Gregorio Eduardo Casar (born May 4, 1989) is an American politician who is the member for
Texas's 35th congressional district
Texas's 35th congressional district is a district that was created as a result of the 2010 United States census. The first candidates ran in the 2012 House elections and were seated for the 113th United States Congress. This election was won by ...
in the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
since 2023. He served as a member of the
Austin City Council
The Austin City Council is the unicameral legislature of the city of Austin, Texas, United States of America. The mayor is included as a member of the council and presides over all council meetings and ceremonies. The current mayor of Austin is ...
from the 4th district from 2015 to 2022.
Casar is a member of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
and was endorsed by the
Working Families Party
The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Ne ...
in his run for Congress. He was first elected to the Austin City Council in 2014,
and reelected in 2016
and 2020. He was elected to Congress in
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...
.
Early life and education
Gregorio Casar was born in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
to Mexican immigrants. He attended
Strake Jesuit College Preparatory
Strake Jesuit College Preparatory (properly referred to as Strake Jesuit or Jesuit but often informally called Strake by students and alumni) is a Jesuit, college-preparatory school for boys, grades 9–12, in the Chinatown area and in the Greate ...
, where he ran track. Casar then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and social thought from the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
in 2011. He began his activism in college, organizing with Students and Workers United for a Living Wage, which called for the university to pay its workers a higher living wage.
Workers Defense Project
Before running for office, Casar worked as policy director for the Workers Defense Project (''Proyecto Defensa Laboral''), where he won victories such as rest and water breaks for construction workers, living wage requirements, and against
wage theft
Wage theft is the failing to pay wages or provide employee benefits owed to an employee by contract or law. It can be conducted by employers in various ways, among them failing to pay overtime; violating minimum-wage laws; the misclassificati ...
.
Casar joine
Workers Defense Projectshortly after graduation as a community organizer. In 2011, he led the Workers Defense Project efforts to require that construction workers be allowed to take rest and water breaks: ten minutes for each four hours worked, and no more than 3.5 hours without a break. Casar also organized against major corporations, including
White Lodging
White Lodging Services Corporation is a privately held American hotel management company. As of 2022, it manages about 50 hotels.
White Lodging was founded in 1985 by Bruce W. White, who is the company's chairman. In January 2022, Jean-Luc Bar ...
, and successfully led the fight to include living wage and other labor protections in an incentives deal the Austin City Council planned to give to
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
.
Austin City Council
![Greg Casar, Austin City Council Member, District 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Greg_Casar%2C_Austin_City_Council_Member%2C_District_4.jpg)
Elections
2014
In 2014, Austin had its first election with geographic,
single-member districts
A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vo ...
to elect City Council members, instead of an
at-large election. Casar finished first in the election, but went into a runoff against Laura Pressley, an
anti-fluoride activist. Casar won the runoff, but Pressley sued to contest the results, claiming ballot irregularities. In 2019, the
Supreme Court of Texas rejected her final appeal.
2016
In 2016, Casar was reelected to Austin City Council in the same election in which
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
was elected president. When asked by the ''Austin-American Statesman'' whether he would shake hands with President Trump, he responded "Hell no." The day after Election Day, Casar wrote, "Lots of people, including Donald Trump, are calling for healing and unity today. I won't call for healing. I'm calling for resistance."
2020
In 2020, Casar was reelected for a second time to the Austin City Council. In November 2020, ''Austin Monthly'' published "Why Gregorio Casar is the Future of Texas Politics." Casar considered running for 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 co ...
seat held by retiring
Kirk Watson
Kirk is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning "church". It is often used specifically of the Church of Scotland. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it.
Basic meaning and etymology
As a common noun, ''kirk'' ...
, but he declined.
Tenure
As an Austin City Council member, Casar led policy efforts on issues ranging from
affordable housing
Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on af ...
, paid
sick leave
Sick leave (or paid sick days or sick pay) is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sic ...
,
living wage
A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking lab ...
increases, tenant organizing, immigrant rights, criminal justice reforms (such as "
ban the box Ban the Box is the name of an American campaign by advocates for ex-offenders aimed at removing the check box that asks if applicants have a criminal record from hiring applications. Its purpose is to enable ex-offenders to display their qualificat ...
"), and police accountability. He was the first person to represent Austin's District 4, the city's most diverse district. It has the most young children, and is 70% nonwhite, with approximately 30% non-citizen. Most of its constituents are Latino, and it has the second largest African American population of Austin's ten council districts. It also has the highest poverty rate.
Casar served as the board chair o
Local Progress a project of the
Center for Popular Democracy, "the national network of progressive elected officials from cities, counties, towns, school districts, villages and other local governments across the country".
Casar automatically resigned his seat on November 4, 2021, when he announced his run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 35th district.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
![Greg Casar Open Congress 2022](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Greg_Casar_Open_Congress_2022.jpg)
2022
On November 4, 2021, Casar announced his candidacy for
Texas's 35th congressional district
Texas's 35th congressional district is a district that was created as a result of the 2010 United States census. The first candidates ran in the 2012 House elections and were seated for the 113th United States Congress. This election was won by ...
. During the primary, he was endorsed by prominent national progressives, including Senators
Bernie Sanders and
Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...
and Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
as well as Austin officials such as Mayor
Steve Adler and Travis County District Attorney
José Garza.
Casar won the Democratic primary on March 1, 2022, with approximately 60% of the vote.
In his victory speech, he linked his victory to the overall progressive movement, saying, "This election was about us, the power of the people and the power of our movement. Let’s celebrate the progressive movement in Texas".
Given the 35th district’s partisan lean of D+21, Casar’s primary victory was considered
tantamount to election
A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinati ...
. ''The'' ''Texas Tribune'' wrote that he is expected to be "among the most progressive members of Congress ever to serve from Texas".
On November 8, 2022, Casar won the general election, defeating the Republican nominee,
Dan McQueen
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoi ...
, with 73% of the vote.
Caucus memberships
*
Congressional Equality Caucus
*
Congressional Hispanic Caucus
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is an organization of 38 Democratic members of the United States Congress of Hispanic and Latino descent. The Caucus focuses on issues affecting Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The CHC was fou ...
*
Congressional Progressive Caucus
The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is a congressional caucus affiliated with the Democratic Party in the United States Congress. The CPC represents the most left-leaning faction of the Democratic Party. " e Congressional Progressive Cau ...
Committee assignments
*
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the main investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives.
The committee's broad jurisdiction and legislative authority make it one of the most influential and powerful panels in the ...
*
Committee on Agriculture
Political positions
Criminal justice reform
Ban the box
In 2016, Casar led efforts at City Hall to "
ban the box Ban the Box is the name of an American campaign by advocates for ex-offenders aimed at removing the check box that asks if applicants have a criminal record from hiring applications. Its purpose is to enable ex-offenders to display their qualificat ...
" through a fair chance hiring ordinance. The ordinance delays when employers can do a criminal
background check
A background check is a process a person or company uses to verify that an individual is who they claim to be, and this provides an opportunity to check and confirm the validity of someone's criminal record, education, employment history, and oth ...
until after a conditional job offer has been made, in order to help reintegrate former prisoners into the workplace and deter
employment discrimination. Austin became the first city to ban the box in the Southern United States.
Freedom City
Because of
Texas Senate Bill 4's limitations on sanctuary cities, and in an effort to reduce the impact of low-level interactions with police, Casar initiated policy changes to make Austin a "Freedom City", which discourages the police from making low-level discretionary arrests and requires police officers to inform residents that they have the right to refuse to answer questions about immigration status. During the debate, the Austin Police Association attacked Casar for citing data that Black residents are arrested twice as often as white residents in discretionary arrests. Casar wrote in a ''Texas Tribune'' editorial that the Freedom Cities law's intention is to unite immigration reformers and criminal justice reformers to reduce the disparate impact of policing on communities of color. In the first quarter after the policy passed, arrests for ticket-worthy offenses dropped by two-thirds. Racial disproportionality of arrests also improved.
Juvenile curfew
In June 2017, Casar and Delia Garza pushed the council to eliminate criminal penalties for a juvenile to "walk, run, idle, wander, stroll, or aimlessly drive" during curfew hours, out of a belief that kids should not be pushed into the criminal justice system for being young and out in public. Many of these laws, including Austin's, were passed during
Clinton Administration's "tough on crime" phase in the 1990s. Ultimately, the council removed the juvenile curfew. Austin became the nation's second-largest city to end its juvenile curfew policy.
Police reform
When the Austin police union contract was set to expire in early 2017, criminal justice activists called for reform, citing examples in the contract that made police oversight difficult. Casar, Jimmy Flannigan, and other Council members indicated their intent to reject the contract and send the union back to the bargaining table unless it was reformed. After the contract was rejected, the police union requested bonus pay without a contract in place, but that was opposed by a divided council. After nearly ten months of negotiations, a new contract was approved, along with the creation of an independent office of police oversight. The new contract made it easier to file complaints, provided more transparency around complaints of police misconduct, strengthened police disciplinary procedures, and increased accountability.
In 2020, following the
murder of George Floyd
On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's ...
, Black Lives Matter
protests reached Austin. During the protests, Austin police were involved in
use of force incidents where civilians were injured. Casar called for more oversight. Working with community leaders, he crafted a three-tiered plan to reduce the police department budget. Austin became one of the only cities in the nation to successfully begin reallocating significant funding from its police department to other city programs.
The council voted unanimously to eliminate upcoming cadet classes in the police academy, diverting $20 million to programs that address homelessness, mental health, and family violence prevention. During the year after the budget vote, another $80 million will be reallocated from the department by placing some functions, such as forensics and 911 dispatch, within other parts of the city's government. The council also flagged another $50 million for "community-led" review.
Housing
Affordable housing
During the 2018 election cycle, the Austin City Council put almost $1 billion of bond propositions to the voters, including Proposition A, which allocated $250 million to build affordable housing and acquire land to build it on. The
Democratic Socialists of America
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...
, AURA, and other community groups joined Casar in pushing for a $300 million bond after the city's staff proposed less than $100 million. Through community engagement and work at City Hall, Casar pushed the bond proposition up to $250 million. He said at the time, "From social housing to public housing to mixed-income subsidized units, all of that is on the table for us right now." After a large campaign, Proposition A passed with the support of over 70% of voters, the largest affordable housing bond in Austin's history.
In an effort to extend the reach of Proposition A's $250 million for affordable housing, Casar proposed an "Affordability Unlocked" ordinance. The ordinance waives or reduces many zoning regulations, like parking requirements, setbacks, occupancy limits, and minimum lot sizes, and allows buildings to be built taller, in exchange for reserving 50% of the new homes in the building for low-income renters or homeowners by the developer. The ordinance also requires that in existing aging multifamily buildings, homes that are already affordable to renters must be replaced on a one-to-one basis to avoid encouraging the teardown of existing homes for low-income renters. Casar cited the ordinance as an example of his approach to housing politics in an op-ed, writing that "our pro-housing and anti-gentrification movements can co-exist" and that building more housing does not have to mean displacing low-income renters because housing can be built elsewhere in the city to avoid displacement and gentrification. The ordinance has allowed for the construction of at least 650 housing units that otherwise would not have been possible without the lifting of height and parking requirements.
Granny flats
Throughout 2015, Casar and his colleague Sabino "Pio" Renteria pushed for housing reforms to allow more "granny flats" or garage apartments ("accessory dwelling units," or ADUs) to be built in Austin. The reforms ultimately allowed an additional home on most legal lots in the city, and waived minimum parking requirements if they were built near transit. Casar saw the issue as advancing fair housing in the city, and AURA, a housing and transportation advocacy group, cited it as a way to integrate the city. He described his motivation as "a moral imperative ... We are sick of being on the list of the most segregated communities in this country."
Tenant organizing
After organizing with mobile home residents of the Stonegate Mobile Home park against mismanagement, Casar joined a march to the manager's office to demand that an ill resident's electricity be restored. Within 24 hours of the march, it was restored. In early 2015, after hearing of the successful campaign at Stonegate, Casar received reports from North Lamar Community Mobile Home Park that the new owner had raised rent and utility costs. He helped the tenants to form a tenants' association, Asociación de los Residentes de North Lamar (ARNL).
ARNL organized with Casar and
Texas RioGrande Legal Aid
Texas RioGrande Legal Aid formerly Texas Rural Legal Aid (TRLA) is a Non-profit organization, nonprofit agency that specializes in providing Legal aid in the United States, free civil legal services to the poor in a 68-county service area. It al ...
to sue the new owner,
Frank Rolfe, who had raised rents by 10-25%.
Rolfe, who teaches others how to invest in mobile homes, has compared owning mobile home parks to owning a "Waffle House where everyone is chained to the booths". He has also said, "At $3,000 or so to move a mobile home, there is a huge barrier to moving out, so tenants will accept pretty much whatever you raise the rents to ... within reason!"
Ultimately, residents were forced to sign new leases at the higher rents or leave the community, but the eviction notices they received were rescinded. They also got the owner to agree to sell the property to the residents, and ARNL is continuing to fight to convert the park into a cooperative.
After several such campaigns involving tenant organizing, Casar directed city resources to create the Resident's Advocacy Project, which later became Building and Strengthening Tenant Action (BASTA), to provide for more consistent capacity directed toward organizing working-class tenants in Austin.
Immigrant rights advocacy
Before serving as council member, Casar was actively involved in several immigrant rights campaigns. After Trump's election in 2016, Casar and Austin Mayor
Steve Adler vowed to join other cities in resisting Trump's plans to target illegal immigrants.
Raids
Shortly after Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez was elected in 2016, she implemented policies to make Austin a sanctuary city. In response,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration th ...
(ICE) conducted targeted raids in an operation called
Operation Cross Check, arresting hundreds of people. ICE initially claimed that these raids had been long-planned, but an ICE agent admitted in Federal Court that they targeted Austin specifically in retribution for refusing to fully cooperate with ICE. After the raids, Casar and other members of the Austin City Council took emergency action and amended the city budget to provide legal services for undocumented immigrants, including deportation defense.
SB4
In 2017, Casar joined other local and statewide leaders to protest
Texas Senate Bill 4, which forces local officials to cooperate with federal immigration officials and punishes local officials, including with prison time, who decline to do so. On May Day of that year, Casar and other activists occupied Governor
Greg Abbott
Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Texas from 2002 ...
’s office for a full day, calling on Abbott to veto the bill. This led to the arrest of Casar and nearly two dozen other activists.
Casar proposed in a ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' opinion piece that SB4 must be protested at every possible stage, lest laws like it be passed in other states. He joined a coalition of grassroots organizations and elected officials from municipalities across the state to initiate a lawsuit against the State of Texas to overturn the law, the first statewide effort of its kind. The suit is still pending.
Labor
Living wage
In 2015, Casar aided fellow council member
Ann Kitchen
Ann Elizabeth Kitchen is the District 5 City Council member for Austin, Texas, and a former member of the Texas House of Representatives. She is affiliated with the Democratic Party.
Personal life
Kitchen is married to Mark Yznaga, a lobbyist w ...
, who proposed raising the minimum wage paid to all City of Austin employees to $13.03 and offering health benefits for all employees, including part-time and temporary workers. After continued advocacy by Casar and the City Council, all City of Austin employees now make a minimum of $15 an hour. In 2016, Casar sponsored a resolution to extend the living wage requirement to all city contractors and subcontractors, such as airport food workers and construction workers.
Paid sick leave
On May Day 2018, labor unions, the Workers Defense Project, progressive businesses, the
Democratic Socialists of America
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...
, and other activists joined in calling for a paid
sick leave
Sick leave (or paid sick days or sick pay) is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sic ...
requirement for all Austin workers. The Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Restaurant Association (state chapter of the
National Restaurant Association
The National Restaurant Association is a restaurant industry business association in the United States, representing more than 380,000 restaurant locations. It also operates the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. The associa ...
), and the Texas chapter of the
National Federation of Independent Business
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is an association of small businesses in the United States. It is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, with offices in Washington, D.C., and all 50 state capitals. The goal of NFIB is to a ...
opposed the requirement, but the campaign ultimately saw a successful vote of the city council for a modified version of Casar's proposal. The sick leave ordinance covered the entire private sector, and provided between six and eight sick days for all Austin workers. Casar credited grassroots organizations with getting people to contact their council members to push them to vote for the ordinance through the organization's grassroots canvassing operation. Responding to the success in Austin, and due to the advocacy of the organizations who fought for the policy, both San Antonio and Dallas passed Austin's version of the ordinance.
After the ordinance passed, the Texas business community and statewide Republican politicians moved to block its implementation. In October 2018, a three-judge panel of the 3rd Court of Appeals found the ordinance unconstitutional on the grounds that benefits are wages. Two of the three Republican judges on the panel were defeated by Democratic challengers in the November election several weeks later. During the 2019 legislative session, Republican state lawmakers filed bills to overturn the ordinance, causing protests from a coalition of unions and grassroots organizations. As of May 2019, the bills have not passed. A representative of the NFIB says the bills failed to pass due to a growing progressive movement in Texas, saying: "I think they’re winning in a red state. … They're starting to take over the state, and they will."
See also
*
Notes
References
External links
Congressman Greg Casarofficial U.S. House website
Greg Casar for Congresscampaign website
*
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casar, Greg
1989 births
Living people
21st-century American politicians
American politicians of Mexican descent
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas
Hispanic and Latino American city council members
Hispanic and Latino American members of the United States Congress
Hispanic and Latino American people in Texas politics
Austin City Council members
Politicians from Houston
Texas Democrats
Texas socialists
University of Virginia alumni
Democratic Socialists of America politicians from Texas