Robert Garcia, a two-term Democratic congressman and the first gay immigrant sworn into Congress, is poised to represent Huntington Beach after California’s Proposition 50 redistricting measure — approved by voters in November — redrew the state’s congressional maps and placed the conservative Orange County city into his congressional district 42. Garcia is the leading contender in Tuesday’s primary for the seat.
Huntington Beach, a city of just under 200,000, has roughly 56,367 registered Republican voters and 41,156 registered Democrats. Its city council is entirely Republican, a group that according to SFGate refers to itself as the “Maga-nificent Seven.” The council has pushed the city further rightward in recent years, approving an initiative in 2024 to ban non-government flags — including the Pride flag — from city property, clashing with the state over Covid-era beach closures in 2020, and fighting California’s government over the city’s failure to comply with state housing mandates.
Proposition 50 was part of a broader wave of mid-decade redistricting across the United States. Trump set off the wave by urging Texas to adopt congressional map changes favoring Republicans during the midterm elections. California and a number of other states subsequently reshaped their own maps, altering representation in multiple districts.
Since 2025, Dave Min, a moderate Democrat, has represented the district that included Huntington Beach. Conservative city officials have expressed frustration with the changes. Pat Burns, a Huntington Beach city councilman, told Reuters: “It’s just California ugly-ass politics, and they are all about their agenda and not about the people. They don’t care about the people of California one bit.”
Garcia, the former mayor of Long Beach and the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, has sought to bridge the political divide. “Huntington Beach may have a conservative city council – but the people I’ve met in their homes and in the neighborhoods want exactly what folks in Long Beach want: good infrastructure, affordable healthcare and taking on corruption in government,” Garcia said in a statement over the weekend. “And that’s exactly what we are going to do. I’m looking forward to repping HB.”
He told Reuters that representing constituents with whom he disagrees is part of the job. “That’s OK. That’s America,” he said.
Garcia’s positions on immigration and healthcare are at odds with much of the MAGA agenda. He has said he has represented people with whom he does not agree on policy, and that the district’s new boundaries reflect the demographic and political diversity of Southern California’s suburban communities.