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Gregorio Eduardo Casar (born May 4, 1989) is an American politician who is the member for Texas's 35th congressional district in the United States Congress since 2023. He served as a member of the Austin City Council from the 4th district from 2015 to 2022. Casar is a member of the Democratic Party and was endorsed by the Working Families Party in his run for Congress. Casar is an unendorsed member of the Democratic Socialists of America. He was first elected to the Austin City Council in 2014, representing District 4. He was reelected in 2016 and 2020. He was elected to Congress in 2022. Early life and education Gregorio Casar was born in Houston to a wealthy surgeon and his wife who immigrated from Mexico, and is Catholic. He grew up in the enclave of Bellaire as the son of a physician and attended Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, where he ran track. Casar then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and social thought from the University of Virginia in 2011. He began his activism in college, organizing with Students and Workers United for a Living Wage, which called for the university to pay its workers a higher living wage. Early career Workers Defense Project Before running for office, Casar worked as policy director for the Workers Defense Project (Proyecto Defensa Laboral), where he won victories such as rest and water breaks for construction workers, living wage requirements, and against wage theft. Casar joined Workers Defense Project shortly after graduation as a community organizer. In 2011, he led the Workers Defense Project efforts to require that construction workers be allowed to take rest and water breaks: ten minutes for each four hours worked, and no more than 3.5 hours without a break. Casar also organized against major corporations, including White Lodging, and successfully led the fight to include living wage and other labor protections in an incentives deal the Austin City Council planned to give to Apple. Austin City Council Elections 2014 In 2014, Austin had its first election with geographic, single-member districts to elect City Council members, instead of an at-large election. Casar finished first in the election, but went into a runoff against Laura Pressley, an anti-fluoride activist. Casar won the runoff, but Pressley sued to contest the results, claiming ballot irregularities. In 2019, the Supreme Court of Texas rejected her final appeal. 2016 In 2016, Casar was reelected to Austin City Council in the same election in which Donald Trump was elected president. When asked by the Austin-American Statesman whether he would shake hands with President Trump, he responded "Hell no." The day after Election Day, Casar wrote, "Lots of people, including Donald Trump, are calling for healing and unity today. I won't call for healing. I'm calling for resistance." 2020 In 2020, Casar was reelected for a second time to the Austin City Council. In November 2020, Austin Monthly published "Why Gregorio Casar is the Future of Texas Politics." Casar considered running for the Texas Senate seat held by retiring Kirk Watson, but he declined. Tenure As an Austin City Council member, Casar led policy efforts on issues ranging from affordable housing, paid sick leave, living wage increases, tenant organizing, immigrant rights, criminal justice reforms (such as "ban the box"), and police accountability. He was the first person to represent Austin's District 4, the city's most diverse district. It has the most young children, and is 70% nonwhite, with approximately 30% non-citizen. Most of its constituents are Latino, and it has the second largest African American population of Austin's ten council districts. It also has the highest poverty rate. Casar served as the board chair of Local Progress, a project of the Center for Popular Democracy, "the national network of progressive elected officials from cities, counties, towns, school districts, villages and other local governments across the country". Casar automatically resigned his seat on November 4, 2021, when he announced his run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 35th district. U.S. House of Representatives Elections 2022 On November 4, 2021, Casar announced his candidacy for Texas's 35th congressional district. During the primary, he was endorsed by prominent national progressives, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Austin officials such as Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County District Attorney José Garza. Casar won the Democratic primary on March 1, 2022, with approximately 60% of the vote. In his victory speech, he linked his victory to the overall progressive movement, saying, "This election was about us, the power of the people and the power of our movement. Let’s celebrate the progressive movement in Texas". Given the 35th district’s partisan lean of D+21, Casar’s primary victory was considered tantamount to election. The Texas Tribune wrote that he is expected to be "among the most progressive members of Congress ever to serve from Texas". On November 8, 2022, Casar won the general election, defeating the Republican nominee, Dan McQueen, with 73% of the vote. Tenure Casar was among the 46 Democrats who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House. On July 25, 2023, Casar led a thirst strike advocating for better heat protection after a law passed in Texas overrode local ordinances such as water and rest breaks. The strike lasted for nine hours and Casar took no breaks nor did he eat or drink. Caucus memberships Congressional Equality Caucus Congressional Freethought Caucus Congressional Hispanic Caucus Congressional Progressive Caucus Committee assignments House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Agriculture Political positions Criminal justice reform Ban the box In 2016, Casar led efforts at City Hall to "ban the box" through a fair chance hiring ordinance. The ordinance delays when employers can do a criminal background check until after a conditional job offer has been made, in order to help reintegrate former prisoners into the workplace and deter employment discrimination. Austin became the first city to ban the box in the Southern United States. Freedom City Because of Texas Senate Bill 4's limitations on sanctuary cities, and in an effort to reduce the impact of low-level interactions with police, Casar initiated policy changes to make Austin a "Freedom City", which discourages the police from making low-level discretionary arrests and requires police officers to inform residents that they have the right to refuse to answer questions about immigration status. During the debate, the Austin Police Association attacked Casar for citing data that Black residents are arrested twice as often as white residents in discretionary arrests. Casar wrote in a Texas Tribune editorial that the Freedom Cities law's intention is to uni.... Discover the Greg Jankowski popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Greg Jankowski books.