By Suzanne Gamboa -
NBC News
Pete Aguilar, Democratic representative from California, has assumed
the highest level seat ever held by a Latino in the House of Representatives
, the party's No. 3 position, with the promise that his party will regain its majority in 2024.
Aguilar was chosen by his colleagues Wednesday to serve in the upcoming Congress as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, a position that rises to No. 3 in House leadership from No. 4. Aguilar, 43, He has been vice president of the caucus.
His colleagues were chanting "We want
'
Petey Pie,'" a nickname his grandmother gave him, during the election, according to a source who was in the room during the closed-door leadership election.
Congressman Pete Aguilar during a press conference after being elected president of the Democratic caucus of the House of Representatives.Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Aguilar's job will be to help lead the now-minority House Democrats as they try to advance their legislative priorities, keep members united on issues, get the party's message across and work to regain a majority by 2024.
The message they have given is an issue that Democrats have struggled with in recent elections.
"We're going to do everything we can to stick together, to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Americans, to lower everyday costs at gas stations. Those are the things that the House Democratic caucus is going to champion, as well as implementing the legislation we've already passed, the bipartisan infrastructure bill to create good paying jobs in our communities," he said.
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Aguilar said if they can do that and stay united and focused, "we're not going to be in the minority for long.
The road is ahead of us for the majority in 2024.
"
He said Democrats have to take that route for the sake of democracy, to fix DACA – a program that allows Dreamers to stay and work in the United States – and to ensure that people have health care.
Aguilar, who will enter his fifth term in January, acknowledges that his work investigating the violence on Capitol Hill on January 6 could make it difficult to build the kind of cross-aisle relationships that were critical to his political rise.
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Aguilar, who is part of a new generation of younger and more diverse leaders, said he wants a style of government from the past.
"Traditionally, Democrats and Republicans can have some political disagreements. Some of these people don't want to have political disagreements, they want to do everything they can to win and subvert the vote, repeat the elections and deny free and fair elections," Aguilar told our network. Sister NBC News on the eve of the leadership election.
"
I want to go back to that time when courtesy was in the forefront
," he added.
Aguilar counts the executive director of a credit union where he worked as a young man as the mentor who gave him the push to enter city politics.
The CEO was a Republican.
A bipartisan Redlands city council chose him to fill a vacant position, and he was later elected.
The council later elected him twice to be mayor.
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In a 2014 interview with our sister network NBC News, Aguilar discussed working for then-California Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, in Riverside, when the area was very "red."
Articulating the governor's position in these circumstances, he said in the interview, taught him to know how to listen, understand other points of view and find solutions.
"I want to be an ally"
Aguilar pointed out in his speech in Wednesday's leadership election the importance of his No. 3 seat to Latinos, California and his hometown, according to a source who was in the room during the closed-door election.
"I think it's important for a Latino to be in the top three in House leadership. I think the time has come. I believe in our growing numbers in the Hispanic Caucus of the Democratic Caucus, and we were successful in giving Latino representation in seats in Denver, Colorado, and Portland, Oregon, and Las Cruces, New Mexico and Chicago, Illinois, and an Afro-Latino in Orlando, Florida,” Aguilar said Tuesday night.
"
They will tell their own stories
... I want to be an ally and I want to speak to them and to our own communities," said Aguilar, who is Mexican-American, and whose family has deep roots in the United States.
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Aguilar was recognized as a promising candidate soon after arriving in Congress, but his rise through the ranks has largely occurred off camera.
Some have seen him as the potential first Latino speaker of the House of Representatives.
During his four years in Congress, he has built strong relationships with his colleagues.
He has raised $15.2 million for his colleagues and campaigns this election cycle, according to an aide.
"Pete is a guy with his nose glued to the stone, a very hard worker," said Larry Gonzalez, a lobbyist for the Raben Group who has worked for decades with Latino lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
"I know you say that about a lot of people, but with Pete it's real. He just kept his head down, built the necessary relationships and helped candidates across the country."
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Two other Latinos have also served as House Democratic Caucus Chairs
, Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, when he was in the House, and Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, when he was in the House representing California.
However, the position was not previously one of the top three leadership positions when they held it.
His grandmother's advice marked him
Aguilar said in a 2021 interview that he doesn't like to lose, whether it's playing board games or with his own children running for office.
His defeat in a 2012 congressional primary taught him how to build consensus, he said.
But his grandmother's advice has also marked him, he added.
She always tells her to be careful, that the world can be a terrible place, but also to never forget "who I am and where I come from".
"That sticks with me. I'm still a kid from San Bernardino who loved playing baseball growing up and whose parents worked their ass off to give us a chance," he said.
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His father worked for 37 years at the Southern California Gas Company, rising from meter reader to maintenance technician and finally district manager, the most he could get without a college degree.
He is now retired.
"They knew they weren't necessarily going to go to college, that some goals would never be reached," he said, "but they believed in that promise, that if they worked hard some doors would open for us."