{"id":57,"date":"2026-05-07T21:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=57"},"modified":"2026-05-07T21:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:02:11","slug":"how-johnny-garcia-rose-from-sheriffs-deputy-to-a-high-profile-congressional-candidate-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=57","title":{"rendered":"How Johnny Garcia rose from sheriff\u2019s deputy to a high-profile congressional candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

TX35 hopeful Johnny Garcia hasn\u2019t even secured his party\u2019s nomination yet, but national Democrats are already listing him among their top candidates to take back seats in the U.S. House this year.<\/p>\n

Read more Rule that lets Texans obtain out-of-state abortion pills can continue for now, Supreme Court says<\/a><\/p>\n

The 39-year-old Westside native has spent nearly his entire career at the Bexar County Sheriff\u2019s Office, rising from jail guard to the SWAT\u00a0team and later serving as the sheriff\u2019s communications director.<\/p>\n

Though his campaign launch in the new 35th Congressional District surprised some local political watchers, national Democratic Party leaders say he\u2019s exactly what they needed to put a tough seat in play.<\/p>\n

This week Garcia was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee\u2019s (DCCC) red-to-blue program, an elite group of 20 candidates believed to have the best chance of flipping seats either currently held by a Republican or \u2014 in light of many redrawn congressional maps \u2014 drawn to favor one.<\/p>\n

The designation means he\u2019ll get additional strategic guidance, staff resources, candidate trainings and fundraising support for a race that Democratic super PACs are already reserving ads for this fall. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s after he was already a personal guest of the Democratic National Committee chair at a national fundraiser earlier this year, and benefitted from hundreds of thousands of dollars in TV ads boosting him through a four-way primary.<\/p>\n

Read more: The San Antonio Report\u2019s 2026 Democratic Primary Runoff Voter Guide<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJohnny Garcia has dedicated his career to investing in San Antonio, and is ready to answer the call to serve his community in Congress,\u201d U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington), who chairs the DCCC, said in a statement Monday. \u201cTexans are eager to elect a leader that will put the needs of hardworking families first, and Garcia is ready to step up to the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n

First, Garcia must still get through a May 26 Democratic primary runoff \u2014 which is not a given.<\/p>\n

In a district that was dramatically redrawn for the 2026 midterm, both parties wound up with crowded fields full of little-known candidates. <\/p>\n

And despite spending less than $5,000 on her campaign, housing activist Maureen Galindo finished first in Democrats\u2019 race, taking 29% in the first round, to Garcia\u2019s 27%.<\/p>\n

Read more: Meet housing activist Maureen Galindo, who rode a shoestring campaign to a high-profile congressional runoff<\/em><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, national Democrats say Garcia\u2019s moderate politics and blue collar work experience are exactly what they need to win a district that\u2019s been trending away from them in the era of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Under its new boundaries, Democrat Beto O\u2019Rourke would have come a half a percentage point short of carrying TX35 in 2018 \u2014 the last midterm election under a Trump presidency. <\/p>\n

But by 2024, those same voters supported Trump by more than 10 percentage points, making the area a ripe target for Republicans\u2019 effort to squeeze more GOP seats out of Texas.<\/p>\n

Read more How San Antonio plans to push landlords into accepting housing vouchers<\/a><\/p>\n

Democrats hoped a bigger-name candidate would jump in after incumbent U.S. Rep Greg Casar (D-Austin) was drawn out in redistricting, yet likely contenders from the legislature were set on the idea courts would eventually throw out Republicans\u2019 gerrymandered maps.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the filing period had already opened that the Supreme Court gave the green light for new maps to be used.<\/p>\n

In that void, the little-known Garcia caught attention from national operatives with a campaign launch focused on his \u201cold-school Democratic principles.\u201d <\/p>\n

He came out distancing himself from his progressive, yet popular, boss, Sheriff Javier Salazar, and surprised local political watchers by leapfrogging into one of the biggest new opportunities on Bexar County\u2019s electoral map.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s running a campaign with a message that is more reminiscent of the other Texas Blue Dogs \u2014 folks who\u2019ve been able to win seats with this partisan balance \u2014 versus a more mainstream Democratic message,\u201d said Phil Gardner, a senior adviser for the\u00a0Blue Dog\u00a0Action PAC that ran TV ads helping Garcia in the first round.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] been a very interesting process to see him go from somebody who \u2026 was not thinking about running for Congress, he didn\u2019t know that this seat was going to be drawn in the way it was, but he has stepped up and has put together a campaign,\u201d Gardner added.<\/p>\n

Garcia says his original plan was to run for office when Salazar moved on to something bigger. <\/p>\n

But seven months into his campaign, Garcia is now sounding more like a congressional candidate by the day.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the North East Bexar County Democrats last month, Garcia said he was running to address \u201cextreme gas prices, healthcare prices, grocery prices that we\u2019re facing as a result of this failed administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also drew applause for criticizing Texas GOP leaders\u2019 over a gerrymandering effort he said was \u201ccreated to silence Latino, black and minority voters\u201d here in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Some in the audience remained skeptical about his support from national Democratic groups that spent big to boost him from obscurity. But Garcia said that without a candidate drawing resources to the district, Bexar County stood to end this historically opportune election cycle with even fewer Democrats than when it started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t control who decides to put their support in me, but from the get-go \u2026 there\u2019s been only one candidate in this race that has come out as the front-runner and has garnered the support that we haven\u2019t had here in Texas,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWe know we need a candidate that is going to help us win back the majority in the House, so we can put some guardrails on this reckless administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Small-town mayors cruise to reelection, while some add new faces on council<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His political debut surprised some locals, but national Democratic Party leaders say he’s exactly what they needed to put a tough district in play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Johnny Garcia rose from sheriff\u2019s deputy to a high-profile congressional candidate - San Antonio moving report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=57\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Johnny Garcia rose from sheriff\u2019s deputy to a high-profile congressional candidate - 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