Christopher Garcia ’16
Christopher Garcia ‘16 never imagined he’d work at the White House. Then, he purchased a DVD of the show “The West Wing” and was hooked.
“I’m going to make it there one day,” Garcia recalls thinking at the time. “I don’t know how it’s going to happen, or what I’m going to do, but that’s going to be me.”
Within a decade, he was one of President Biden’s first 100 appointees, being named a senior legislative affairs advisor in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. One year since the president’s inauguration, Garcia reflects on his journey that started, arguably, in a Jimmy John’s restaurant.
The 36-year-old didn’t attend college immediately after high school; he was a general manager at one of the sandwich chain’s shops. There, he gained experience and motivation; he went to college in his mid-20s, graduating in the top of his class. He was then the first in his family accepted to law school. “Mitchell Hamline will always have a soft spot in my heart.”
Soon after graduating from Mitchell Hamline in 2016, Garcia returned to San Antonio, where he grew up, to work on the campaign of former U.S. Representative Pete Gallego. Campaign staffers often are hired to work for candidates after an electoral win, which had Garcia thinking about a possible move to Washington.
But Gallego lost the race.
Even so, Garcia still wanted to move to D.C. and packed his bags (and life savings). In Washington, he slept on a friend’s couch – a classmate from Mitchell Hamline! – while job searching. After several interviews, Garcia was finally offered an unpaid internship. In accepting the gig, Garcia asked himself “How bad do you want this dream?”
The internship eventually led to jobs with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar; Congresswoman Deb Haaland, who is now interior secretary; the Biden-Harris transition team; and finally, the appointment to President Biden’s administration in 2020.
Christopher Garcia ’16
Garcia vividly remembers getting the call to work in the White House. “I thought about the sacrifices that my single mom made to get me here,” he said. “I thought of my culture and every Mexican-American person who has come to this country and tried to make another life for their kids.”
Garcia has spent the year working with members of Congress to pass the administration’s priorities, including a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and an infrastructure bill that passed with bipartisan support.
Now that Garcia is working his dream job daily alongside members of Congress and the president, he wants more representation from all cultures and genders. “It’s important to me because I’m one cog on the wheel who can trailblaze a change so when I’m 80 or 90, there’s a higher percentage of people of color serving the highest level of our government.”
Garcia says he’s still in awe that he works at the White House. His office is in the East Wing, just a short walk from the West Wing that inspired him on the small screen.
“Embrace the ambiguity,” he suggests for aspiring attorneys, but always “start with kindness.”
This article was written by Marla Khan-Schwartz, a freelance writer in the Twin Cities.