1. John Raymond Garamendi is an American businessman, politician and member of the Democratic Party who has represented areas of Northern California between San Francisco and Sacramento, including the cities of Fairfield and Vacaville in the United States House of Representatives since 2009.
John Garamendi was born in Camp Blanding, Florida and raised in Mokelumne Hill, California.
John Garamendi was elected to the California State Assembly in 1974, serving a single term before being elected in 1976 to the California State Senate where he served four terms until 1990.
In 1990, John Garamendi became the first elected California insurance commissioner, serving from 1991 to 1995.
John Garamendi ran for governor in the 1994 election, losing in the Democratic primary.
John Garamendi left elective office and served as President Bill Clinton's deputy secretary of the interior from 1995 to 1998 then worked for the Peace Corps again.
John Garamendi was elected insurance commissioner again in 2002 and briefly ran for governor again in the 2003 recall, before dropping out to support Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante.
John Garamendi had planned to run for governor a fourth time in 2010, but after US Representative Ellen Tauscher of resigned, John Garamendi won the November 2009 special election to succeed her.
John Garamendi was born in Camp Blanding, Florida, and was raised in Mokelumne Hill, California.
John Garamendi received a Bachelor of Arts in business from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a football offensive guard and wrestler, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.
John Garamendi served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia from 1966 to 1968.
John Garamendi is an Eagle Scout and a member of Sigma Chi, as a brother of the Alpha Beta Chapter at Berkeley.
In 1974, John Garamendi decided to run for California's 7th State Assembly district.
In 1976, John Garamendi decided to retire after one term to run in California's 13th State Senate district.
John Garamendi was reelected in 1980,1984, and 1988.
John Garamendi chaired the Joint Committee on Science and Technology, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, and the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee.
In 1991, while serving as California Insurance Commissioner, John Garamendi seized Executive Life, a failing life insurance company, and resold it to French investors who turned out to be fronts for a government-owned French bank.
John Garamendi ran for California governor a second time in 1994.
John Garamendi resigned in 1998 and became a partner at Yucaipa Companies, which had deals financed by Leon Black.
John Garamendi ran for California insurance commissioner for a second time in 2002.
On July 16,2004, John Garamendi announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor of California.
John Garamendi was endorsed by former Vice President Al Gore, the Sierra Club, the California Teachers Association, the California League of Conservation Voters, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, the California Professional Firefighters Association, former US Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and former US Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.
John Garamendi announced his intention to run in the 2009 special election there despite living outside the district.
John Garamendi was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives on November 5,2009.
John Garamendi called Roe v Wade a "fundamental human right to bodily autonomy".
John Garamendi opposed the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade, calling the decision "devastating".
John Garamendi was critical of President Donald Trump, suggesting in December 2016 that because of his international real-estate business, Trump was weighed down by conflicts of interest.
At a July 2017 town hall in Davis, John Garamendi said that developments in the Trump administration were "far more serious" than Watergate.
John Garamendi said in January 2018 that he was "angry" when Trump referred to certain Third World nations as "shithole countries".
In January 2018, John Garamendi called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 a "tax scam" that would primarily benefit the so-called "1 percent".
John Garamendi asserted that House "deficit hawks" wanted to "cut out the social safety net" to pay for the bill.
In January 2018, John Garamendi expressed the desire to "make sure every person is identified" and charged that E-Verify, a system intended to curtail undocumented employment, had "not really been enforced".
On November 19,2015, John Garamendi voted for HR 4038, legislation that would effectively halt the resettlement of refugees from Syria and Iraq to the United States.
John Garamendi is married to Patricia Wilkinson who has worked as agriculture specialist for the California Exposition and State Fair and as deputy secretary of California's Business, Transportation and Housing Agency.
In July 2024, John Garamendi announced that he had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma.