Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez has conceded defeat to his 31-year-old Democratic Socialist challenger Angela Gonzales-Torres in the 34th Congressional District.
The 51-year-old Gomez issued an eight-paragraph statement on social media Nov. 4 beginning with “as my time in the House of Representatives comes to an end.”
“I’m proud of what we accomplished for families like mine,” said Gomez, who was elected to the seat in a 2017 special election and reelected four times. “I helped negotiate historic labor protections in our nation’s trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, and brought my colleagues together to fight for working parents and their children.”
Gomez also cited his bill naming the downtown Los Angeles federal courthouse for Felicitas and Gonzalo Méndez, “whose courage helped end school segregation in California,” as among his accomplishments.
It is the first federal courthouse named for a Latina.
Gonzales-Torres called it “an incredible honor to be elected as the next U.S. House Representative for Los Angeles.”
“I am deeply grateful for the trust, support, and opportunity to serve our communities,” she wrote on social media. “This is bigger than me — it’s about the people, the neighborhoods, and the voices that deserve to be heard. I’m ready to get to work.”
The most recent vote totals show Gonzales-Torres leading Gomez with 62.1% of the vote.
She had finished second behind Gomez in the field of four Democrats, one Republican and one no party preference candidate in the June 2 primary with 30.7% of the vote to Gomez’s 46%.
Gonzales-Torres said she challenged Gomez in the district stretching from Koreatown to East Los Angeles and north to Eagle Rock “because as a community we really could see that the federal government and Congress in particular would be weaponized against us as immigrant families, as working class individuals, as women.”
Her other reasons for running included seeking “to make L.A. more affordable for everyone by taxing billionaires, getting big money out of politics, putting people over endless wars” and “to be the fighter for the change we deserve.”
Gonzales-Torres also supports “bold investment in climate response and resilience to protect communities and build a sustainable future.”
She described herself as a “Chicana anthropologist, advocate for justice, lifelong Angeleno who’s currently working two jobs and running a full-time campaign for Congress.”
Her two jobs are being an academic counselor with Pasadena City College’s Community Overcoming Recidivism through Education programs, helping former inmates, and program director for a permanent affordable intergenerational housing project in Altadena.
According to a biography on her campaign website, angela4congress.com, Gonzales-Torres was born and raised in Highland Park, the daughter of a deportee raised by a single mother on programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, and Medicaid, the federal-state health care insurance program that helps pay for health care for low-income people of any age.
Gonzales-Torres was president of the Highland Park Neighborhood Council, worked in the Los Angeles mayor’s office, and as a regional representative on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Public Safety Advisory Committee.
The campaign and elections website Ballotpedia designated the race as among what would be 50 “battleground” races in August.
The House ethics committee announced Aug. 17 it was reviewing allegations that Gomez “may have engaged in sexual misconduct in violation of the Code of Official Conduct or any other applicable standard of conduct, including engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer.”
The New York Post reported in April that Gomez, D-Eagle Rock, “was spotted surreptitiously kissing a much younger congressional aide in the summer of 2023.” The Los Angeles Times noted the incident reportedly occurred at a party hosted by then-Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin.
Swalwell suspended his campaign for governor and resigned from Congress in April after being accused of sexual assault by multiple women. Gomez had been a co-chair of Swalwell’s campaign.
Gomez told CNN on Aug. 17 that he made “personal mistakes outside my marriage” but said his actions “were consensual in nature and haven’t violated the law or House ethics rules.”
Gonzales-Torres told the Los Angeles Times in a statement Aug. 17, “At a time when working families are struggling the most, we need to get creeps out of office. We need representatives who will actually focus on fighting for policies like Medicare for All — not people like Rep. Jimmy Gomez and Donald Trump, who are mired in scandal and investigation.”
Gomez billed himself as “a fighter for working families.” He touted his efforts fighting President Trump on immigration, health care and health care affordability, affordability broadly, and protecting democracy.
Gomez was elected to the seat in a 2017 special election, succeeding Xavier Becerra, who had been appointed as California’s attorney general after Kamala Harris had been elected to the Senate. He is the founder and chair of the Congressional Dads Caucus and Congressional Renters Caucus.
Gomez was a member of the Assembly from 2012-17, authoring legislation to address public health, environmental justice, water conservation, access to education, civic engagement, campaign finance disclosure, LGBT rights and affordable housing.
Gomez received a bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University.
