Opinion Pieces

Eight years ago this month, I was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on the same night that Donald Trump was first elected President. I have reflected a lot on that night these past few weeks, remembering the complicated feelings I had confronting the reality of his unexpected win along with my own — which, as an immigrant speaking English as my second language and someone who grew up in public housing, was its own kind of unlikely event.

I have thought a lot about that night, and my first years in Congress, in order to prepare myself to continue fighting for the people I was elected to serve and the Central Coast values that I represent in this seat. We have been here before, and with that experience comes a few thoughts on the path ahead for us as a region and as a nation.

First, it is important to point out that even though Donald Trump’s presidency was a challenging time for many, the results of his 2016 election did not determine a permanent direction for our nation. While I will never minimize the real harm done by the chaos and dangerous policies of President Trump’s first term, we must remember that when we united and spoke out against them, we found meaningful and lasting victories.

For example, 2017 brought the chance for Republicans to deliver on their revenge goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act and kicking millions with pre-existing conditions off their health insurance. Despite having the minority in both chambers of Congress, Democratic lawmakers worked tirelessly with advocates and everyday people who rely on the ACA to raise an alarm so loud that we not only blocked that effort, but made the law so popular it helped us win the House only a year later.

We also organized and made sure to use our power in our judiciary to fight Trump’s Muslim Ban, his scrapping of DACA, rollbacks of key environmental protections, and hundreds of other dangerous policies that would have done much more harm if we had thrown up our hands after 2016. But that requires both you and me not to disengage. We must recommit our resolve to improve our nation.

As a new member of Congress in 2017, I also saw that underneath the bombast and disorder of Donald Trump, there were still avenues to get things done — working across the aisle to actually govern, even if far away from the spotlight. While I will speak up every single day against efforts that violate the Central Coast’s values, I know that the next four years will still include working to pass policies that will help the Central Coast. I don’t see that as helping Republicans govern. I see it as them helping me deliver for you. And that work will continue, that is my promise to you.

Donald Trump’s victory this month requires two key contexts. Since 2006, the American people have voted in all but one federal election cycle to change the power in at least one of the three legislative or executive branches. And this year parties in power in industrialized democracies around the world have lost strength in almost every election. These are not excuses to write off this election as just history taking its course, but merely a reminder of the remarkable headwinds that Vice President Harris was facing.

With those contexts in mind, the conclusion I see is this: it is clear that the American people are unsatisfied with the status quo, and the direction of our society. We have heard that time and again, and many of the people who voted for Donald Trump did so not out of total agreement with all his policy proposals, but out of feeling unheard on the issues that matter to them most.

At the center of that is a concern over the rising cost of living, a wide-ranging challenge from the price of groceries (I’m not blind, my family and I see it every week in the store too); to shortages of affordable childcare, long-term care, health care; and even more systemic price spikes like rent, education, and the increasingly out-of-reach dream of owning a home.

Democrats were not blind to this issue. We tackled it head-on: passing legislation to lower prescription drug and home energy costs, cracking down on corporate price gouging and ridiculous junk fees, cutting red tape to lower the cost of housing, and working to pass tax cuts to make childcare and other everyday expenses more affordable. Those efforts speak for themselves. In places where the Democratic record on cost of living was communicated the most — swing states like Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin — the historical backlash to incumbents was blunted, cutting the rightward swing in voter preferences in half compared to non-swing states, helping to elect powerful voices for the middle class like Ruben Gallego, Elissa Slotkin, Tammy Baldwin, and Jacky Rosen to the Senate.

We also heard from communities across the country about ongoing concerns with growing challenges at our Southern border, public safety risks from crime and gun violence, and the threat of deadly drugs like fentanyl. Democrats took those concerns seriously, working with Republicans to craft bipartisan border security legislation, the first new federal gun safety law since 1994, and millions of dollars in public safety investments (actually outpacing those secured by Republicans).

The 2024 election showed us that these messages can work, but we need to spend time reflecting on how it is that we are reaching people with that message. That too means we cannot disengage. We cannot turn our back on that uncle, friend, or neighbor. We need to engage people who feel that they are unheard, in places where they are, and ensure we are talking to them not just before the next election but consistently between now and then.

I came to Congress two weeks before Donald Trump first took his oath of office, and I know no other version of being your Representative except serving during the “unprecedented times” we haven’t stopped facing since then. I’m ready to keep working to get us back to a place where you can forget about the history we’re living for a few moments. But I can’t do it without the engagement and advocacy of all of you.