Juan Vargas
Candidate for: United States Representative, CA 51st District
Party: Democratic Party
Office: Representative (D–CA 51st District) since 2013
Previous office:
Juan C. Vargas (born March 7, 1961) is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative for California’s 51st congressional district since 2013. The district includes all of Imperial County as well as the southernmost portions of San Diego County.[1] He is a Democrat.
Vargas previously served in the California State Senate representing the 40th District, the California State Assembly representing the 79th district, and the San Diego City Council.
Juan Vargas was born on an egg ranch in National City, California, where he grew up very poor. He is the third of ten children of Tomas and Celina Vargas, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico in the late 1940s as part of the Bracero program.[2] Vargas graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA from University of San Diego and earned an MA in Humanities from Fordham University in New York.
After college, Vargas joined the Jesuit Novitiate (introduction) in Santa Barbara. In the Jesuits, Vargas served in an orphanage in the civil-war-torn jungles of El Salvador. After leaving the Jesuits, he decided on law school and graduated in 1991 with a JD from Harvard Law School,[3] making him a classmate of President Barack Obama.
