A native of Southern California, California Rep. Jimmy Gomez represents the 34^th district. He won a special election in 2017 after Xavier Becerra left the post to become California’s Attorney General. This, after Kamala Harris vacated the spot after she won a spot in the U.S. Senate.

Born in Fullerton, Gomez is the youngest of six kids from parents who immigrated to the United States from Mexico. Growing up in the Reagan era, he said he learned to appreciate government and history.

“At the same time, I also understood the contradictions of the American dream because I saw my parents work four, five, six jobs a week to make ends meet and that always stuck with me,” he said.

His own personal experiences and a passion for finding a way to get people health insurance inspired him to major in Political Science and get into politics.

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“Growing up without health insurance, seeing my parents work a lot of jobs, struggling,” he said of his interest in governmental affairs. He went to a community college, then University of California Los Angeles, followed by Harvard.

“It’s always that kind of experience that leads me to how to use government to make opportunities for people to change their own lives,” said Gomez.

He has worked on political campaigns for Hilda Solis and Mike Feuer, started working for labor unions and then ran for office.

While it can be easy to get caught up in current events like impeachment, he finds himself asking himself how he is improving those back home.

“This history that we’re in now is just a road bump to a better future and I think it will motivate and empower communities throughout the country,” he said. “My constituents want to hold [President] Trump accountable.”

He works to do just that on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is the main investigative committee and is investigating the impeachment inquiry.

His constituents are, in part, made up of a large immigrant population who found themselves affected by Trump’s separation policies.

He has also proposed the Rent Relief Act that would help renters who pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent to be able to write that off on their taxes and is working to restore the LA River.