Vicente Gonzalez (politician)
Vicente Gonzalez | |
---|---|
File:Vicente Gonzalez 115th congress photo.jpg | |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 15th district |
|
Assumed office January 3, 2017 |
|
Preceded by | Rubén Hinojosa |
Personal details | |
Born | Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S. |
September 4, 1967
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Lorena Saenz |
Education | Del Mar College Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University (BA) Texas Wesleyan University (JD) |
Website | House website |
Vicente Gonzalez Jr.[1] (/vᵻˈsɛnteɪ/; born September 4, 1967) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the United States representative for Texas's 15th congressional district since 2017.[2] He is a member of the Democratic Party. His district includes a narrow ribbon of South Texas stretching from San Antonio's outer suburbs to the Rio Grande Valley, and includes Brooks, Duval, Guadalupe, Jim Hogg, Karnes, and Live Oak counties, and parts of Hidalgo and Wilson counties.[3]
Contents
Early life
Gonzalez was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1967.[4] He grew up in a working-class family, often working odd jobs that displayed entrepreneurial skills. He went to Roman Catholic School in Corpus Christi for part of his childhood. In 11th grade, he dropped out of high school. He returned to school through a G.E.D. and enrolled at Del Mar Junior College, where he received an associate degree in banking and finance.[5][6] In 1992, Gonzalez earned his Bachelor of Science in aviation business administration from the Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University on the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. In 1996, he graduated from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law (now the Texas A&M University School of Law) with a Juris Doctor.
Gonzalez founded his law firm, V. Gonzalez & Associates, in 1997. He recovered tens of millions of dollars for plaintiffs nationwide and was nominated to the "Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum". He is a member of Texas's and New York's bar associations.[7] He is also licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2016
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
As a newcomer to politics, Gonzalez declared his candidacy in 2016 for the United States House of Representatives in Texas's 15th congressional district after Rubén Hinojosa, the incumbent representative, announced he would not run for reelection.[8] He won the Democratic Party nomination, defeating Sonny Palacios in the runoff election.[9][10][11] He defeated Republican Tim Westley in the November general election with 57.3% of the vote to Westley's 37.7%.[12]
2018
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Gonzalez defeated Westley again with 59.7% of the vote to Westley's 38.7%.
2020
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
In 2020, Gonzalez's seat became unexpectedly competitive. He defeated Republican Monica de la Cruz-Hernandez by a narrower margin than he had in his previous two victories, with 50.5% of the vote to Cruz-Hernandez's 47.6%.[13][14]
2022
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
After Texas's redistricting based on the 2020 census, Gonzalez in November 2021 announced that he would run for reelection in the 34th district. The 15th district became more Republican but the neighboring 34th became significantly more Democratic.[15] The Texas state legislature put Gonzalez's residence in the 34th. The incumbent in the 34th district, Filemon Vela, had announced earlier in 2021 that he was not seeking reelection, and would endorse Gonzalez regardless of where he ran. Gonzalez won the district's March 2022 Democratic primary. The Republicans nominated Mayra Flores. After Vela resigned on March 31, 2022, Gonzalez declined to run in and instead endorsed Democrat Dan Sanchez in the consequential special election on June 14, 2022, held in the 34th's older, more competitive boundaries. Flores, however, opted to run in the special election, and won with 50.9% of the vote to Sanchez's 43.4%. As a result, Gonzalez and Flores will face off in the November 8 general election in the rare scenario of two incumbents running for office in the same district.
Tenure
Gonzalez was sworn on January 3, 2017.[16] He is only the seventh person to represent this district since its creation in 1903.[citation needed]
In January 2019, Gonzalez and other members of the bipartisan U.S. House Problem Solvers Caucus met with President Donald Trump in an unsuccessful bid to end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.[17]
Gonzalez received the Order of the Quetzal in January 2020.[18]
In August 2021, Gonzalez joined a group of conservative Democrats, dubbed "The Unbreakable Nine", who threatened to derail the Biden administration's $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package meant to tackle the nation's infrastructure.[19][20]
On July 29, 2022, Gonzalez and four other Democrats joined the Republicans in voting against a bill banning assault weapons.[21]
As of June 2022, Gonzalez had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 97.3% of the time.[22]
Committee assignments
- Committee on Financial Services[23]
- Committee on Foreign Affairs
- United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, and Trade
- United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment
Caucus memberships
- Congressional Hispanic Caucus[24]
- Congressional Oil & Gas Caucus
- Congressional Small Business Caucus
- Congressional Blue Collar Caucus
- Medicare for All Caucus
- Blue Collar Caucus
- Blue Dog Coalition[25]
- Problem Solvers Caucus[26]
- New Democrat Coalition[27]
Personal life
Gonzalez's wife, Lorena, is a former teacher and school administrator from McAllen, Texas. His father was a merchant seaman who served in the Korean War.[28] Gonzalez lives in McAllen.[29]
See also
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Cite error: Invalid <references>
tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.
<references />
, or <references group="..." />
External links
![]() |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Congressman Gonzalez official U.S. House website
- Campaign website
- Vicento Gonzalez at Curlie
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Profile at Project Vote Smart
- Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
- Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress
- Appearances on C-SPAN
United States House of Representatives | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 15th congressional district 2017–present |
Incumbent |
United States order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 259th |
Succeeded by Josh Gottheimer |
Script error: No such module "navbox top and bottom".
Script error: No such module "navbox top and bottom".
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Texas Birth Index record
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Congressman Vicente Gonzalez receives Guatemala's highest honor by Ronnie Marley, CBS4 Valley Central, 20 January 2020
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Pages with reference errors
- Articles with short description
- Use mdy dates from March 2019
- Articles with invalid date parameter in template
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from June 2021
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Articles with Curlie links
- 1967 births
- 21st-century American politicians
- Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas
- Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University
- Hispanic and Latino American members of the United States Congress
- Living people
- People from McAllen, Texas
- Texas A&M University School of Law alumni
- Texas lawyers