César Jose Blanco is an American Politician who is currently serving as a member of the

Texas Senate The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature, with the Texas House of Representatives functioning as the lower house. Together, they form the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the state of Texas. The Senate ...

Early life and education

Blanco was raised in El Paso by a single mother and graduated from Eastwood High School. Before pursuing a college education, Blanco served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

as a missile stinger gunner and military intelligence analyst. With the help of the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

, he attended the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...

and graduated with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in political science with a minor in history.

Career

Blanco's work in politics began when he worked for U.S. Congressman Sivestre Reyes as a caseworker and field representative. He then served as

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

to U.S. Representatives Pete Gallego and

Ciro Rodriguez Ciro Davis Rodriguez (born December 9, 1946) is an American politician and social worker who served as a U.S. Representative for , serving from 2007 until 2011. The district stretched from El Paso in the west to San Antonio in the east, a distanc ...

, from Texas's 23rd congressional district. He also worked as a Congressional Relations Officer for the

United States Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing lifelong healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

. In February 2016, he was named Political Director of the Latino Victory Project, becoming the group's interim president later that year.

Texas House of Representatives

In 2014, Blanco ran for the Texas House 76th seat and won. He ran unopposed and was reelected in 2016 and in 2018. For two terms, Blanco served as the whip for the House Democratic Caucus. While for all three of his terms he served as Chairman of the Texas House Border Caucus and was a member of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and LGBTQ Caucus. In 2017, Blanco served as the Vice-Chair on the House Committee on Defense and Veterans' Affairs. In 2015, ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. Founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, ''Texas Monthly'' chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the Natura ...

'' named him one of the best Texas legislators of the year.

Texas Senate

In September 2019, State Senator Jose Rodriguez – a Democrat representing Texas's 29th District – announced that after 10 years in office he would not seek re-election in the upcoming 2020 election. Following the announcement, speculation arose that Blanco would be a potential candidate to succeed Rodriguez with the Latino Victory Fund even launching a campaign encouraging Blanco to run. Three days after the retirement announcement, Blanco announced his candidacy to replace Rodriguez. In an interview with the ''

El Paso Times The ''El Paso Times'' is the newspaper for the US city of El Paso, Texas. The paper is the only English-language daily in El Paso (after the ''El Paso Herald-Post'', an afternoon paper, closed in 1997), but often competes with the Spanish-languag ...

'', Blanco cited education, healthcare, and infrastructure as his top three priorities. Blanco defeated Republican candidate and small business owner Bethany Hatch and was elected to the Texas Senate receiving 176,360 votes or 67.3% of the total vote. Senator Blanco currently serves on the Senate committees on Business & Commerce, Health & Human Services; Natural Resources; and Water, Agriculture, & Rural Affairs. He is also a member of the Sunset Advisory Commission and serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Texas Senate Hispanic Caucus. In October 2021, Blanco announced his plans to seek re-election and won his re-election campaign in November 2022.

References

External links

Profile
at the

Cesar Blanco for Texas Senate

César Blanco at the Texas Tribune
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanco, César Living people University of Texas at El Paso alumni Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Texas Democratic Party Texas state senators Political chiefs of staff 1976 births 21st-century members of the Texas Legislature