiously when a Occasions reporter learn again Roybal-Allard’s feedback. He reiterated his pleasure to finally serve a “Speaker Jeffries” and rapidly pivoted to how McCarthy — the just lately elected speaker — so craved the submit that he bowed to the far-right nook of the GOP congressional caucus in January to win sufficient votes to turn out to be third in line to the presidency.

“I don’t suppose Hakeem goes to do that job for 20 years like Pelosi did,” Aguilar mentioned of changing into speaker.

“Come discover me in 12 years after he does this, and we’ll discuss. It’s nothing I yearn for, to be trustworthy with you,” he mentioned, earlier than including: “Possibly I shouldn’t say that.”

Aguilar grew up in San Bernardino and Yucaipa, the son of a Southern California Gasoline Co. district supervisor who later divorced from his mom. He as soon as instructed a reporter that as a child he wished “to work for the gasoline firm like my dad. My mother had made me a uniform to match my dad and I wore it on a regular basis.”

Aguilar’s curiosity in politics and present occasions started when the Exxon Valdez oil supertanker spewed practically 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s coastal waters.

A 9-year-old Aguilar studied the San Bernardino Solar daily and was entranced by nightly information protection of the catastrophe. Upset, he wrote a letter to Exxon’s chief govt that included a petition telling the corporate to wash up the spill and take accountability. He gathered signatures from neighbors, classmates and academics.

Aguilar arrived at College of Redlands as a member of the golf staff and have become standard on campus. He ran the native Habitat for Humanity chapter and was a daily presence on the basketball staff’s video games. Mates recall his penchant for heckling opposing groups and referees.

A resident chats with Aguilar in February in San Bernardino.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Occasions)

His potential to convene folks and unite them began on campus, mentioned his spouse, Alisha Aguilar — a fellow classmate who now works as an administrator on the college.

“He all the time wished to be in the course of issues. He went to all of the basketball video games,” she mentioned. “He undoubtedly went out so much, had quite a lot of buddies and had quite a lot of enjoyable. He’ll inform you that our paths didn’t actually cross as a result of he was very talked-about and I used to be very good, and so we didn’t actually have quite a lot of overlap in our buddy group.”

An internship within the nation’s capital with a Redlands alum additionally helped ignite his ardour for politics. He attended the 2000 Democratic Nationwide Conference in Los Angeles at a second when Josiah Bartlet, the loquaciously liberal president on the favored tv present “The West Wing,” was a cultural touchstone. The present was appointment viewing for Aguilar and his buddies and presaged a politics that was above partisanship and excessive on idealism.

Aguilar, who after graduating went to work for Gov. Grey Davis’ Inland Empire district workplace, liked the present to the purpose of obsession.

He and roommate Kevin Dyerly hosted “West Wing Wednesday,” the place buddies would crowd into their residence. Chips and salsa together with some beer could be served with the quantity cranked excessive.

“We simply mentioned, ‘Look, you’ll be able to come early and hang around and have an excellent time. You’ll be able to keep late, however from 9 to 10, you’re quiet and also you’re watching,’” Dyerly recalled. “We did that for a few years dwelling collectively.”

The present has misplaced a few of its luster in recent times, significantly all through the Trump presidency because the neoliberal optimism it espoused fell out of style. For a 20-something Aguilar, it was an influential information to a profession that till then appeared mysterious.

“I don’t know if I might be doing this with out ‘The West Wing,’” Aguilar mentioned. “I assumed that it captured the idealism of working in these jobs that was actually, actually cool to me.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) exchanges phrases with Aguilar on the steps of the Home of Representatives on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Occasions)

After working for Davis, Aguilar turned director of governmental affairs for Arrowhead Credit score Union in San Bernardino County. Round this time he additionally managed the marketing campaign for a regional freeway tax measure.

Then, in 2006, a seat on the Redlands Metropolis Council opened up when a member resigned.

Eleven folks utilized for the submit, and after three rounds of voting on the appointment by the Metropolis Council, Aguilar prevailed and, at 26, turned town’s youngest councilman ever. Alisha — who had simply given beginning to their first youngster — additionally had inspired him to place his hat within the ring.

As a council member and later mayor, Aguilar proved to be an adept fundraiser who advocated for financial growth tasks, touted his work chopping down the variety of metropolis commissions and balanced the finances.

In 2012, as has been the case all through his profession in politics, an sudden alternative opened up. Lewis retired and his newly drawn congressional district was extra favorable to Democratic candidates.

Aguilar entered a crowded major filled with formidable Democrats and, ultimately, gained solely a precious lesson in humility.

The Democratic candidates splintered their get together’s vote, permitting two Republicans to make it out of the first and Rep. Gary Miller to prevail. Aguilar returned to the Metropolis Council.

“I hate shedding something — board video games with the children or working for federal workplace,” Aguilar mentioned. “It harm. I feel what additionally form of harm on the time was the Monday morning quarterbacking.”

Aguilar ran once more in 2014. Chastened, he launched his marketing campaign earlier to assist with fundraising and supply extra time for door-to-door politicking. The aggressive nature of the district meant that figures reminiscent of then-Vice President Biden and former President Clinton joined him on the stump in opposition to a Republican who had crushed him within the nonpartisan major.

After the 4-point victory in 2014, he’s been reelected 4 extra occasions. He additionally joined the New Democrat Coalition of pro-business Democrats.

“Mayors have a particular form of expertise. They’ve bought to make issues work. They’ve bought to cope with all of the council folks. They’ve to cope with the residents. They’ve to cope with everyone. Pete introduced that with him to Congress,” mentioned Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who served as Home majority chief underneath Pelosi.

For Aguilar, the Jan. 6 committee offered a venue for the political idealism he’d seen a long time earlier than on “The West Wing.”

“We’re going to be seeing Pete Aguilar for a really very long time,” one former congressman mentioned.

(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Occasions)

Throughout his comparatively quick time in workplace he has appeared for tactics to inhabit that bipartisan comradeship inhabited on the present and untangle the political knot that has been immigration. His hope since arriving had been to search out consensus on points he cared about.

It was the closest he got here to doing one thing huge, daring and bipartisan. In 2018, Aguilar, former Texas Rep. Will Hurd and several other different reasonable Republicans with giant Latino constituencies united to discover a path to citizenship for the tens of millions of immigrants who had been delivered to America as youngsters.

Generally known as “Dreamers,” there was a quick second of bipartisan assist to discover a means to assist a gaggle that had gained a short lived reprieve in the course of the Obama administration.

However the alternative fizzled and their effort failed.

Aguilar expressed frustration about not having the ability to overcome ideological divides and procedural intransigence of Congress such because the filibusterer. Hurd’s exasperation over the divisiveness in Congress led him to not run once more in 2020.

Nonetheless, Hurd noticed in Aguilar somebody with the capability, he thought, to finally bridge among the monumental divides in Congress.

“The distinction inside Democratic management circles and Republican management circles is Republicans change very often,” Hurd mentioned.

“That doesn’t occur on the Democratic facet. So I feel we’re going to be seeing Pete Aguilar for a really very long time.”