Cristina Garcia (politician)

Cristina Garcia
Member of the California State Assembly from the 58th district
In office December 3, 2012 – December 5, 2022
Preceded by	Charles Calderon
Succeeded by	Sabrina Cervantes (redistricting)
Personal details
Born	(1977-08-22) August 22, 1977 (age 47) Bell Gardens, California, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Pomona College (BA) Claremont Graduate University (MA) University of Southern California

Cristina Garcia (born August 22, 1977)^[1] is an American educator and politician who served in the California State Assembly. She is a Democrat who represented the 58th Assembly District, which encompassed parts of southeastern Los Angeles County, including her home city of Bell Gardens. She had served in the Assembly since 2012.

While Garcia had been involved in politics in high school, where she organized opposition to Proposition 187, after college she became a teacher. In the late 2000s, tired of what seemed to her to be inaction by the Bell Gardens city council, she began attending its meetings and questioning its members. A bid to get elected to council herself failed, but a friend who lived in neighboring Bell asked her if she could attend that city's council meetings and help her figure out why its property taxes were so high. The investigations they did led to a municipal corruption scandal in which several city officials were found to have enriched themselves at public expense, and were imprisoned.

In 2012, Garcia defeated Tom Calderon, a former assemblyman, in the primary and went on to defeat her Republican opponent in the general election for the 58th District seat. She was re-elected in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020. In December 2021, Garcia announced she was running in the primary for the newly created 42nd Congressional District that will stretch from Long Beach to Downtown Los Angeles, she lost the June 7 primary finishing in third place.^[2][3]