César Jose Blanco is an American Politician who is currently serving as a member of the

Texas Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...

Early life and education

Blanco was raised in El Paso by a single mother and graduated from Eastwood High School. Before pursuing a college education, Blanco served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

as a missile stinger gunner and military intelligence analyst. With the help of the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

, he attended the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

and graduated with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in political science with a minor in history.

Career

Blanco's work in politics began when he worked for U.S. Congressman Sivestre Reyes as a caseworker and field representative. He then served as

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

to U.S. Representatives

Pete Gallego Pete Peña Gallego (born December 2, 1961) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Texas's 23rd congressional district from 2013 to 2015. A member of the Democratic P ...

and

Ciro Rodriguez Ciro Davis Rodriguez (born December 9, 1946) is an American politician and social worker who served as a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative for , serving from 2007 until 2011. The district stretched from El Paso in the we ...

, from Texas's 23rd congressional district. He also worked as a Congressional Relations Officer for the

United States Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers a ...

. In February 2016, he was named Political Director of the Latino Victory Project, becoming the group's interim president later that year.

Texas House of Representatives

In 2014, Blanco ran for the Texas House 76th seat and won. He ran unopposed and was reelected in 2016 and in 2018. For two terms, Blanco served as the whip for the House Democratic Caucus. While for all three of his terms he served as Chairman of the Texas House Border Caucus and was a member of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and LGBTQ Caucus. In 2017, Blanco served as the Vice-Chair on the House Committee on Defense and Veterans' Affairs. In 2015, ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. ''Texas Monthly'' was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy and has been published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. since 1998 and is ...

'' named him one of the best Texas legislators of the year.

Texas Senate

In September 2019, State Senator Jose Rodriguez – a Democrat representing Texas's 29th District – announced that after 10 years in office he would not seek re-election in the upcoming 2020 election. Following the announcement, speculation arose that Blanco would be a potential candidate to succeed Rodriguez with the

Latino Victory Fund Latino Victory is an American progressive initiative founded in 2014 by Henry R. Muñoz III and actress Eva Longoria. The goal is to improve the representation of the Latino community in local and national elections by funding candidates, rais ...

even launching a campaign encouraging Blanco to run. Three days after the retirement announcement, Blanco announced his candidacy to replace Rodriguez. In an interview with

the El Paso Times The ''El Paso Times'' is the newspaper for the US city of El Paso, Texas. The newspaper has an approximate daily circulation of 65,000 and 125,000 on Sundays. The paper is the only English-language daily in El Paso (when the '' El Paso Herald-Po ...

, Blanco cited education, healthcare, and infrastructure as his top three priorities. Blanco defeated Republican candidate and small business owner Bethany Hatch and was elected to the Texas Senate receiving 176,360 votes or 67.3% of the total vote. Blanco serves on Senate Committee on Health & Human Services; Higher Education; Transportation; Veteran Affairs & Border Security. In October 2021, Blanco announced his plans to seek re-election.

References

External links

Profile
at the

Cesar Blanco for Texas Senate

César Blanco at the Texas Tribune
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanco, César Living people University of Texas at El Paso alumni Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Texas Democratic Party Texas state senators 21st-century American politicians Political chiefs of staff 1976 births