Rep. Pete Aguilar to chair House Democratic Caucus, will be most powerful Latino in the chamber's history

California Democrat Rep. Pete Aguilar will soon hold the highest-level job ever secured by a Hispanic American in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is of Mexican descent.

Aguilar was recently elected by fellow Democratic congressional members to serve in the next Congress as Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, the third most powerful position in House leadership. Aguilar has been serving in the fourth most powerful position as caucus vice chair.

His new role will be to help the soon to be minority House Democrats promote their legislative agendas, maintain party unity, and take back the majority from Republicans in 2024.

“We are going to do everything we can to stay united, to lower the cost prescription drugs for Americans, lower everyday costs at the pump. Those are the things the House Democratic Caucus is going to stand for, as well as implementing the legislation we've already passed, bipartisan infrastructure bill to create good paying jobs in our communities,” he said, according to a recent report published by NBC News. 

While Aguilar said the party needed to stay focused and united, he showed optimism, insisting that the Democrats would not remain in the minority long.

The California Democrat said his party needs to prioritize creating a path for citizenship by fixing DACA and making sure young people have viable options for health care.

While Aguilar hopes to unite Democrats, he also hopes to unite Hispanic Americans before too many cross over to the GOP as part of the purported Latino red wave.

“Of Mexican descent, Aguilar has grown frustrated with how Democrats treated all Hispanics with a broad brush, leading to a troubling decline in political support from that voting bloc. The anti-police rhetoric cost Democrats votes in South Texas, he said, where a huge portion of Hispanic families work for the Border Patrol or local law enforcement,” reported the Washington Post in a June 2022 article.

“They’re very different,” he told the Washington Post. “How you talk to a Mexican American in Southern California versus a Cuban American in South Florida, we have to acknowledge that we can’t have boilerplate campaign literature.”

Still, Aguilar may have some problems reaching across the aisle. He was one of the congressional representatives who served on the Jan. 6 Committee investigating the famed 2020 U.S. Capitol riots.

While that may not be an issue for some hard headed Members of Congress, Aguilar, who is only 43 years old said he is hoping to move toward a more bipartisan governing style.

“Traditionally, Democrats and Republicans, we can have some policy disagreements. Some of these individuals, they don’t want to have policy disagreements, they want to do anything they can to win and subvert the vote, rerun elections and deny free and fair elections,” Aguilar told NBC News.

“I want to go back to that time when that comity was at the forefront.”

Aguilar got into politics at an early age. He started his career as a City Council member in the California City of Redlands and later served as Mayor.

He also worked for California Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat who was later ousted in a recall election by Republican actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He said he believes his new position is important and was enthusiastic about having a Hispanic American in the position.

“I think it’s important to have a Latino to be in the top three in House leadership. I think the time has come. I think our growing number in the Hispanic Caucus of the Democratic Caucus and we were successful in delivering Latino representation in seats in Denver, Colorado, and Portland, Oregon, and Las Cruces, New Mexico and Chicago, Illinois, and an Afro Latino in Orlando, Florida,” Aguilar said.

“They will tell their own stories… I want to be an ally and I want to speak with them and for our own communities,” said Aguilar, who is Mexican American but whose family has deep roots in the U.S.

Aguilar was recognized as an up-and-comer soon after arriving in Congress, but his rise in the ranks has been largely done outside the spotlight.

Some believe that if the Democrats take control back in 2024 that Aguilar could become the chamber’s first Hispanic American House Speaker.

Aguilar apparently became an admirer of Mike Pence during his work on the Jan. 6 Committee when he saw how the former Vice President relied on faith to guide his decision making process that day.

“There’s these profiles of people along the way that all collectively kind of stood in the breach to protect democracy,” he told the Washington Post article. “And I think that’s the story worth telling.”

Two other Hispanic Americans previously served as House Democratic Caucus chair: Xavier Becerra, the Health and Human Services secretary, when he was in the House representing California and Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, before he left the House for the U.S. Senate.

Back then however, the position was not one of the top three leadership jobs.

The escalation in the position’s role now make Aguilar the most powerful Latino to ever hold the position and in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives.