Mike was raised in South Orange County, by a Mexican-American mother and a Jewish-American father. He is the grandson of Mexican immigrants on his mother’s side.
Mike attended public elementary and junior high schools in South OC, and spent his high school years in Los Angeles at Loyola High. He went on to study at Stanford University, where he was honored to serve as student body president. After college, he served in the Coro Fellows Program and then attended Duke University School of Law.
Mike served as Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Orange County, supporting a variety of local, state, and federal political campaigns and community organizations.
In addition to his political activism, Mike worked as an attorney focused on environmental and energy regulatory compliance and government affairs. Mike is a passionate believer in clean energy and has over a decade of experience in the industry, helping to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable power generation and transportation options. Mike served for several years on the board of the Center for Sustainable Energy, based in San Diego, and co-founded Sustain OC in Orange County.
Since his first term in Congress began in January 2019, Mike has established himself as a leader on climate action and clean energy, serving on the House Natural Resources Committee and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. He introduced legislation to transition the nation to zero-emission vehicles, expand renewable energy development, and prevent future offshore oil drilling.
Mike also serves on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and is the leading Democrat on the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity with jurisdiction over veterans housing and employment programs. He has introduced dozens of bipartisan bills to strengthen benefits and services for veterans, and end veteran homelessness. More than two dozen of those pieces of legislation have been signed into law, either as standalone bills or parts of larger legislative packages.
Mike lives in San Juan Capistrano with his wife, Chrissy, a graduate of the University of Arizona and Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and their two children.