Robert Garcia Wins Mayoral Election to Become First Latino and First Openly Gay Mayor of Long Beach
Long Beach welcomed its first Latino and first openly gay mayor with the election of Robert Garcia on Tuesday.
Garcia, a Long Beach City Councilman and Vice Mayor, narrowly beat out his opponent businessman Damon Dunn, which also makes him the youngest mayor in the city's history at age 36.
According to the Press-Telegram, results showed Garcia with 52.1 percent of the vote, while the real estate investor and former NFL player got 47.9 percent. As a result, Garcia beat Dunn by just 1,898 votes.
In an exclusive interview with NBC Los Angeles, Garcia says that he plans to be everyone's mayor, and is proud of the diversity and social tolerance within his city.
"I know that there are certainly historical implications of my election," Garcia said, adding, "I'm in this to be mayor of everyone, no matter the age or the color of their skin or who they love."
He went on the say, "We have one of the largest Cambodian communities outside of Cambodia, a large Latino community, a large LGBT population, and we have everyone. I really think that's what makes Long Beach strong."
Garcia is also distinguished by his upbringing since he is the son of immigrant parents and the first person in his family to graduate from college. He was born in Peru, grew up in Covina and received his bachelor's degree from Long Beach State and his master's from USC.
"To see my mom work so hard, she worked at thrift stores and working at small jobs, cleaning homes, and to see me go to college, be the first in my family to go to college, and now here...I just felt like I needed to this," Garcia said. "I felt that the city was ready to take that step forward."
During his first 100 days in office, the mayor-elect plans to focus on building the city budget and restoring services like library hours and park programs.
"It's also going to be about a new strategic era for the city, we're gonna be doing strategic planning for our educational partners, for our business team, our economic team, and I wanna hire also the best and the brightest," Garcia said. "Long Beach is going to be poised to continue doing really great work, growing the port, bringing in new partners, working with people like Mayor Eric Garcetti and others to really put Long Beach in that next step."
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